Stumps called for umpire Quested

New Zealand Cricket have called "over and time" on Dave Quested's distinguished umpiring career.

A veteran of over 100 first-class matches, as well as five tests and 31 one-day internationals, Quested was told that, at 64, he was too old to stand again this summer.

"It was inevitable, I guess. It can't last forever," Quested said yesterday.

"I was still coping and it certainly wasn't [due to] a lack of form or making poor decisions. I was still up with the rest of the bunch. But they [NZC] have got to try and promote some of the younger ones, so I was comfortable with it.

Last year he was taken off the elite panel and put on the A panel. He will no longer stand in games but continur to coach umpires.

But, having had 20 years at first-class level, Quested was not about to complain. He singled out his test debut, in 1995, as a highlight and said it was a privilege to have umpired players such as Martin Crowe, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

Technology has brought vast change during Quested's time in the middle.

"The players wanted it to start with and they got the run-outs and all that. And then when it was decided to take it a bit further, they suddenly said `no, we don't want it' and the reason is quite simple.

"When the run-outs and that came in, they were out more often than they had been with the human eye. Now that it [technology] has been expanded even further, they're out more often again.

"I think they're better to have had the umpire there making the odd mistake."

Quested admits to a few in his time, with the memory of one during a one-day international at McLean Park between New Zealand and South Africa still causing him to wince occasionally.

"[Nathan] Astle was bowling to one of the South Africans and [Adam] Parore was standing up and, at the vital moment the ball went past the bat, I can only put it down to the fact I blinked, because I never saw it and there was no sound.

"When I saw it on the TV I thought `how the hell did I miss that?' because there was quite a bit of deviation from bat to glove."

- © Fairfax NZ News