Cricket: Still top of the game

Jeff Crowe. Photo / Getty Images

Jeff Crowe gave up playing cricket because of a heckler at a social match (who yelled: "Hey, Crowe, you haven't got any better") but he is still at the top of the game as one of the world's elite referees.

"The only place I play cricket now is at the makeshift oval on cousin Russell's [actor Russell Crowe] farm in Coffs Harbour," says Crowe. "I realised when that heckler yelled that it was time to give it a miss."

But while he has scaled back as a player, his lifestyle has perhaps scaled even greater heights on the back of a career as one of seven ICC (International Cricket Council) elite panel referees.

The former Auckland and New Zealand cricket captain, married to Lara and father of Oscar (2) and Henry (1) has lived in Florida since 2004 and regularly sets across the world on refereeing duties.

In his five years of refereeing so far, Crowe has overseen 35 test matches, including the first three in this Ashes series, 123 one day internationals and 11 Twenty20 internationals.

"International cricket referee" sounds like one of those tough jobs - like being caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef's islands, personal pilot to the Rolling Stones, caddie to Tiger Woods or the chef in charge of catering on a luxury yacht.

But the role, while mostly smooth sailing, carries weight and sometimes Crowe finds himself in the eye of a storm.

His darkest refereeing hour came during the final of the 2007 World Cup between Australia and Sri Lanka at Sabina Park, Kingston in the West Indies. The final had seemingly been wrapped up by the Australian team after bad light had stopped play in the rain-affected match with the minimum number of overs bowled.

However, the match control panel, consisting of Crowe, as match referee, and four umpires, made a ruling that meant the game continued in conditions so gloomy an errant fan could have run on to the pitch, taken a stump out of the ground and no one would have been any the wiser.

Crowe was quick to take the blame for the situation and his honesty was refreshing and brave, considering the media were baying for his blood.

"While it is never easy to take criticism, I think it is right that there are consequences for our actions as match officials," he told a media scrum after the debacle.

The two onfield umpires, Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar, the reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden, and Crowe, were then all suspended for the duration of the next ICC event, the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.

Crowe defines his overall role as: "I am the eyes and ears of the ICC at each international match. The ICC regards us refs as the match CEO and a main role is to manage the umpires and get them in the best space to be able to deliver their highest quality decision making.

"We are there also to make sure that player behavior is within our [ICC] code and if not, judge on any possible breaches. Depending on where you are working, other aspects of the role might include security issues, minimum hotel standards for teams, internal logistics, liaising with host broadcasters and the media, dealing with any issues that might affect the running of the match and ground and facility assessments."

Crowe has just finished refereeing the first three tests in the Ashes series and had to adjudicate on three tricky catching incidents involving the finer points of umpiring and third umpiring.

Crowe says of such monments: "A golf referee once described his job as 'hours and hours of watching, observing, and moments of terror.' We [referees] are sort of similar," he says.

The World Cup final was a hurricane on the pitch. Off the pitch - living in Florida - there have been real-life hurricanes to withstand.

"I witnessed four hurricanes in 2005 alone. The one at the end was Wilma which hit us straight on. Man, was that a horrendous six hours. The aftermath is crazy - no power, traffic lights all down, so, mayhem on the streets. No petrol, no food stores. - preparation is a must. Barbecues become common with all the meat that defrosts from power outages."

The highlights of Crowe's playing career include the 112 he scored in a follow-on second innings against the West Indies in 1985, who at that time possessed more lethal bowling firepower; and his 128 to help draw the third test and win the home series against England in 1984.

Golf tends to be the ex-Black Caps manager's activity these days, with his favourite holiday destination the Wairakei International Golf course.