I Know Bad Words in Seven Different Languages: Simon Taufel Recalls When Munaf Patel Abused Owais Shah

It is the duty of the standing umpires to make sure that the game is always played in the right spirit. In fact, we have seen many instances when the situation has gone out of control between the two opposition players. Former Australian umpire Simon Taufel recalled an incident when the ex-Indian bowler Munaf Patel abused English batsman Owais Shah.

The incident happened in a Test match between India and England which was played at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in 2006. Munaf Patel went on to abuse Owais Shah as he exchanged a heated argument with the batsman.

Taufel was one of the best umpires.

Patel must have thought that he would get away with the swearing as the standing umpire was Simon Taufel. However, Simon Taufel told Patel that he knows Hindi and he should be careful about his behaviour.

Meanwhile, Taufel was invited as a speaker at the Annual Entrepreneurship Summit at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology.

“What did Munaf say?” Taufel asked a student after showing him the incident between Patel and Shah. “Maybe a few bad words,” replied the student. “Which bad words?” Taufel responded. In fact, even before the student could respond back, Taulfel himself went on to say “Munaf said ‘Saala ch***a’ to Shah,” as quoted by Times of India.

Taufel believes it is crucial to have a strong foundation in everyone career. The umpire said that the knowledge about different languages helped in his career.

“One of the things I learned as a cricket umpire was I got to know good words in local language. Now, I know bad words in seven different languages. It helped me a lot in dealing with on-field incidents. Same applies to your (students’) career. You got to have your foundation strong,” he advised the students.

Simon Taufel was regarded as the best umpires in the world. He stood in 74 Test matches, 104 ODIs and 34 T20Is between 1999 to 2012. He won ICC Umpire of the Year award for five successive years between 2004 to 2008.