Rex Vernon Whitehead (26 October 1948 – 26 June 2014) was an Australian Test cricket match umpire, from

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. He umpired 4

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

between 1981 and 1982. His first match was between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

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on 2 January to 4 January 1981, won by Australia by an innings and 4 runs, with

Greg Chappell Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminent ...

scoring 204 and

Dennis Lillee Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is a retired Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

and

Len Pascoe Leonard Stephen Pascoe (born Leonard Stephen Durtanovich, 13 February 1950) is a former Australian Test and One Day International cricketer. Born at Bridgetown, Western Australia, Pascoe was educated at Punchbowl Boys' High School in New Sout ...

taking 13 wickets. Whitehead's partner was Mel Johnson. Whitehead stood in all three Test matches in that series against India. In the third match, at

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, India won by 59 runs, in spite of nearly forfeiting the match. Whitehead gave the Indian captain

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...

out LBW at a critical point in the match, but the batsman indicated he had edged the ball and reluctantly started to leave the field. Gavaskar urged his partner

Chetan Chauhan Chetan Pratap Singh Chauhan (; 21 July 1947 – 16 August 2020) was a cricketer who played 40 Test matches for India. He played Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra and Delhi. Chauhan played most of his international cricket in the late 1970s and was ...

to follow him. The Indian team manager intervened before Chauhan had left the field, ordering him to continue, and the match resumed. ''Wisden'' (1982 ed.) described the event as “a dreadful scene”, saying that “such a bizarre incident … brought controversy over the umpiring to a head”. Gavaskar later claimed he ordered Chauhan to join him in leaving the field in response to abusive remarks made by Lillee. Whitehead's last Test match was between Australia and

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at Melbourne on 26 December to 30 December 1982, a remarkable match won by England by 3 runs only after a valiant 10th wicket partnership of 70 runs between

Allan Border Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the Captain (cricket), captain of the Australia national cricket team, Australian team, and l ...

and

Jeff Thomson Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Perth ...

was ended by a juggled catch. Whitehead's colleague was

Tony Crafter Anthony Ronald (Tony) Crafter, (born 5 December 1940 in Mount Barker, South Australia), is a former Australian Test cricket match umpire. He umpired 33 Test matches between 1979 and 1992, the highest number by an Australian umpire to that ti ...

. Whitehead umpired 14

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) matches between 1979 and 1983. In 1979, he umpired one women's Test match. Altogether, he umpired 15 first-class matches in his career between 1979 and 1983.

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Rex Whitehead passes away aged 65.
1948 births 2014 deaths Australian Test cricket umpires Australian One Day International cricket umpires {{Australia-cricket-bio-1940s-stub

See also

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