Max O'Connell

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Maxwell George O'Connell (born 4 April 1936 in Alberton, South Australia) was an Australian Test cricket match umpire.

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He umpired 19 Test matches between 1971 and 1980. His first match, was the Fifth Test in the 1970–71 Ashes series at Melbourne on 21 January to 26 January 1971. In his first over as Test umpire he called "over" and turned to walk to square leg after John Snow bowled the last ball. As a result he missed the England wicket-keeper Alan Knott catching Keith Stackpole and had to give him not out. Snow wrote that he 'could quite understand his actions which illustrate the pressure umpires are also under in a Test', [1] and they were able to joke about it afterwards. Stackpole continued to 30, Ian Chappell scored a century and Australian captain Bill Lawry declared the second innings closed with Rod Marsh on 92, depriving him the chance of becoming the first Australian wicket-keeper to score a century. O'Connell's partner was Lou Rowan.

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. O'Connell stood in one of these matches, and witnessed Garfield Sobers score 254, an innings regarded by some witnesses as the greatest ever played.

O'Connell stood, with Tom Brooks in the Centenary Test Match between Australia and England, played at Melbourne on 12 March to 17 March 1977, won by Australia by 45 runs – identical to the result of the first Test 100 years before. Dennis Lillee took 11 wickets, Rod Marsh finally achieved a century against England, debutant David Hookes hit English captain Tony Greig for five consecutive fours, Rick McCosker batted with a broken jaw, and Derek Randall scored a gallant 174, in a memorable match, attended by many of the past great names of Australian and English cricket.

O'Connell's last Test match was between Australia and the West Indies at Adelaide on 26 January to 30 January 1980, won comfortably by the powerful visitors by 408 runs. His colleague was Mel Johnson, the eleventh other umpire to partner him at Test level.

O'Connell also umpired six One Day International matches between 1975 and 1981.

Although never a first-class cricketer, O'Connell represented South Australia as a batsman at interstate Second XI standard.

O'Connell was also a well-respected Australian Football player and umpire, having played for both Sturt and Port Adelaide in the SANFL, and then umpiring the 1967 Grand Final. [2]

See also

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1970–71 Ashes series

The 1970–71 Ashes series consisted of seven cricket Test matches, each of five days with six hours play each day and eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1970–71 and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. Ray Illingworth's England team beat Bill Lawry's Australians 2–0 and regained the Ashes, the only full Test series in Australia in which the home team failed to win a Test. "The Momentous Series of 1970–71" was pivotal in cricket history and "essentially ushered in the modern period of Test cricket". It was the first Test series to have more than five Tests and the first One Day International in cricket history was played in Melbourne; like the first test match in history it was won by Australia.

The 1970-71 Australians lost 2-0 to the touring England team in the 1970-71 Ashes series. Australia had not lost a home Test series since 1954-55, but had suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat in South Africa in 1969-70 which had affected their confidence. On paper they should have had a good team, and E.W. Swanton reckoned they were favourites to hold on to The Ashes, but Rod Marsh, Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell had yet to mature and Bill Lawry, Garth McKenzie and John Gleeson were at the end of their careers. In more fortunate circumstances the senior players could have eased the newcomers into the team, but Ray Illingworth was a captain who exploited every weakness and they did not get the chance. Their cause was not helped by the selectors Sir Donald Bradman, Sam Loxton and Neil Harvey who chose nineteen different players in the series, nine of them debutants, and continuously chopped and changed the team which did not allow it to settle.

The England team disputed several umpiring decisions in the 1970–71 Ashes series, Ray Illingworth, Geoffrey Boycott and John Snow in particular. After the series Boycott and Snow were called to a disciplinary hearing at Lords over their behaviour, and Illingworth and Snow never toured again. Only three umpires were used; Lou Rowan, who was most involved in the controversy, and his colleagues Tom Brooks and Max O'Connell who both debuted as Test umpires in the series. 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. As a result it was not uncommon for umpires to make mistakes, which over the course of a long series tended to cancel each other out. The best an umpire could do was to make an honest judgement based on what he saw.

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References

  1. ↑ p101-102, John Snow, Cricket Rebel, Hamlyn, 1976
  2. ↑ Atkinson, Graeme (1989). 3AW Book of Footy Records. South Melbourne: Magistra Publishing Company Pty Ltd. p. 278. ISBN   1863210091..
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