Arno Jacobs, St George's Park and a Test debut years in the making
After 152 matches at St George's Park, Arno Jacobs found himself in the middle for a Test against Australia, in a turn of events few could have anticipated
Arno Jacobs and St George’s Park go back. He first played there in a List A game for North West in October 1997. Six Octobers later he had moved from Potchefstroom to what is now called Gqeberha, and was in Eastern Province’s dressing room for a home four-day fixture against Boland. His last match there was also in whites, for the Warriors against the Lions in February 2013.
Jacobs played first-class cricket on 28 grounds in South Africa, England, Ireland and Scotland. Nowhere else did he earn as many caps in the format as the 30 he won at St George’s Park, the home of South African cricket, or the country’s oldest Test ground. He also appeared in 32 List A games and 14 T20s there.
And, before October 18 this year, stood as an umpire in 45 matches of all shapes and sizes. And served as the television official in 17 others. And as the fourth - or reserve - umpire in 14 more. That adds up to 152 matches of experience at St George’s Park.
“Knowledge of the playing surface helps,” Jacobs told Cricbuzz. “It’s also about being comfortable in the environment; knowing your surroundings, knowing the groundsman, knowing the staff who work there. That goes a long way to making you feel more at ease.”
Jacobs’ long and intimate relationship with St George’s Park was never more important than in the second Test between South Africa and Australia in Gqeberha last month.
Richard Illingworth and Chris Gaffaney were appointed to stand in the match with Richard Kettleborough in control of the gizmos and Jacobs the fourth umpire. But Gaffaney took ill on the first morning. Normally in that situation the television umpire replaces the on-field official and the fourth umpire takes over the electronic bells and whistles. That didn’t happen in this instance. Instead Kettleborough stayed where he was and Jacobs took the field for the first time in a Test. Even though he is South African. Why?
Social media said Jacobs was sent on because he had never served as a television official. That’s not true. He fulfilled that role in two first-class matches, eight List A affairs and 44 T20s. Four of the latter were internationals and 21 of them franchise games. So Jacobs knows his way around the gizmos. Yet there he was, on the field …
“It’s happened before that they’ve taken the TV guy to on-field and the fourth umpire to TV, and it’s created an issue because the fourth umpire might not be as experienced as the original TV guy,” Jacobs said. “The TV role can be tricky. There’s a lot you need to keep an eye on, and you need to communicate on air with the TV director. It can be an overwhelming thing to get your head around.
“And, you know, for umpires our home is in the middle. That’s what we’re used to. If they had asked me to do TV that would have been fine. But I think I was more comfortable going out to the middle.”
Indeed, Simon Taufel has argued for a complete separation between on-field and television umpires - that those jobs are starkly different and that umpires should be trained in either field, not both.
“The TV role could become a specialist function. I can definitely see that happening in future. Especially for the longer formats. In T20s sometimes not much happens from a third umpire’s perspective. You play on a flat track so you don’t have many referrals. You’re basically timekeeping. A Test match can be much more involved with a lot of decisions to make and a lot of timekeeping to take care of.”
All good. But neutrality is central to the modern idea of international umpiring. What did the Australians make of a South African being thrust into their midst? Especially as, in Jacobs’ last match at St George’s Park, Simon Harmer and Ashwell Prince were also part of the Warriors XI and the Lions’ included Temba Bavuma.
“I understand there was a bit of pushback initially,” Jacobs said. “But it’s not to my benefit to give the South Africans an advantage. I mean, I’m trying to further my own career. If you think of it from the perspective of ‘this guy’s just trying to make his way’, [bias] couldn’t be an issue.
“On the field the Aussies were very good. They were very respectful. Pat Cummins is a good guy to work with. He’s not difficult.”
There’s another side to this coin. Might Jacobs have been stricter on his compatriots to ward off suggestions that he saw things from South Africa’s perspective?
“It is a thought at the back of your mind; that you don’t want to be seen as favouring one side and so you almost go the other way. But you make a decision based on how you see a situation play out in front of you, and DRS is there to assist if you do make mistakes. I just try and make the best decision I can. And whatever happens from there happens.”
Jacobs was also appointed the fourth umpire for a Test against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park in December 2024. He started and finished the match in that capacity. The Australia Test was different. Did it feel different?
“I didn’t really have time to process it properly. It was a case of, ‘Get on the field, go and do your thing.’ There wasn’t much thought that, geez, this is a big thing. But it was great, and to do it at home was fantastic.”
How much notice was Jacobs given of the dramatic change of his job description?
“The match referee [Javagal Srinath] phoned me at about half-past-seven on the first morning. I had just got out of the shower. He said, ‘Listen, one of the on-field guys has taken ill. You need to take his spot. And can you please also find a fourth umpire?’ I arranged a fourth umpire, and then I started getting myself mentally ready to go out in the middle.”
That fourth umpire was Dan van der Merwe, who has been shot in this movie before. Gaffaney was also appointed, with Kumar Dharmasena, to stand in the match between the same teams at St George’s Park in March 2018. That time Gaffaney made it through the first day but could not take the field the next morning due to illness. S Ravi, the television official, replaced Gaffaney; Bongani Jele, the fourth umpire, stepped into the DRS booth; Van der Merwe was hastily recruited as the new fourth umpire.
Last month, rain and a wet outfield limited play on the first two days to 43 overs. Gaffaney felt recovered enough to take the field the next day.
“I could see he was there in body, but he didn’t look great to me,” Jacobs said. “So I prepared myself for the eventuality that I might go back onto the field. During lunch, when I went out to supervise the marking of the creases and the sweeping of the pitch, I was called back in and told to ready myself to go back onto the field.”
That happened in the fourth over of the third session. Jacobs stayed on the park until the end of the game.
“The match referee, along with the people at the ICC office, decided to keep me as the on-field umpire for the rest of the match for continuity. I think it made sense rather than have somebody else come on or have Chris come back on, and then he doesn’t feel well and he has to go off again.”
Jacobs didn’t stick out. He got on with things without putting on a show: the ultimate compliment any umpire can hope to be paid. Three of his decisions were referred upstairs. Two of them - one each in favour of South Africa and Australia - were returned unchanged. The odd call out came in the 10th over of Australia’s first innings, when Jacobs determined Travis Head couldn’t be out LBW to Marco Jansen because he had hit the ball. Head had indeed hit the ball; a nanosecond after it had hit his pad. It wasn’t difficult to see why Jacobs had ruled as he did.
“I’m pleased with how it went,” he said. “I felt nervous at the start but I became comfortable quite quickly.”
That didn’t mean he wasn’t challenged: “The intensity is so different compared to provincial level, where sometimes there’ll be a lull. With this there’s no off period. So you constantly feel like you’re in the game. The nature of the pitch was that there was something for the bowler all the time. That also contributed to that. It was a great experience. I loved it.”
Cricket, it seems, has loved Jacobs back. As a left-handed middle order batter he scored 17 centuries and 48 50s and averaged 38.08 at first-class level. He was a top order dasher in T20s. Most of his bowling was off-spin, but he also traded in seam. When he wasn’t busy with that he kept wicket. These days, when he isn’t umpiring, he’s coaching.
Mr Cricket’s older brother was the notable seam-bowling allrounder Stefan Jacobs. His father, Fanie Jacobs, was a cricket administrator. His mother, Petro Jacobs, was a scorer.
Jacobs was able to move from playing to umpiring for a living as part of the small group of officials CSA have, since the late 1990s, kept on a 12-month retainer. It helps that his wife, Chantal Jacobs, has built a solid career in the fruit exporting industry.
“I’ve never worked an actual job in my life, like a real person,” Jacobs said. He might not have avoided that sad fate. After he graduated from Potchefstroom University with a degree in financial accounting he thought he might try to get away from all that by starting a telecommunications business.
“It fell flat. I learnt hard lessons about people and myself and business. I had a long hard think about what I knew anything about, and cricket was the obvious answer. So I found my way back there.
“Cricket was always my destiny, I guess. It’s in my blood. I don’t see a day where it will not be part of my life.”
It’s just as difficult to imagine Jacobs not being on a cricket ground somewhere. They won’t all be St George’s Park, but all of them will be improved by his presence and professionalism. And his unpretentiousness.
“Thanks for your interest in a boring Dutchman from Potch who moved to GQ,” was how Jacobs said goodbye. He’s a lot more than that. Cricket - including Test cricket - is lucky to have him.
