Why are the Umpires wearing black armbands today in England vs South Africa 1st Test at Lord’s?

Dixit Bhargav | 17/08/2022
Why are the Umpires wearing black armbands today in England vs South Africa 1st Test at Lord's?

Why are the Umpires wearing black armbands today: All the three umpires are wearing black armbands at Lord’s today.

Playing a Test match after an exactly six-week long gap, England have managed to lose early wickets to not let an unwanted streak come to an end.

Put in to bat first by South Africa captain Dean Elgar on the first day of the first Test at Lord’s, England lost opening batters Alex Lees (5) and Zac Crawley (9) cheaply.

Bowling with a new ball, South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada struck in his third and fifth overs to justify Elgar’s decision of electing to bowl first on an overcast morning.

Rabada was well-supported by South Africa’s third and fourth pacers in Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje respectively. While Jansen pinned former England captain Joe Root (8) in front of the stumps (enough for DRS to confirm so), Nortje bowled Jonny Bairstow (0) to reduce the hosts to 55/4 in the first session itself.

Why are the Umpires wearing black armbands today at Lord’s?

As fans must have noted by now, all the umpires are donning black armbands at Lord’s on Wednesday. It is worth mentioning that the same has been done as a mark of honour and tribute towards former South Africa umpire Rudi Koertzen.

For the unversed, 73-year old Koertzen had passed away in a car accident last week. Koertzen, who had visited Cape Town to participate in a Golf tournament with his friends, was driving back to his home in Despatch when the unfortunate accident took place.

An 18-year old international career saw Koertzen officiating as an umpire and match referee in 128 Tests, 250 ODIs and 19 T20Is. A total of 331 matches across formats as an umpire sees Koertzen on the second position in the list of most matches as an umpire in international cricket.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
England South Africa South Africa tour of England 2022

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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