28 Facts About Colin Egar

Colin John "Col" Egar was an Australian Test cricket umpire.

Colin Egar started his career as an umpire of Australian rules football and quickly gained a reputation for being a forthright arbiter.

Colin Egar became an umpire in district cricket, and gained a reputation for his willingness to no-ball suspicious bowlers for throwing.

Colin Egar stood in South Australia's matches against Victoria, the West Indies and Tasmania, before being selected to make his Test debut.

Colin Egar did so from the bowler's end as Quigley was trying to extract extra pace from the slow pitch.

Hoy and Colin Egar stood in every match of that most dramatic of all Test series, and the West Indies captain Frank Worrell was full of praise for the umpiring in that tension-filled series.

Colin Egar had ruled Brooks legitimate in four previous matches at first-class level, but had no-balled him in a district match in Adelaide.

Colin Egar stood in four of South Australia's home matches, two in the Shield, and the others against England.

Colin Egar topped the bowling averages for the Australian first-class season with 58 wickets at 19.86 from ten matches, as Victoria won the Sheffield Shield.

Colin Egar ruled the second, third, fifth and ninth balls to be throws, and therefore illegitimate.

Colin Egar had cleared his bowling on five previous occasions, in three Shield matches and two Tests; the Victorian had bowled 119.1 overs in these games without incident.

Colin Egar later said "My only judgement was what I saw at the time".

Colin Egar retired from all forms of cricket at the end of the game, but continued to proclaim that his bowling action was fair.

Colin Egar's actions ignited "one of the most emotional crowd displays in Test history", as the public backed the paceman.

Colin Egar asked Benaud for permission to enter, and after the Australian captain allowed him in, the umpire sat quietly for a period before speaking to some other players and then to Meckiff.

Colin Egar said that he was "the second most upset person in the world", and later added that he thought Meckiff's first ball was suspect.

Colin Egar said that he could have called more deliveries, but was worried that the over would never end.

Benaud received criticism for not bowling Meckiff again at the other end, but Rowan later indicated that he would have agreed with Colin Egar, writing in his book that the action was illegitimate.

Colin Egar said that Egar's calls "hit him like a dagger in the back", but described the umpire as "a fair and just man who acted according to his convictions".

Colin Egar recalled that Rowan had said "It's going to be a very interesting game" at the pre-match function.

Colin Egar was called twice by Egar on the second and fourth deliveries of his eleventh over, and once by Ryan on the sixth ball of his fourteenth over.

Colin Egar stood in all five Anglo-Australian Tests, two matches between South Australia and England, and three of his state's home Shield matches.

Colin Egar officiated in two Shield matches and two games between South Australia and the West Indies at Adelaide Oval.

Ironically, in the Australian tour of Pakistan in 1988, Colin Egar protested to the Pakistan Board of Control over the umpiring of Mahboob Shah, following an innings loss on a grassless pitch which captain Allan Border described as a conspiracy from the word go.

Steve Waugh, a member of the team, quoted Colin Egar as claiming the umpiring is totally unacceptable.

The tour was in danger of being abandoned, but Colin Egar insisted it progress as scheduled.

Colin Egar remained outspoken about bowling actions that he considered to be dubious in his later life.

Colin Egar was strongly critical of the action of the Sri Lankan world record-breaking spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.