Paul Reiffel

Paul Ronald Rieffel is a professional first class cricket umpire of Australian origin. He is also a former international cricketer. He was born on 19 April 1966 in Box Hill, Victoria, Australia. He is quite a popular figure in the domestic circuit of Australian cricket. He is also a member of the ICC Elite Umpire Panel.

Early Career

Paul started his career as a cricketer. He was a part of the international team for quite a few years. He represented Australia in 35 Tests and 92 One Day Internationals. He was also a part of the Australian squad that ended up winning the 1999 World Cup.

He made his debut in Test cricket as well as ODIs in the month of January 1992 against India. He played his last test and ODI in 1998 and 1999 respectively.

Umpiring career

Rieffel started with umpiring in Melbourne Grade cricket in 2002. After this, he made his debut in umpiring in first class cricket in 2004-05. A year later, in 2005-06, he became a part of the Cricket Australia National Umpire's Panel. A few years later, in 2008, Rieffel became the first former Australian Test cricketer to become a member of the International Cricket Council International Panel of Umpires and Referees.

He made his umpiring debut at the international level on 6 February 2009 in a One Day International Match between New Zealand and Australia. He went on to umpire in the Test series between West Indies and New Zealand in July-August 2012. It was in 2013 that came glory for Rieffel in his umpiring career. He was included in the ICC Elite Umpire Panel. He was one of the twenty umpires in the world who were selected to umpire in the 2015 World Cup.

Stats

At the international level, Rieffel has umpired in a total of 104 games till now. Out of these 104, 36 are Test Matches, 52 are One Day Internationals and 16 are T20 International matches.

Controversies

There has been no huge controversy in Paul Rieffel's career. However, he caught great attention when he was struck on the back of his head by a throw from Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the fourth Test between England and India in 2016. He had to leave the field and undergo some precautionary tests that revealed that there was nothing serious. However, he had to let go of his umpiring duties in the series.