Steve The Man, what a champ

After 20 years in the sun and 128 tests, Steve Bucknor retired this weekend from Test cricket. He holds the record for umpiring the most tests, and at 62, after a hard year with international pressures and cold glares (lookin' at you, India), he's finally stepped down. Although there's been sparks of controversy regarding his performances in the past, there's no denying he's been an excellent umpire, and his presence from the game will be missed, in the same way that we miss the loss of a background figure we have grown used to.

Who will take over the job of pausing for a considerable length of time before finally raising the finger? Billy Bowden already has enough trouble raising a slightly straight finger, let alone concentrating on creating enough of a dramatic pause before signalling out. Yes, it's safe to say the West Indian umpire will be sorely missed in that respect.

It's not hard to remember the incidents in the Indian tour of Australia in 2007-08, with the particularly controversial boycott by India of Bucknor's umpiring. The cricketing superpower flexed, and the ICC bent. Steve Bucknor was to be removed from the Perth test. Bucknor had a few words to say to IOL about this incident:

"I was used. It would have been better to ask me to decide (rather) than to force
me not to umpire. I was hurt, deeply hurt. But a champion does not lie down on
the ground when he is hit; he gets up again. I don't think two mistakes in a
game should be that influential in your career. Others have made more, but
nothing has happened to them. I don't have any grudges against anyone, though,
as I know life is not a bed of roses."

"63 would have been a good age to walk away," he says