Sunday 23 October marked a special day for Australia’s Murray Grime, who became only the fifth person in the history of the sport to umpire 200 senior international matches.
Murray joins legendary officials Alain Renaud (France - 1991), Santi Deo (Spain - 1995), Marelize de Klerk (South Africa - 2011) and John Wright (South Africa - 2016) in the 200 club.
Murray reached his landmark on the fourth day of action at the QNET Men’s Asian Champions Trophy, currently taking place in Kuantan, Malaysia, when he took charge of one of the most famous fixtures in world hockey - India versus Pakistan.
Ahead of the match, he was honoured in a special presentation by Asian Hockey Federation CEO Tayyab Ikram and Ged Curran, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) appointed Umpires Manager at the event.
Murray began his stellar international umpiring career on 3 November 1994 before being promoted to International Grade 1 in 1997 and to the elite FIH World Panel in 1999. In 2005, Murray was awarded his Golden Whistle for umpiring 100 senior international matches, a figure that he has now doubled.
Over the past two decades, Murray has umpired at four Olympic Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016), two Hockey World Cups (Kuala Lumpur 2002 and Mönchengladbach 2006) and six Hockey Champions Trophies (Madras 1996, Adelaide 1997, Lahore 1998, Brisbane 1999, Rotterdam 2001 and Auckland 2011).
Speaking about his achievement, Murray said: "I’ve been an umpire for 23 years and this is an amazing milestone. Doing something that only four people have ever achieved before is very special. When I think back to my first international in 1993 in Malaysia I never realised it would play such a big part in my life. Having said that I always felt I was good enough to be one of the best. But I knew I would have to work had at it. I have always set very high standards for myself in everything I do and umpiring was no different.”
"As I said, being only the fifth is special”, continued Murray. "When I started out, I was just 23, and I looked up to Alain and Santi as role models. In my early years they helped with advice and guidance. Santi, Alain, John and Marelize are legends amongst us umpires and to join that amazing group is more than I could have ever believed possible. I’m very proud of my achievement and hugely grateful to the FIH for all the opportunities umpiring has given me.”
On behalf of the hockey family, the FIH would like to say congratulations to Murray on his monumental achievement.
This milestone encompasses one of the FIH's 10-year Hockey Revolution's strategies Big Goals. With an aim of making hockey a global game that inspires the next generation, one of the ambitions set out in this strategy is to increase the degree of professionalism across the sport. Committed officials like Murray are a great example of this ambition being realised. For more information about the hockey revolution, click here.
