Stephen Anthony Bucknor, OJ (born 31 May 1946) is a Jamaican former international

cricket umpire In cricket, an umpire (from the Old French ''nompere'' meaning not a peer, i.e. not a member of one of the teams, impartial) is a person who has the authority to make decisions about events on the cricket field according to the ''Laws of Cricket ...

. Bucknor umpired in a record 128

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 1989 and 2009, and also umpired in 181

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 ...

s during this period, including five consecutive

Cricket World Cup The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), e ...

finals from 1992 to 2007. Before becoming a cricket umpire, he was a football player and

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

and a high school

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

teacher. In October 2007, he was awarded the

Order of Jamaica The Order of Jamaica is the fifth of the six orders in the Jamaican honours system. The Order was established in 1969, and it is considered the equivalent of a knighthood in the British honours system. Membership in the Order can be conferred upon ...

, Commander Class, for "outstanding services in the field of sports".

Football goalkeeper

Bucknor played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

in Jamaican parish leagues in the 1960s. In 1964 he played in goal for Jamaica in a schoolboy international versus

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, which Jamaica drew 1–1.

Football referee

Bucknor was a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

referee in a CONCACAF and

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

qualifier between El Salvador and the Netherlands Antilles in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Cricket umpire

Bucknor's first international cricket fixture was a

(ODI) between 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 ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

at Antigua on 18 March 1989. His first

was at

Sabina Park Sabina Park is a cricket ground and the home of the Kingston Cricket Club, and is the only Test cricket ground in Kingston, Jamaica. History Sabina Park was originally a Pen (urban residence and adjoining land of a wealthy merchant, shopkeepe ...

, Kingston, Jamaica, between 28 April and 3 May 1989, with the competing teams again being the West Indies and India. After umpiring in a few international matches, he was selected to umpire at the 1992

in Australia, and went on to stand in the final despite being quite inexperienced. Bucknor also stood in the next four World Cup finals in 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007, with the 2007 World Cup taking place in his native West Indies. In 1994 the ICC introduced a policy whereby one of the umpires in each Test match would be independent of the competing nations, selected from the International Panel of Umpires. Bucknor was a member of this panel from its foundation until the ICC changed its policy on umpires again in 2002. Since then both umpires in Test matches, and one of the umpires in ODIs have been independent of the competing countries. The officials are now chosen from the

Elite Panel of ICC Umpires The Elite Panel of ICC Umpires is a panel of cricket umpires appointed by the International Cricket Council to officiate in Test matches and One Day Internationals around the world. The panel was first established in April 2002 when the ICC deci ...

, whom the ICC consider to be the world's best umpires. Bucknor maintained a place on the Elite Panel from its foundation until his retirement. In May 2006, he accused TV companies of doctoring their images to make umpires look bad and key players look good. He was one of five officials, responsible for the wrong decision in the 2007 World Cup final, resulting in play continuing in poor light. Consequently, all five officials were suspended from the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa. Dave Richardson, the general manager of cricket at the ICC, has said Bucknor's umpiring accuracy was at 96% during 2005–06, above the average of 94.8% for the Elite Panel. In 2007, he was short-listed for the Umpire of the Year award, which was ultimately won by

Simon Taufel Simon James Arthur Taufel (born 21 January 1971) is a former Australian cricket umpire who was earlier a member of the ICC Elite umpire panel. He won five consecutive ICC Umpire of the Year awards between 2004 and 2008, and was generally cons ...

. Things turned progressively worse in the following months, when he was removed by the ICC from officiating in the third Test between Australia and India in Perth after his several incorrect decisions contributed to India's defeat in the second Test in Sydney in January 2008 & he was replaced by

Billy Bowden Brent Fraser "Billy" Bowden (born 11 April 1963) is a cricket umpire from New Zealand. He was a player until he began to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. He is well known for his dramatic signaling style which includes the famous "crooked finge ...

for the third Test match. Former umpire

Dickie Bird Harold Dennis "Dickie" Bird, (born 19 April 1933), is an English retired international cricket umpire. During his long umpiring career, he became a much-loved figure among players and viewing public, due to his excellence as an umpire, but al ...

suggested that Bucknor had "gone on too long", while Bucknor blamed Indian cricket board BCCI's financial power for his ouster. Looking back on his career, Steve Bucknor recalled making several incorrect decisions against Sachin Tendulkar from India. The ICC confirmed on 23 February 2009 that Bucknor had decided to retire from umpiring in March 2009. His final Test match was the 3rd Test between

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 ...

and

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 ...

at Cape Town on 19–23 March, and his last One Day International match was the 4th ODI between his native West Indies and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at Barbados on 29 March, bringing his 20-year career as an official to an end.

Achievements as an umpire

Cricket World Cup

Bucknor has stood as an onfield umpire in five World Cup tournaments, during which he has officiated 44 matches including five finals.

Test match record

Bucknor held the record for the most Test matches umpired until December 2019, when

Aleem Dar Aleem Dar PP ( Punjabi, ur, ; born 6 June 1968) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former cricketer. He is a member of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires. He won the David Shepherd Trophy three years in a row from 2009 to 2011, after being nomina ...

of Pakistan stood in his 129th Test match as an on-field umpire, surpassing his record of officiating in the most number of Test matches. He was the first umpire to have officiated in over 100 Test matches.

Awards

Bucknor has received the ICC's

Bronze Bails Award In cricket, an umpire (from the Old French ''nompere'' meaning not a peer, i.e. not a member of one of the teams, impartial) is a person who has the authority to make decisions about events on the cricket field according to the ''Laws of Cricke ...

s for umpiring in 100 ODIs, as well as the Golden Bails Award for umpiring 100 Test matches.

References

External links

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

website.
Main page of Elite Panel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bucknor, Steve Living people People from Montego Bay Jamaican cricket umpires Jamaican football referees Members of the Order of Jamaica West Indian Test cricket umpires West Indian One Day International cricket umpires 1946 births Cornwall College, Jamaica alumni