Umpire Brad White is standing in his 150th first-class match in a 4-Day Domestic Series encounter between Western Province and the Central Gauteng Lions at Newlands.

He is the third South African umpire since re-admission to reach this milestone with only Murray Brown (153) and Rudi Koertzen (220) having umpired more first-class matches.

The unassuming White has a strong cricket background.

As a left-handed opening batsman and medium-pace bowler, he played for SA Schools in 1988 and SA U21 in 1989 and 1990.

White went on to play 78 first-class matches, representing Transvaal from 1988 to 1995, Border from 1996 to 1999, and Easterns in 2000.

And the journey didn’t end there.

“I started umpiring in 2001,” said White. “I called the Gauteng umpires’ association to find out about becoming an umpire and spoke to Robbie Lee, who played a big part in me progressing in umpiring. I stood two years of club cricket in Gauteng and won Umpire of the Year in 2002-03 season for Gauteng umpires.

“In 2003, I was selected onto the emerging panel for CSA. I was on the B panel for five years and then promoted onto the A panel in 2008-09 season.”

White participated in the exchange programme to New Zealand, Australia, and India. He also stood in the 2020-21 domestic five-day tournament final.

“I would like to thank my wife Nicky, daughters Jenna and Chelsea for their support, CSA, Obakeng Sepeng [CSA’s national match officials manager] and my colleagues for reaching this milestone,” he added.