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[Cricket] Legendary cricket umpire Rudi Koertzen has passed away at the age of 73
- Thread starter PILTDOWN MAN
- Start date
Very sad news.
I met him a couple of times in the 2006/7 Ashes. I was a member at the WACA and at the end of a day’s play he gave Strauss out with a shocking LBW decision, you know the one where every Aussie appeals like it was nailed on and on that bouncy wicket it was missing the stumps by at least a foot. As I was leaving the members’ area, I saw Rudi sat in the umpires’ room and gestured to him about how much the ball was missing the stumps, shaking my head and mouthing a few firm but not offensive opinions to him through the glass. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, I think he got the message.
The next day he was totally different and didn’t give anything, even the close ones (it was before DRS). I thought to myself that maybe I had helped him get the message. It was significant too because Alastair Cook was batting, survived several close appeals and went on to get his first test hundred! We still lost the game of course.
A few weeks later and I was walking around Melbourne and there he was with Aleem Dar on the main bridge in the city centre. I thought about mentioning Perth to him, but decided against it and just went up as a fan to have a chat and he was really lovely. I have a great picture of me with him and Dar with the city of Melbourne in the background.
RIP Rudi - you made a few mistakes, don’t we all, but you were a lovely bloke and will be missed.