South African referee Rudi Koertzen died in a crash on Tuesday. He was 73 years old.
He was on his way home from Cape Town after a weekend of golf. “He was in a golf tournament with some of his friends and they were expected to return on Monday, but it looks like they’ve decided to play another round of golf,” said his son Rudi Koertzen. Jr told Algoa FM News.
Koertzen became a referee in 1981 and began his first international match in 1992, when India toured South Africa. At 43, he stood his First Test in Port Elizabeth. This was the first series in which televised replays were used for first-pass evaluation.
In 1997, he was appointed full-time referee of the International Cricket Council (ICC). In 2002, he became a member of the elite panel and eventually became the second referee in history, after Steve Bucknor, to run over 200 ODIs and 100 Tests.
In the 2003 and 2007 World Cup finals, he was the third referee. In 2010, Koertzen retired from international competition after a test match between Australia and Pakistan.
The South African players decided to wear black armbands against the British Lions on Tuesday in honor of Koertzen.
