Johannesburg - Former South African umpire Rudi Koertzen, and three other people were killed in a head-on collision, according to a local news report. The crash occurred on Tuesday morning in Riversdale, which is located 90 kilometres east of Swellendam.
The 73-year-old Koertzen, a resident of Despatch in Nelson Mandela Bay, was on his way back home from Cape Town after a golf weekend.
His son, Rudi Koertzen Jr told Algoa FM News his father died on impact.
“He went on a golf tournament with some of his friends, and they were expected to come back on Monday, but it seems they decided to play another round of golf," Koertzen Jr said.
Koertzen was one of the cricket’s most popular umpires, standing in 398 international matches. He became famous for slowly raising his left arm and index finger to signal a batter’s dismissal and titled his 2010 autobiography Slow Death: Memoirs of a Cricket Umpire.
After a brief club career, he turned to umpiring in 1981 and made his international umpiring debut, in the second one-day International between the Proteas and India, at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth in December 1992. Later that month he stood in his first Test, also at St George’s Park during the inaugural Friendship series between the Proteas and India.
Koertzen stood in 108 Tests, the third most all time, while the 209 ODIs he officiated in - which includes the 2007 World Cup final - is surpassed only by Pakistan umpire Allem Dar’s 219.
IOL Sport