Billy Bowden dropped from NZ's international umpiring panel

Umpire Brent ‘Billy’ Bowden may have stood in his last international cricket match.

New Zealand's best-known and most highly-rated umpire was axed from New Zealand Cricket's international panel after standing in 84 Tests and 200 One-day internationals during a 21-year career.

The 53-year-old Aucklander amused cricket fans with his eccentric signals, especially the crooked finger with which he indicated dismissals.

Bowden, who insists he can’t extend the finger because of arthritis, was dropped from the International Cricket Council's elite panel in 2013, but returned in 2014 only to be axed again after umpiring the West Indies-England Test in Barbados in May 2015.

Bowden umpired his 200th one-day international when New Zealand played Australia in Wellington in February.

Image: Billy Bowden

Photograph: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images