Kevin Pietersen pays obeisance to Rudi Koertzen as latter breathed his last on Tuesday after a fatal car accident in South Africa.
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In what was yet another shocker of a news for the Cricketing fraternity this year, former South African International Cricket Council (ICC) elite-panel umpire Rudi Koertzen died in a fatal car accident at the age of 73.
As per Koerzen’s son and reports from the South African media, the former renowned umpire lost his life in the car crash while driving from Cape Town to Despatch in Eastern Cape in South Africa, where he lived with his family. Along with him, three other people were also fatally injured in a head-on collision near Riversale.
Koertzen had officiated in his first international assignment back in the year 1992, and was appointed as a full-time International Cricket Council (ICC) umpire five years later in 1997.
Quite a respected figure across Cricket circles, the South African official, officiated in the capacity of an umpire and match referee across a total of 128 Tests, 250 ODIs and 19 T20Is. With a combined 331 matches across formats, Koertzen was only the second umpire after Steve Bucknor, to officiate in more than 200 ODIs and 100 Tests.
He had also played the role of the third umpire during the 2003 and 2007 World Cup finals, and decided to bid adieu to his umpiring career in 2010.
Kevin Pietersen pays obeisance to Rudi Koertzen
Renowned figures from the sport took to their respective social media handles to pay their respect to the former South African umpire, minutes after they heard about his unfortunate demise.
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Joining the list was former England skipper and batter Kevin Pietersen, who took to his Twitter handle to express his shock on the most unfortunate news. Hailing him as a legend, Pietersen further exclaimed that he would be sorely missed.
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