Ian David Blackwell (born 10 June 1978) is an English

umpire An umpire 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 term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

and retired professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. A left-arm orthodox spinner and powerful middle-order batsman, he played for

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 One Day International (ODI) and

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

level, and most recently played county cricket for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

in the second half of the 2012 season. He was born at

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

in Derbyshire.

Domestic career

Somerset County Cricket Club

Blackwell started off his career at

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, before moving to

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in 2000 following a dispute with Derbyshire captain

Dominic Cork Dominic is a name common among Roman Catholics and other Latin-Romans as a male given name. Originally from the late Roman-Italic name "Dominicus", its translation means "Lordly", "Belonging to God" or "of the Master". Variations include: Domini ...

. He was appointed captain of Somerset for the last part of the 2005 season after the departure of

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed captain of the national team, taking over from Shaun Pollock. He held t ...

. Having been appointed official captain for 2006, he had shoulder surgery and missed almost all of the season.

Durham County Cricket Club

After the 2008 season, Blackwell left Somerset and joined Durham. Blackwell's struggles with fitness and disagreements with the captain,

Justin Langer Justin Lee Langer (21 November 1970) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the former coach of the Australia men's national team, having been appointed to the role in May 2018 and leaving in February 2022. A left-handed ba ...

, were also factors in his departure from Somerset. Blackwell managed to lose over the winter. On his first-class debut for Durham, in the opening match of the 2009 English season, Blackwell scored a century against the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

, featuring a bowling line up including England hopefuls

Sajid Mahmood Sajid Iqbal Mahmood (Urdu: ساجد اقبال محمود, ''Sājid Iqbāl Maḥmūd''; born 21 December 1981) is a former English cricketer, who played all formats of the game. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played international cri ...

Kabir Ali Kabir Ali (born 24 November 1980) is an English former cricketer. A right-arm seam bowler and useful lower-order right-handed batsman, he played one Test match for England in 2003, while also earning 14 ODI caps between 2003 and 2006. He star ...

Tim Bresnan Timothy Thomas Bresnan (born 28 February 1985) is an English former first-class cricketer, who last played for Warwickshire. He was a fast-medium bowler who had ability with the bat. Bresnan won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 2002 and 2003. I ...

, and

Adil Rashid Adil Usman Rashid (born 17 February 1988) is an English cricketer who plays for England in One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket, and previously played for the Test team. In domestic cricket, he represents Yo ...

. Blackwell went on to have a productive season in 2009, scoring 801 runs at 40.05 and taking 43 wickets at 23.53 as Durham won the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

for the second successive year.

Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Entering the 2012 season, having been afflicted by a second shoulder operation, Blackwell played few matches in the first half of the season for Durham. The county then agreed to loan him from August to

, who required coverage for the four-week absence of spinner Jeetan Patel. He arrived at Warwickshire in time to be part of another side which clinched a

. In January 2013, Durham terminated Blackwell's contract leading to his retirement from professional cricket in March 2013. After a third shoulder operation over the winter, Blackwell had been diagnosed with arthritis in his left shoulder.

International career

Blackwell made his

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 Cup ...

debut for England in the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy. Blackwell was called up for the England Test squad after

Ashley Giles Ashley Fraser Giles (born 19 March 1973) is a former English first-class cricketer, who played 54 Test matches and 62 One Day Internationals for England before being forced to retire due to a recurring hip injury. Giles played the entirety of ...

had to withdraw from the 2006 tour to India. After impressing in warm-up matches, he was selected for the 1st

against India on 1 March in

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

. However, he was not frequently used by captain

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

, only bowling six fairly expensive overs in the first Indian innings, in comparison to fellow left arm spinner

Monty Panesar Mudhsuden Singh "Monty" Panesar (born 25 April 1982) is a former English international cricketer. A left-arm spinner, Panesar made his Test cricket debut in 2006 against India in Nagpur and One Day International debut for England in 2007. In E ...

's 42 overs. In the second Indian innings, Blackwell was initially more economical but as India went on an audacious chase of the huge total set to them by England, he was brought on to prevent the batsmen from scoring quickly, but conceded 18 runs in his first over. This came after a nervous innings of only 4 in his only opportunity with the bat, and Blackwell was subsequently dropped for the second Test, replaced by Liam Plunkett. Blackwell remained first choice spinner for the One Day International (ODI) series however. Although England lost the series 5–1, Blackwell's performances were encouraging and seemed to indicate he was ready to hold down a regular place in the side. Ten overs in the first ODI went for just 24 runs at the same time as picking up one wicket, his cheapest ever spell in an ODI, while he also picked up figures of 2–39 and 2–21. Blackwell looked set to make another Test match appearance against Sri Lanka, but suffered a shoulder injury which derailed his season. As a consequence he was replaced as spinner in England's ODI side, and was subsequently overlooked by the selectors. His highest ODI score of 82 came in his second match in 2002 against

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 ...

, and his best ODI bowling figures were 3-26 against Australia in 2003.

Umpiring career

While still playing, Blackwell got his first taste of umpiring, taking control of a handful of local matches in Durham. After retiring in 2013, Blackwell turned his full attention to umpiring, initially officiating in Minor County and Second XI cricket. In December 2014 Blackwell was added to ECB's reserve list of first-class umpires. Blackwell made his debut in First-class cricket in April 2015 in a match between

and Durham MCC University at Taunton. He umpired his first match in the

in April 2016.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwell, Ian 1978 births Living people Cricketers from Chesterfield, Derbyshire English cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Somerset cricket captains Durham cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Central Districts cricketers England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricket umpires