Ian James Gould is a cricket umpire belonging to the ICC Elite Panel and a former first-class cricketer. He was born on 19th August 1957 and hails from the village of Taplow in Buckinghamshire, England. A respected figure across the world of cricket as an umpire with a keen sense of judgement, he has had his share of fair share of accusations and controversies with his decision-making.
Early Career
Gould was an accomplished first-class and List-A cricketer having over two decades of experience playing for teams for Middlesex and Sussex while also playing for Auckland. Gould was a left-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper. He has played in 18 ODIs for England but didn’t get a test cap. He featured for England in the 1983 World Cup that was won by India. Gould captained Sussex in 1986-1987 and lead them to the final of the NatWest Trophy in 1986, eventually winning the trophy after defeating Lancashire. He also played county cricket in Devon, for teams like Budleigh Salterton and Exmouth.
A solid performer as a wicketkeeper, he effected 603 dismissals in first-class cricket and 279 in List-A cricket. He also scored 8756 and 4977 runs in both the formats respectively.
Umpiring Career
His first match as an umpire in international cricket was in an T20I match between England and Sri Lanka on 15th June 2006 at Southampton. 5 days later, he stood in his first ODI match between the same opponents at The Oval. He then officiated in three matches in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup in West Indies. He has also officiated in the two following World Cups in 2011 and 2015. He stood as an umpire in the exhilarating semi-final match between India and Pakistan in the 2011 World Cup.
Soon after officiating in his first Test match in 2008, he was promoted to the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires in 2009.
Stats
He has officiated in 65 Tests, 125 ODIs and 37 T20Is.
Controversies
His decisions were questions in the 1st Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in June 2012.
Retirement
Since his retirement from his playing career, Gould forayed into coaching county cricket at Middlesex. He also took over as the chairman of Burnham FC in the Southern Football League, having played as a goalkeeper in his youth days for Slough Town and Arsenal.
