Ian proved Howelling success
International umpire, East Londoner Ian Howell recently retired from officiating in cricket matches. He looks back on his long career as a player and umpire. reports
THERE was never ever any doubt that the noble game of cricket would play a huge role in the life of Ian Lester Howell, who recently decided to hang up his umpire’s boots and pack away his trusty clicker after officiating in well over 200 top-class cricket games, including nine Test matches.
As a youngster he grew up in a home heavily involved in the game and the Howell family set up a most enviable cricket dynasty.
His father, Edwin (Eddie) and uncle Neville were umpires, his uncle Harry played first-class cricket for Western Province between 1949-50 and 1954-55 and also umpired first-class matches, his twin brother David played alongside him for Eastern Province and Border, completing 80 first-class games while also representing Western Province B and Transvaal, and his son Grant represented Eastern Province.
This represents three active generations, all heavily involved in the game.
Ian played for Eastern Province and Border as a left-arm spinner of fair pace and was a capable lowerorder left-handed batsman – good enough to score five centuries in first-class matches – and he captained Border for a number of seasons with some excellent results. Altogether he played in 119 firstclass and 124 limited-overs games.
On his first-class debut for Eastern Province B against Border in 1981, he registered a first-class century (112), and returned figures of 4/22 and 1/25, a most promising start to his career.
Howell enjoyed a long innings: he played first-class cricket for 17 years, scoring 3 767 runs and taking 243 wickets, and immediately after retiring he took up umpiring.
As an experienced cricketer, Howell was fast-tracked and made his debut as an umpire in 1999, a year after his last first-class match.
A year after that came his Test