Richard Kettleborough will become England’s most capped on-field Test umpire when he stands in the second Test between West Indies and Australia in Grenada.
Sheffield-born Kettleborough, whose Test career began in Galle 15 years ago, will umpire his 93rd on-field Test and in doing so overtake his original mentor David Shepherd.
“It’s a big honour,” Kettleborough told ecb.co.uk.
“I honestly never imagined it would happen, but I’m very proud of my achievements. To overtake the late, great David Shepherd – who was one of my idols growing up – is something I’m very proud of.
“I actually stood with ‘Shep’ in a County Championship game in 2005 at Scarborough. That was a great experience.
“I’d only been on the list for three years, but when I first started with the ECB in 2002, I was very lucky to have a lot of help from guys like David Shepherd, John Hampshire, Mervyn Kitchen, Peter Willey and Neil Mallender.
“All those guys were a great help to me, and continued to be so in the years that followed.”
Only three men – Aleem Dar, Rudi Koertzen, and Steve Bucknor – have reached a century of on-field Test matches and Kettleborough is within touching distance.
“I’ve always seen Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game - so getting to 100 on-field Test matches would be the ultimate achievement,” he added.
The 52-year-old has a first-class century to his name during a playing career at Yorkshire and Middlesex before he moved into umpiring. He was the youngest member of the ICC’s Elite Panel when he was first appointed to it in 2011 and won the ICC’s Umpire of the Year award two years later.
Kettleborough revealed he retains the same principals as when he started umpiring 25 years ago – with a string of Yorkshire Second XI and Academy matches – as the keys to his longevity and success.
“A lot of umpiring is about rhythm and routines,” he said.
“Every game we do – every session of play, whether it’s a County Championship match or a Test match – is a challenge.
“You never quite know what’s going to happen, either on the field or with the pitch conditions or the weather, so you’ve got to be on your toes the whole time. The concentration levels have to be there, day in, day out.”
He added: “Before a Test match, I always spend 30 minutes to an hour standing in the nets, just to get used to the surroundings, maybe the pitch conditions, the heat.
“It’s also a chance to watch any new bowlers you haven’t seen before, to introduce yourself and to start building a relationship with the players. That stuff really matters."
His approach has certainly paid dividends.
Kettleborough’s Test career started in Galle in November 2010, overseeing a fixture made famous by Chris Gayle’s 333.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Nobody can ever take this away from me now. I’m a Test match umpire,” he said.
Since then, he’s been involved in 11 World Cup finals and is now recognised as one of the sport’s finest ever officials.
“The most pressure I’ve ever felt as an umpire was the pressure I put on myself to perform, to be consistent, and to be solid,” he said.
“Shep always told me ‘If you can look yourself in the mirror at the end of a day’s play and say you gave honest decisions based on what you saw, then you should sleep well’.
“And I can honestly say I’ve done that every single day of my career.”