Mark Richard Benson (born 6 July 1958) is an English former

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 st ...

er and

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' ...

. Benson played for England in one Test match and 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 ...

in 1986. He later took up umpiring and spent time on the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires.

Early life

Benson was born in

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on t ...

, West Sussex, England. He was educated at Sutton Valence school in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and worked for a time as a marketing assistant for Shell. He then took up full-time cricket with

Playing career

Benson made his first-class debut as a left-handed opening batsman in 1980 and was virtually an "ever-present" in the Kent side for the next fifteen seasons scoring over 18,000 runs (48 centuries) for the county. He was Kent's third highest aggregate run scorer in the post-war era and his batting average of 40.27 was the fourth highest for a major batsman in Kent's history (after

Les Ames Leslie Ethelbert George Ames (3 December 1905 – 27 February 1990) was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. In his obituary, ''Wisden'' described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of a ...

, Frank Woolley and Colin Cowdrey). He scored 1,000 runs in a season 12 times, with a best of 1,725 runs (average 44.23) in 1987. Benson played 268 One Day matches (5 centuries, 53 fifties, 6 "man of the match" awards) for Kent scoring 7814 runs at an average of 31.89. These included a man of the match-winning century as Kent won a NatWest Trophy semi final in 1984, although they lost in the final to

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. For the 1991 Benson was appointed captain of Kent and on his first day as captain he scored a career best 257 against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. Under his captaincy Kent were runners-up in 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 b ...

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, Sunday League champions in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

(runners up in 1993) and

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

finalists in

and

. At the end of the 1995 season Benson was forced to retire due to a knee injury. In 1986 Benson played one Test Match 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 ...

against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and one

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of ...

against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. He was initially called up as a replacement after an injury to

Wayne Larkins Wayne Larkins (born 22 November 1953) is an English former cricketer, who represented Northamptonshire, Durham and Bedfordshire as an opening batsman throughout his career. He was selected to play for England as Graham Gooch's opening partne ...

. He was plunged into a crisis at the start of his only Test match, being at the wicket as England lost two wickets without a run on the board, but helped England to a draw, ending a run of seven successive Test defeats. In 1993 Benson captained an England XI in two limited-over matches against

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, top-scoring for his side in both matches with 61 and 58, his team winning the first match, and losing the second. These matches however were not one-day internationals. Overall, Benson scored a century every 10.23 innings, the third highest rate for Kent, including a century in each innings v Warwickshire in 1993. Benson and Neil Taylor scored the highest opening partnership (300) for Kent v Derbyshire in 1991.

Brian Luckhurst Brian William Luckhurst (5 February 1939 – 1 March 2005) was an English cricketer, who played his entire county career for Kent County Cricket Club. He played for Kent from 1958 to 1976, usually opening the batting, then in 1985, in an emerge ...

named Benson as Kent's greatest post war opening batsmen and referred to him as "His generation's unsung hero."

Umpiring career

After retiring from playing Benson became an umpire, making his first-class umpiring debut in 1997 and standing in international matches for the first time in 2004. He stood in eight matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. In September 2007 he was nominated for the ICC Umpire of the Year Award after just one full season on the panel. In April 2006, having stood in eight Tests and twenty-four one-day internationals, Benson became one of three umpires promoted from the Emirates International Panel of Umpires to the Emirates Elite Panel of Umpires. He also stood in the 2007 World Twenty 20 final in Johannesburg, South Africa. Whilst umpiring the second 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 coun ...

and

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

on 28 December 2006 Benson had to leave the field, after suffering from heart palpitations. Later in 2008, Benson made history in the 1st Test in Sri Lanka, being the first umpire to be asked to refer a decision. When Tillakaratne Dilshan asked for the umpire Mark Benson's decision to give him out caught behind to be reviewed, the English official changed his verdict when the television replay umpire Rudi Koertzen could not say conclusively that the ball had hit his bat or the ground on the way through to the Indian wicketkeeper. Benson withdrew in the middle of the second Test match in November 2009 between Australia and the West Indies, amid speculation that he was upset with the referral system when one of his decisions was overturned. The ICC denied this, saying that Benson was ill. On 5 February 2010 it was announced that Benson was retiring from international cricket umpiring, but would continue to umpire domestic cricket in England. In January 2016 he retired as an umpire.

References

External links

* *
Benson, Doctrove and Rauf elevated to Elite Panel
' from

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Mark 1958 births Living people People from Shoreham-by-Sea English cricketers England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers Kent cricketers Kent cricket captains English Test cricket umpires English One Day International cricket umpires English Twenty20 International cricket umpires Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers

Early life

Playing career

Umpiring career

See also

References

External links