Six Cricket Umpires and their vintage style

#4 Rudi Koertzen - The trolling finger

As Harsha Bhogle once put it

"The last time Rudi Koerzten smiled; there was peace in west Asia."

With his hat, the french beard and shades on almost every time, Rudi Koertzen was one of the most instantaneously recognizable figures in Cricket. He exemplifies the typical rowdiness one would associate with a South African. Not easily swayed by the vociferous appeals, the calm headed African always took his time before ruling a batsman out. Rudi explains how his “slow death” came into existence.

“When I started to umpire, I used to stand with my hands in front of me. I remember my wife was watching a TV game one day where I was officiating and she said to me, "Take your hands away from your front and put them behind your back." I started doing that, but then I started to fiddle around with my hands - it's in my pocket, then it's on my side - so I decided to grip my left wrist with my right hand and hold it there so I couldn't move it around. Because I would hang on to it, it just came naturally that I would count one, two, three, think where the ball was going, and then have a slow release and start lifting it. It just stayed with me - I don't think it was something deliberate. I gave Daryll Cullinan out at the Wanderers one day and he gave me the name Slow Death. He said, "Why do you make me suffer and wait for that slow-death decision?" It just stayed with me. I had to laugh at one of the producers one day. They said, "Can't you just speed it up a little bit, because we struggle to fit it into the super slow-mo replays."

Often Rudi used to troll the bowlers, slowing raising his finger and then pulling it away midway. He liked to play cat and mouse with the feelings of both bowler and batsmen.

Here is a video where Rudi trolls the bowler.