John Holder

John Wakefield Holder (born 19 March 1945) is a Barbadian-born English former first-class cricketer and international cricket umpire. Holder was born in Saint George, Barbados. After completing his education, he emigrated to England in search of work with London Transport. After impressing in club cricket in London, Holder began playing county cricket for Hampshire as a fast-medium bowler, in a first-class county career that lasted from 1968 to 1972. Injury forced Holder to retire from professional cricket, though he later returned to play professionally in the Lancashire League and for Western Province in South Africa. After the conclusion of his playing career, Holder became an umpire at the domestic and international levels. He would stand as an umpire in both Test and One Day International cricket from 1988 to 2001. Holder retired from umpiring in 2009, having stood in over 400 first-class and List A one-day matches apiece. , he remained the only non-white English umpire in nearly 150 years of Test cricket.

Early life

The fifth of six children, Holder was born on 19 March 1945 in the community of Superlative in the parish of Saint George, Barbados. As a child he would often help his father, who was a lorry driver, load sugarcane onto his lorry during the harvest season for transportation to sugar factories around the island. He and his family survived Hurricane Janet in 1955, which caused severe damage and 38 deaths across Barbados. Holder attended Combermere School from the age of eleven, he claimed five wickets in Somerset's first innings, taking 5 wickets for 96 runs. Though his selection continued after his debut, Holder took advice during the season to modify his bowling action, which had the effect of reducing his accuracy; as a result, he reduced his pace and became less effective. He was dropped from the Hampshire side at the end of July and did not play again until the end of August. He made seven first-class appearances in 1968, The following season, he featured in just five first-class matches, With the retirement of Shackleton in 1969, Holder was presented with more playing opportunities. He had his most successful season in 1970, taking 55 first-class wickets at an average of 23.27, Following the end of the 1972 season, he returned to Barbados to take part in the Test trials for the representative West Indian team, which county-based West Indian cricketers had been invited to (amongst them were his Hampshire teammate Gordon Greenidge) by the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. However, before he could attend the trials, his longstanding back injury relapsed. This led to the realisation that his full-time professional career as a cricketer was over. With the bat, he scored 374 runs at a batting average of 10.68, with a highest score of 33. In 40 one-day matches, he took 46 wickets at an average of 26.36, with best figures of 3 for 18. He was often utilised by Hampshire as a fourth-change bowler, and throughout his career he was noted for his non-repetitive bowling action, which sometimes affected his consistency and accuracy.

Despite retiring from the first-class game, Holder was persuaded by a friend in Lancashire to join Rawtenstall Cricket Club in the Lancashire League as their professional. In the winter months, Holder would coach abroad. In the winter of 1974, he took a coaching job in South Africa, which was then under the apartheid regime; during his time coaching in the country, he was considered an "honorary white man". Holder was added to the first-class umpires list in 1983. He officiated in his first County Championship match later that season, between Leicestershire and Essex at Grace Road.

Upon his elevation to the Test panel for the 1988 season, he became the first black Englishman to be appointed to the Test and County Cricket Board Test match list. He stood in his first Test match in August 1988 at Lord's, when England played Sri Lanka; he subsequently stood in a One Day International (ODI) between the sides following the Test series. The following year, he stood in the 1st and 3rd Test's of the 1989 Ashes series. He stood in an ODI between the sides which followed the series, and later in October of the same year, stood in five ODIs in the Nehru Cup.

After standing in two Test matches in 1990, where England played both New Zealand and India, Holder umpired the 5th Test between England and the West Indies in August the following year. though rumours persisted he was dropped because it was thought he was tired and needed a rest. His removal from the umpire's panel would later form the basis of a racial discrimination claim, launched in December 2021, against the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) (the successor of the TCCB), with Holder believing his removal from the panel was racially motivated. His claim was launched alongside former cricketer Ismail Dawood, but their claim was ultimately withdrawn in June 2021. However, despite his removal from the Test panel, he continued to umpire in ODI's. During the 1993 Champions Trophy, Holder was offered £10,000 by a Pakistani betting syndicate to fix an ODI between Sri Lanka and the West Indies; Holder rejected the approach, telling the conspirators to "keep your £10,000". In total, he stood as an umpire in 421 first-class, 449 List A, and 41 Twenty20 matches. He was described as "a very strong and competent umpire" by the umpire Barrie Leadbeater. In the latter stages of his umpiring career, he was appointed by the International Cricket Council as one of five worldwide regional umpires' performance managers, responsible for monitoring and improving the performances of umpires in Europe, the Caribbean, America and Canada. During his umpiring career, Holder is credited alongside Don Oslear with the idea of a 'bowl-out' to decide a drawn match, after the 55-over 1987 Tilcon Trophy final had been washed out by rain. The organisers had ordered them to think of another way of settling the match rather than the traditional and sometimes unpopular means of the toss of a coin. This idea was subsequently adopted into all ECB limited-overs competitions. Following his retirement, he continued to umpire in the Central Lancashire Cricket League, until he quit in 2014, citing poor player behaviour as his reason.

Works and administration In 2000, Holder was consultant on the film The Laws of Cricket, 2000 Code which was shot in Barbados. The film featured an interview with Holder and Sir Garfield Sobers, and was directed by award-winning British film director Marcus Dillistone. He later co-authored the book You Are The Umpire in 2009 with the illustrator Paul Trevillion. The book was based on a comic strip that was included in the sports section of the British newspaper The Observer and bears similarities with You Are The Ref as both highlight unusual or difficult decisions that have to be made by sporting officials. In February 2016, he accepted an invitation to become the first president of the newly founded Pennine Cricket League. He was a regular contributor to the "Ask the Umpire" feature on BBC Radio's Test Match Special until August 2024.

Personal life As of 2020, Holder is still to Glenda, with the couple living in Rochdale. He has two grandsons. After retiring from cricket, Holder became active with his local Rotary International branch, serving as its president in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, he received a golden jubilee medal marking the 50th anniversary of Barbados' independence from the United Kingdom; Holder was one of fifty Barbadians recognised for making a significant difference in Anglo-Barbadian relations.