Colin Egar
Colin John "Col" Egar was an Australian Test cricket umpire.
Born in Malvern, South Australia, Egar umpired in 29 Test matches between 1960 and 1969.
First-class debut
Egar started his career as an umpire of Australian rules football and quickly gained a reputation for being a forthright arbiter. He became an umpire in district cricket, and gained a reputation for his willingness to no-ball suspicious bowlers for throwing. In his district career, he called bowlers on eight occasions, not counting multiple no-ball calls against a bowler in the same match.Egar made his first-class umpiring debut during the 1956–57 season when he stood in South Australia's home Sheffield Shield match against Queensland at the Adelaide Oval. This was Egar's only appointment for the season. At the time, there were no neutral umpires, and the host association provided the officials, so Egar's Sheffield fixtures all took place at the Adelaide Oval. During that era, the Shield program consisted of eight matches for each state, with four home games.
The following season, Egar became more of a regular, standing in three of the four matches at Adelaide Oval. In 1958–59, Egar stood in all but one of South Australia's three home Shield matches, and officiated a game involving an international team for the first time. He oversaw two matches between South Australia and the touring England cricket team of Peter May, but he was not appointed in any of the five Tests.
At the end of this season, the veteran Australian Test umpire Mel McInnes retired after a controversial season and a series of questionable decisions that prompted May and English manager Freddie Brown to call for his standing down. This left a vacancy for an Australian Test umpire. During the 1959–60 Australian summer, there were no home Tests as the national team was in the Indian subcontinent. In the meantime, Egar stood in all four Shield matches at the Adelaide Oval. The 1960–61 season saw the first Tests on Australian soil since McInnes's retirement. Egar stood in South Australia's matches against Victoria, the West Indies and Tasmania, before being selected to make his Test debut.
In the match against Victoria, he made his first throwing call against a bowler at first-class level. During the match, Egar no-balled South Australian fast bowler Brian Quigley twice on the first day as Victoria batted first. He did so from the bowler's end as Quigley was trying to extract extra pace from the slow pitch. As the calls were made from the bowler's end, almost all of the spectators thought it was for Quigley overstepping the bowling mark, the most common mode of infringement; the fact that Egar made called the bowler for throwing only became apparent to most in the newspapers the next day. Quigley changed his action, but his results thereafter were not enough to gain selection.
Test debut in the Tied Test
His first match was between Australia and the West Indies at Brisbane on 9–14 December 1960. The game resulted in the first tie in Test match history when Egar's partner Col Hoy adjudged Ian Meckiff run out during the final over of the match. Hoy and Egar stood in every match of that most dramatic of all Test series, and the West Indies captain Frank Worrell was full of praise for the umpiring in that tension-filled series. Hoy wrote in the newspapers about his experiences at the end of the season; at the time, the practice of player and officials concurrently doing media work was heavily frowned upon and he never umpired a Test again.Due to his Test commitments, Egar stood in only two Shield matches for the season. In the following summer, 1961–62, Egar stood in all four Adelaide Oval Shield matches as well as a match against a touring New Zealand team. There were no Tests during the season. In the match against New Zealand, he no-balled South Australian paceman Gordon Brooks for throwing in the sixth ball of his first over. It was Brooks' tenth first-class match, having made his debut in the same season. Egar had ruled Brooks legitimate in four previous matches at first-class level, but had no-balled him in a district match in Adelaide. However, Brooks played in a further 16 matches for South Australia over the following three years without incident.
During the 1962–63 season, Egar officiated in Ashes Tests against England for the first time, standing in four of the five Tests, missing the Third Test at Sydney. He stood in four of South Australia's home matches, two in the Shield, and the others against England.
Ian Meckiff
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was increasing concern in the cricket community about illegal bowling actions, especially as during that period there were only home umpires, rather than officials from third nations. Several conferences were held to discuss issues of enforcement and modifications to the laws of cricket. One of the main points of controversy was the Australian fast bowler Ian Meckiff, whose action had particularly angered the English press and parts of the cricket community. During the Tests in 1960–61, as well as in other first-class matches, Egar officiated over Meckiff's bowling, and deemed his bowling legitimate. The bowler noted that the umpire had told him that there was little point in changing his action.Meckiff was not selected in Tests after some poor performances in 1960–61. In 1962–63, Meckiff was again under the spotlight. He topped the bowling averages for the Australian first-class season with 58 wickets at 19.86 from ten matches, as Victoria won the Sheffield Shield. Meckiff was hoping to regain his Test place, but was not selected despite his success. Problems arose when he was no-balled in separate matches, by Jack Kierse in a match hosted by South Australia, and another hosted by Queensland. In both matches he continued bowling without further incident.
Meckiff's performances as the leading wicket-taker during the 1962–63 season meant that he could not be justifiably denied national selection on grounds of productivity, so the matter of his legitimacy had to be resolved. Meanwhile, the retirement of pace spearhead Alan Davidson left a vacancy in the Australian team ahead of the 1963–64 home Test series against South Africa. In the first two matches of the season in Melbourne, Meckiff took 11 wickets and was recalled to the team for the First Test in Brisbane.
At the start of the season, the Australian Board of Control had issued a directive calling on the umpires to "get tough" in enforcing the laws of cricket, and asked the state associations to "back the umpires to the fullest extent". In the lead-up to the Test, Meckiff was the centre of media attention, and one report described him as cricket's "bogey man". The South Africans were reportedly stunned by Meckiff's selection, giving the impression that they considered him an illegitimate bowler. Reaction in England was also hostile, ahead of Australia's forthcoming tour in the English summer of 1964. They unequivocally called Meckiff a thrower.
The Brisbane Test was dubbed "Meckiff's Test" by the Australian media; speculation abounded that the bowler was being chosen so that he could be no-balled as a public relations effort to promote Australia's anti-throwing credentials. Keith Miller predicted that the umpires Egar and Lou Rowan would be having sleepless nights and claimed that the selectors would be biting their fingernails, and that he Meckiff might be a scapegoat for the anti-throwing movement. Many were taken aback by the circumstances of the selection. As a close friend of the fast bowler, umpire Egar was in a difficult situation; the duo had won a pairs lawn bowling competition just a few months earlier. Nevertheless, the paceman and umpire socialised freely at the pre-match function.
Incident
In the match, Australia batted first. On the second day, South Africa began to bat just after the luncheon interval. Graham McKenzie conceded 13 runs from the first over. Meckiff then took the ball for the second over, bowling from the Vulture Street End to South African captain Trevor Goddard. At the same time, the South African manager Ken Viljoen set up a camera and began filming the left-armer's bowling action. Meckiff was no-balled four times by Egar—who was standing at square leg—in what would be his only over of the match. After the Victorian bowled a gentle "loosener" as his first ball, the drama began. Egar ruled the second, third, fifth and ninth balls to be throws, and therefore illegitimate. After the third and fifth balls—the latter a full toss that Goddard hit for four—Benaud came over to consult his fast bowler. After the ninth ball, Meckiff and Benaud had another meeting, and the remaining three balls were deemed to be fair. In the meantime, the crowd roared loudly, heckling Egar and supporting the beleaguered bowler. Meckiff had previously been passed in five countries, having played Tests in four of these nations. Egar had cleared his bowling on five previous occasions, in three Shield matches and two Tests; the Victorian had bowled 119.1 overs in these games without incident. Egar later said "My only judgement was what I saw at the time". Benaud removed his paceman from the attack and Meckiff did not bowl again in the match. He retired from all forms of cricket at the end of the game, but continued to proclaim that his bowling action was fair.Barry Gibbs, the secretary of the Queensland Cricket Association and the manager of the Australian team, said that the "humiliation" of Meckiff was "without a doubt the most dramatic and emotion-charged" sporting moment he had witnessed. Egar's actions also ignited "one of the most emotional crowd displays in Test history", as the public backed the paceman. During Meckiff's over, the crowd expressed strong disapproval of the umpire's calls. Half an hour before the close of the day's play, proceedings were suspended for two minutes as the crowd repeatedly chanted "We want Meckiff". When play ended, spectators stormed the field and carried the fast bowler off the arena on their shoulders, hailing him as a hero. They then returned to the field and formed two lanes, booing Egar from the ground. After this incident, the Queensland Police escorted the umpire to and from the match venue. The police presence at the ground was increased because of fears that the crowd might attack Egar or Benaud. During the Second Test, which was held in Meckiff's home town of Melbourne, Egar was given a police escort throughout the match after receiving death threats.