Lou Rowan

Louis Patrick "Lou" Rowan (2 May 1925 – 3 February 2017) was an Australian Test cricket match umpire and umpired the first One Day International at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 January 1971. He umpired 25 Test matches between 1963 and 1971 and became Australia's senior umpire after the retirement of Col Egar. As a Detective Sergeant with the Queensland drug squad, Rowan took no nonsense and was inclined to stand on his authority. His first match was with Umpire Bill Smyth between Australian and England at Sydney on 11 January to 15 January 1963.

Rowan umpired six of seven Test matches in the acrimonious 1970–71 Ashes series, but was heavily criticised by Ray Illingworth, Geoff Boycott and John Snow. After the series Boycott and Snow were called to a disciplinary hearing at Lord's over their behaviour, and Illingworth and Snow never toured again. In six full Tests no Australian batsman was given out lbw in the series, which in the minds of the England players was clear evidence of umpiring bias. It must be remembered that at the time umpires had no recourse to slow motion replays and had to make decisions based on what they saw in a split second, with the benefit of the doubt always going to the batsman.

In the First Test Keith Stackpole should have been run out for 18 as Geoff Boycott threw down the wicket at the bowler's end, but Rowan gave the batsman the benefit of the doubt. The Australian papers carried photographs the next day showing that Stackpole was clearly out and labelled the decision "one of the worst in cricket history". Stackpole went on to make 207 – his highest Test score. Rowan's refusal to accept that his decision was wrong gave the England players grave doubts as to his ability and led them to question his judgements for the remainder of the series.