John Richard Collins (1 August 1932 – 18 June 2021) was an Australian cricket Test match umpire. Collins umpired five

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

es between 1972 and 1975. His first match was between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

on 29 December 1972 to 3 January 1973, won by Australia by 92 runs. Collins' partner in this match was Peter Enright, also standing in his first Test match. In the preceding season, 1971/72, a scheduled tour of Australia by

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

was cancelled following political and moral protests against the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

policies of the South African government. In its place a 'World Team' visited Australia and played a series of Test standard, although never officially recognised. Collins stood in one of these matches, and witnessed

Garfield Sobers Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...

score 254, an innings he later regarded as the greatest he ever saw. Collins' last Test match was between Australia and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

on 26 December to 30 December 1975, won by Australia by 8 wickets. Collins' colleague was

Robin Bailhache Robin Carl Bailhache, (born 4 May 1937 in Adelaide, South Australia), is a former Australian Test cricket match umpire. He umpired 27 Test matches between 1974 and 1988. His first match was between Australia and England at Brisbane on 29 Nov ...

. At the conclusion of the match, the West Indian captain

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese-British former cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in Georgetown. At the age of 14 he was captain of his school cricket team ...

strongly criticised Collins umpiring, requesting that he be replaced for the final test. Collins would never umpire another first-class match and was upset that he wasn't publicly supported by the

Australian Cricket Board Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...

or the

Victorian Cricket Association Cricket Victoria (CV) is the governing body for the sport of cricket in the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed on 29 September 1875 as the Victorian Cricket Association. It is integrated with the Victorian Women's Cricket Association to ...

. Collins also umpired one

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

match in 1979.

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* 1932 births 2021 deaths Australian Test cricket umpires Australian One Day International cricket umpires Sportspeople from Melbourne {{Australia-cricket-bio-1930s-stub

See also

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