World Cup Final Umpire: Martin Wale (Part 2)

CC4 Museum of Welsh Cricket Podcast

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In this, the second part of our chat with Martin, umpire with the South West Wales Association of Cricket Association, we talk in more detail about his experiences in Chennai, India at the International Masters Cricket Over 60s World Cup earlier this year.
He begins by telling us about the celebrations at the British Consulate in Chennai for the King's Birthday which he attended whilst at the tournament and which was one of the great highlights of the trip for him.
We talk about the first round robin round of the tournament and Martin's memories of that. England and Australia were the standout teams. Although Martin did not watch them, the Welsh side did really well (finishing 5th overall in the competition).
Martin talks about reflecting on his performance and how important that is for umpires generally. He regretted not being able to stand with one of the local Indian umpires.
After the round robin phase there were group positions so then the top of Group A played the second in Group B. Effectively, these were semi finals but there were also games involving all the nations involved to give final placings. Martin was chosen to umpire the semi final between Australia and New Zealand. He describes the game and Australia's comfortable victory.
No one knew who would be umpiring the Final although it would have to be a neutral umpire. As it would be played between England and Australia, Martin, as the sole umpire from Wales, was in with a shout. All the international umpires thought the final would go to the Indian umpires. However, after some delay on the evening before the final, at about 9pm, Martin discovered he was one of the three umpires chosen to officiate at the final. A further wait happened until it was confirmed that he would be one of the on-field umpires.
Martin describes his feelings of nerves and excitement at the prospect of officiating at such an important game.
Martin describes the unusual feeling of participating in such a big occasion but that it was happening without much of a focus on it. It was still one of six games that were taking place on the same day.
We talk about a serious incident which took place at the tournament, with a player experiencing a 'mild' heart attack. All the umpires stressed this to all the players before the final. He then talks to us about the ground where the final took place as well as all the grounds and the wickets in general.
England got a below par score, for them, in the 160s. Australia were a fantastic bowling team and pinned England back with them losing wickets regularly. Australia won with 4 or 5 overs and 8 wickets to spare. The celebrations were rather muted but Martin felt that this was rather inevitable given the way the tournament had been organised.
Martin described the closing ceremony which took place two days after the final and what he received as a participating official. He concludes with some final reflections on the experience.