Lou Rowan

In 1972 Rowan wrote The Umpire’s Story which was highly critical of the England team, particularly of Illingworth and Snow. It even queried, “Was John Snow actually grabbed by a spectator who objected to Snow flattening an Australian batsman?” regardless of photographic evidence to the contrary. John Snow in his autobiography Cricket Rebel devoted a whole chapter to “Bitter Rows with Umpire Rowan”.

The Seventh Test at Sydney on 12 February to 17 February 1971 was Rowan’s last, with Tom Brooks as his umpiring colleague. It was a dramatic game won by England by 62 runs to regain The Ashes. Doug Walters had to be stumped twice by Alan Knott off Derek Underwood as he was given not out by Rowan the first time when on 41, but was a few balls later by Brooks for 42. After Keith Stackpole was caught off a thick edge by Knott off Peter Lever on 13, but was given not out by Rowan, the England captain Ray Illingworth said, “It was really unbelievable”. Later in the innings Illingworth led the English players from the field following a crowd disturbance after John Snow had hit Australian lower-order batsman Terry Jenner on the head with a bouncer. Rowan had issued Snow with a warning for intimidatory bowling and Snow’s and Illingworth’s displeasure was clear to the crowd, who booed passionately. When Snow finished his over and moved to his fielding position on the boundary, he was grabbed by a spectator, and had beer-cans thrown at him. Following the English walk-off, Rowan advised them to either resume or forfeit the match, and the players returned after the ground was cleared. In this Rowan was supported by the England manager David Clark and Alan Barnes of the A.B.C.

In 1971/72 season, a scheduled tour of Australia by South Africa was cancelled following political and moral protests against the apartheid policies of the South African government. In its place a ‘World Team’ visited Australia and played a series of Test standard, although never officially recognised. Rowan stood in three of these matches, including the match at Perth where Dennis Lillee took 8/29 in an innings.

Rowan umpired six of seven Test matches in the acrimonious 1970–71 Ashes series, but was heavily criticised by Ray Illingworth, Geoff Boycott and John Snow. After the series Boycott and Snow were called to a disciplinary hearing at Lord’s over their behaviour, and Illingworth and Snow never toured again. In six full Tests no Australian batsman was given out lbw in the series, which in the minds of the England players was clear evidence of umpiring bias. It must be remembered that at the time umpires had no recourse to slow motion replays and had to make decisions based on what they saw in a split second, with the benefit of the doubt always going to the batsman.

Louis Patrick “Lou” Rowan (2 May 1925 – 3 February 2017) was an Australian Test cricket match umpire who umpired the first One Day International at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 January 1971. He umpired 25 Test matches between 1963 and 1971 and became Australia’s senior umpire after the retirement of Col Egar. As a Detective Sergeant with the Queensland drug squad, Rowan took no nonsense and was inclined to stand on his authority. His first match was with Umpire Bill Smyth between Australia and England at Sydney on 11 January to 15 January 1963.