Graham Cowan, is Northland's most experienced current cricket umpire. He is the also the chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Umpires Association, a four-person board that meets twice yearly to regulate cricket umpiring nationwide. "The association is responsible for assessing and educating umpires with a view for the future of (filling)the national panels," he said. There is a national panel of 10 umpires and an "A" panel of 12 or 13 members, who are contracted to New Zealand Cricket. Cowen has always loved cricket and used to play in the morning for his Auckland Grammar team and then in the afternoon for the Parnell Club. But when he left Auckland in 1967, he made a tough decision. "When I went to the West Coast during my banking days, I decided I wasn't ever going to get anywhere as a player and began umpiring. "I ended up being the umpire, selector and treasurer of the West Coast Cricket Association and at the first ever representative match between Buller and West Coast a world record was set. "One player took eight catches in the field in one innings, he was at slip, he was at point, at mid-off, wherever he was the ball was hit to him in the air and he caught it." Cowan was a first class umpire for more than 20 years and officiated in five one-day internationals as well. "My first one-day international was between New Zealand and Pakistan in 1989 and I umpired four more after that ... it's a big step up from umpiring at a national level, there's a lot more pressure involved."
