Farewell, umpire Wilson

THE EDITOR: We tend to talk a lot about our local cricket superstars like Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, and Brian Lara, to name a few, but we forget cricket superstars like Daren Ganga, Ian Bishop, and Fazeer Mohammed.

There's another cricket superstar that nobody talks about and he is umpire Joel Wilson. Umpiring is a hard job, it is not for the faint of heart. You need tremendous reproductive fortitude to stand in the heat for so long, literally and figuratively.

Nobody is perfect, no umpire is perfect, but Wilson is an elite umpire. The best officials are the ones nobody talks about and he was the best the country had to offer, because nobody talked about him.

Wilson is second to Steve Buknor in Tests, second to Buknor in ODIs, and third to Gregory Brathwaite in T20Is. He has umpired over 500 international and regional matches, not to mention matches in Premiership 1, Premiership 2, Senior Division North Zone, Division 1 North Zone, secondary school clashes, and at the QPS where he was grilled to become the official he is today.

Wilson is the Lara of umpiring in the country. He has flown the TT flag and North Zone Cricket Umpires' and Scorers' Association of TT around the world.

Australia could whine and complain how much it wants, the umpire's decision is final. It had a review and threw it away in the Ashes. That is what it was for and Ben Stokes embarrassed them in the history books. Still a great match though, but not a better knock that Lara's 153.

Needless to say, I am shocked by the decision of the ICC to part ways with Wilson.

Thank you for your service to cricket and TT, Wilson. The QPS patiently awaits your return.

KENDELL KARAN

Chaguanas