5 funny on-field incidents involving umpires

Matthew Hayden and umpire Billy Bowden hit the deckUmpiring is one of the most difficult and tedious jobs to perform on the cricket field. Despite the amount of seriousness attached to the role, most umpires ensure that they keep the atmosphere as light as possible by getting involved in humour and friendly interactions with players.There have been quite a few funny instances on the cricket which have featured umpires in a prominent role. While some of these incidents were pretty intentional, others just happened in the spur of the moment.Although there have been several occasions where umpires have made us laugh, we have picked 5 out of them.

#1 Umpire Billy Bowden shows Glenn McGrath a red card

Billy tries to send McGrath off the field for bowling underarm

Kiwi umpire Billy Bowden is an absolute master of on-field comedy and there are too many instances of him having fun on the cricket pitch and making others laugh too. One such instance came in the first ever T20I played between Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand were completely out of the contest and needed too many to win off the last ball. Glenn McGrath, who was bowling the final over, decided to bring some more fun to the proceedings and tried to emulate the infamous underarm delivery by Trevor Chappell.

Before he could deliver the ball, Bowden rushed forward to stop McGrath, pulled out a red card and showed it to the bowler in his usual theatrical manner. McGrath too, was seen shrugging his shoulders pretending to be disgusted while he had a smile about the umpire’s actions.

#2 Umpire Aleem Dar takes an unusual catch

Aleem Dar comes up with a unique style of catching

Former ICC Elite panel umpire Aleem Dar is one of the more popular umpires to emerge out of Pakistan and has officiated in many a high-profile matches. One of the top assignments in his umpiring career was the 2010/11 Ashes series played in Australia.

In the 5th Test at Sydney, Dar showed his funny side when he tried to run Matt Prior out after the ball slipped out of the bowler’s hand. However, an incident even funnier than this occurred when the ball was being changed during the England innings.

Aleem Dar first gestured to the bowler to throw the ball towards him by opening up both hands as if to take the catch. However, as the ball was coming towards him, Dar placed his hands beside his hips from behind his back to catch the ball cleanly.

#3 Umpire Dickie Bird answers nature\'s call

Dickie Bird was not only the best but also the funniest umpire

One can very safely say that Dickie Bird was the ‘Donald Bradman’ of cricket umpiring. He was the first and greatest umpiring superstar that the cricketing world has seen; however, the best part was that he had a very funny side to him.

There are a number of popular incidents where Bird has displayed his outstanding sense of humour on the cricket pitch. A hilarious one happened during a Test match between England and West Indies at Old Trafford.

The great umpire had been waiting for a long time to go to the toilet, so he said to the players, “I’m very sorry, gentlemen, but nature calls” and quickly hurried off the field. Dickie Bird’s actions left the players as well as the crowd in splits.

#4 Umpire Billy Bowden does splits while chasing his hat

Billy Bowden delivers yet another classic funny moment

There is hardly any umpire in the world of cricket who can match up to Billy Bowden in terms of humour. This is precisely why he features for a second time on our list of funny incidents involving umpires of the game.

It was the 2013 Champions Trophy encounter between Sri Lanka and England at the Oval. Ravi Bopara of England smashed one right down the ground forcing Bowden to duck and lose his hat in the process. Conditions were windy, so the hat flew away even as the Kiwi umpire gave chase.

The moment Billy reached out for his hat, he fell down and ended up doing splits; however, he finally did manage to gain control over his hat. With this incident, Billy Bowden added another gem to his unbelievable collection of funny incidents.

#5 Umpire Daryl Harper runs away from a stray dog

A stray dog chasing umpire Daryl Harper

With looks which made him resemble Hollywood actor Bruce Willis, Daryl Harper was one of the popular umpires of his time. In his career, Harper officiated in as many as 94 Tests and 174 ODIs before he decided to call it quits in the year 2011.

Humour was one of the great assets of the Australian umpire and he had some funny experiences during his long umpiring stint. One of these came during a Test match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at Kandy in 2003.

A stray dog somehow managed to make it to the field of play and started to run about helter-skelter. At one point of time, the dog was seen heading towards Daryl Harper even as the umpire tried his best to avert its attention, much to everyone’s amusement.