5. Simon Taufel
Simon Taufel was a familiar face on television screens in the 2000s among cricket fans with his charming smile and accurate decision-making skills. He was born on January 21, 1971, in New South Wales, Australia. Taufel stood in his first ODI on January 13, 1999, in the match between Australia and Sri Lanka at Sydney when he was 27 years old. His first test match was the boxing day match between Australia and West Indies in Melbourne in December 2000.
Since the inception of ICC best umpire award in 2004, Taufel dominated by winning it five consecutive times till 2008. Taufel was in the van that survived the shootout in Lahore during the test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Due to the dominance of the Australian cricket team, he had to wait until 2011 to officiate the World cup finals. After his retirement in 2012, Taufel served as ICC’s umpire performance and training manager until October 2015.
