Russell Tiffin Cricketer
Russell Blair Tiffin (born 4 June 1959) is a current international cricket umpire, and a former Test cricket umpire. He has been a member of the ICC International umpire panel since 1995. He became a member of the ICC Elite Panel in April 2001, but was demoted in February 2004 along with Asoka de Silva and Dave Orchard. He officiated in 38 Test matches, the most for any Zimbabwean umpire. He continues to be a regular umpire in One Day Internationals. He has officiated in over 100 ODI's, making him one of the most capped umpires in world cricket. In December 2007 he stood in his 39th Test match, after a 3 year lay-off from umpiring Tests. Tiffin was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia. His family were farmers in the Tengwe area in the north of the country. Tiffin was educated at Banket Primary School and Prince Edward High School in Harare, where he became a wicketkeeper-batsman. After three years of military service, he played for Mashonaland in the days before Zimbabwean provincial cricket had first-class status, while working as a manager for Castrol Zimbabwe. He became an umpire in 1986, but continued with his day job until May 2002, when he became a full-time umpire. From the spring of 2008, he became one of the umpires for the newly formed Indian Premier League including being based in Chennai India in May 2008.