Rudi Koertzen

Who is Rudi Koertzen?

Rudolf Eric Koertzen otherwise known as Rudi Koertzen is a former international cricket umpire.

Koertzen was born in Knysna in the Western Cape, South Africa. A cricket enthusiast since his youth, Koertzen played league cricket while working for South African Railways. He became an umpire in 1981. His "slow death" style of indicating that a batsman is out makes him at once recognisable anywhere in the cricket world.

He officiated in his first One Day International match when South Africa played India at Port Elizabeth on 9 December 1992, and in his first Test match during the same tour, when South Africa played India at Port Elizabeth on 26–29 December 1992. This series was also the first in which television replays were used to assist with run out decisions.

He became a full-time ICC umpire in 1997, and was one of the original members of the Emirates ICC Elite umpire panel when it was founded in 2002. Following the retirement of Steve Bucknor in March 2009, he and Daryl Harper are the last two umpires from the original elite panel to continue standing in Test matches. He has officiated in world record number of ODIs, having overtaken David Shepherd's record of 172 matches with the Cricket World Cup match between England and West Indies at Barbados in April 2007. He was the second man to stand in 150 ODIs with the match between India and Pakistan at Abu Dhabi in April 2006. On 11 July 2009, he became the first person in the history of the game to umpire 200 One-day internationals. He became the second umpire to stand in 100 Test matches in July 2009, standing in the second 2009 Ashes Test at Lord's.