3. Steve Bucknor
Stephen Anthony Bucknor was born on May 31, 1946, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Before starting his umpiring career in cricket, he had officiated a world cup qualifier between El Salvador and Netherlands Antilles in 1988. He started his career as an umpire on March 18, 1989, in an ODI match between West Indies and India at Antigua.
Out of the total 181 ODI matches he has umpired, 44 matches are from the world cups. However, his unique record has to be the five consecutive World Cup finals from 1992 to 2007. In October 2007, he won the award of The Order of Jamaica, Commander Class, for “outstanding services in the field of sports.” He has also won ICC’s Bronze bails award and Golden bails award.
Despite all the achievements, he has not gone well with Indian cricket fans. His wrong decisions in matches have had a negative impact on India on many occasions. Ruling Jonty Rhodes not out in Johannesburg test match, ruling Sachin caught behind in a test between India and Pakistan at Eden Gardens and involvement in the infamous Monkeygate during India’s tour of Australia in 2008 are some of the incidents that have spoiled the relationship.
