David Shepherd hopping up and down with the score on a Nelson

London: ‘Dancing’ umpire David Shepherd will take charge of his final international match on Tuesday when England host Australia in the decider of their three-match one-day International series at The Oval.

The 64-year-old, a highly popular and respected figure, has officiated in 92 Tests, the first in 1985 and the last between the West Indies and Pakistan in Jamaica last month. Tuesday will be his 172nd one-dayer.

“It’s very difficult to walk away. Cricket has been all my life, really. Ever since I was a nipper I wanted to play cricket for a living. You can’t call it work really,” he said at The Oval on Monday.

A former county batsman with Gloucestershire, Shepherd was selected to stand in the World Cup finals in 1996, 1999 and 2003.

“(Shane) Warne is the best spinner I have ever seen. I think Wasim Akram was the best left-armer I ever saw. He made the ball talk. The best cricket I ever saw was Warne bowling to Sachin Tendulkar in India. It was a wonderful contest.”

Shepherd is almost as well known for his dance whenever the score reaches 111, or any multiple of that score. “It started as a kid, back in club cricket. Load of nonsense, really, isn’t it? When I played county cricket I used to do a little skip but nobody ever noticed.

“But in my second Test at Edgbaston in 1985 somebody wrote in to the commentators and said: ‘Watch this idiot when the score gets to 111. The commentators told the world and then I was lumbered with it,” Shepherd pointed out.

The ICC were willing to make an exception to their own rule of neutral umpires to allow Shepherd to end his career by umpiring in the first Ashes Test at Lord’s. Shepherd turned down the offer.