Dominica in the Caribbean is lush with deeply green mountains, winding hiking trails, plungeworthy diving spots and, the tourism people say, 365 rivers. It’ s the kind of place Marais Erasmus relished travelling to during his more than 17 years as an international cricket umpire. But, in July 2023, during the West Indies men’ s Test series against India, he didn’ t want to be there.
“ I was nearing 60, and I wanted to leave when I was still good enough; I didn’ t want to hang on,” Erasmus says in a forthcoming book, details of which are below.“ But the biggest motivation was that I wasn’ t enjoying the time between games anymore. You go to the museums, you go to the musicals, you go to the markets, especially in India. We did all of those things.
“ But I was sitting in this luxurious resort, which is a long drive from the capital [ Roseau ], which offers you nothing to do. I thought to myself,‘ Enough.’”
So he contacted the International Cricket Council( ICC) and told them he was done. It took almost another year until he reached the end of his time at the top in a men’ s Test between New Zealand and Australia in Christchurch in March 2024. After that, Erasmus’ unmistakable figure was still seen in franchise tournaments like the SA20. But, on March 21 this year, he was on the field one last time in a men’ s One-Day Cup match between Boland and the Lions in Paarl— his home ground as an aggressive seambowling Boland allrounder all those years ago.
Now 62 and living in Hermanus, the former primary school deputy headmaster’ s days are filled with time spent with his wife Adèle and their twin sons, Chris and Geo. There’ s also travel at last not dictated by the cricket calendar, adventures in fine food and wine, public speaking, and more golf than you could shake a putter at. All that’ s missing is the cricket.
Even an umpire as illustrious as Erasmus can have his fill of the game. He was the finest of his era, good enough to win the David Shepherd Trophy, which the ICC awards annually to the world’ s best umpire, in 2016, 2017 and 2021.
Marais and his wife Adèle on their travels.
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Only Simon Taufel and Richard Illingworth, who won the prize five and four times, have earned the accolade more often.
Erasmus stood in 82 Tests, 124 one-day internationals and 43 T20 internationals( T20I) in men’ s cricket, and in 18 women’ s T20Is. He was the television official in 131 other men’ s internationals across the formats.
He was involved in the men’ s ODI World Cup in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023. He reached the quarterfinals in the first two and was the television umpire in 2023. In 2019 he stood in the final at Lord’ s and was thus central to maybe the most dramatic ODI yet played.
England were declared winners over New Zealand by what commentator Ian Smith described on air as“ the barest of margins”. The scores were locked level at the end of both innings as well as after the super over that followed. That meant the teams had to be separated by a boundary count. So England were handed the trophy because they had hit more fours than New Zealand.
It wasn’ t until hours afterwards that it was discovered the officials— all four umpires and the match referee— had allowed an error to go uncorrected. England were awarded six runs after the ball, thrown from the outfield by Martin Guptill, struck batter Ben Stokes on the forearm and rolled away for four. But, because Stokes and his batting partner, Adil Rashid, had not crossed for the second run when Guptill unleashed his throw, only five runs should have been added. New Zealand should have won by one run. A super over wasn’ t required.
“ Mistakes are part of the game, but being a World Cup final made it different,” Erasmus says in the book.“ So I was disappointed that it happened. But being the first South African to stand in a World Cup final outweighed that. I always tried not to overthink things or dwell too much on matters that I couldn’ t control.”
Indeed. Erasmus was not simply an umpire who made the correct decision exponentially more often than not. He walked onto the field exuding the gravitas and confidence that told you the match you were about to watch was in good hands. He was never far from a smile, and he could handle even the most volatile players with ease. He looked human out there.
Erasmus was the cricket person’ s kind of cricket person: reliable and understated. He was excellence in a wide-brimmed hat. www. modernathlete. co. za 17