Paul Wilson (cricketer)


Paul Wilson is an Australian cricket umpire and former cricketer who played one Test and eleven One Day Internationals for the Australian national cricket team, as well as domestically representing South Australia and Western Australia.
Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Wilson moved to Adelaide to attend the Australian Cricket Academy, and went to debut for South Australia during the 1995–96 season. A solidly-built right-arm fast bowler, all of his matches at international level came during the 1997–98 season, with his single Test coming during Australia's tour of India. Wilson remained active at domestic level until the early 2000s, switching to Western Australia for the 2002–03 season. Retiring at the end of the 2003–04 season, for a time he served as the coach of the Western Fury in the Women's National Cricket League. Wilson later became an umpire, and currently sits on Cricket Australia's national umpires panel.

Playing career

Early cricket

Wilson left a trainee accountant job in Newcastle to travel to Adelaide, where he requested a place at the Australian Cricket Academy.

South Australia

He emerged late in 1993–94 to make his debut for South Australia. He played 51 first-class games in all, taking 151 wickets at a healthy average of 30.77.

Western Australia

In 2002 he moved to Western Australia where has contracted by the Western Warriors. He played two seasons for the Warriors, retiring at the end of the 2003–2004 season.

International cricket

After a stint in the 'A' side, Wilson was promoted to the Australian side. He played one Test Match, against India, in Kolkata, India, in March 1998, but had the unfortunate record of having scored neither a run, nor taken a wicket, after he limped off injured in the early stages of the game. He did not represent Australia again. Before that, he had a short spell as a bowler in the ODI team, playing in 11 games, all in the 1997–98 Australian season.

Coaching

After retiring he served as Western Fury coach.

Umpiring

Wilson is currently an umpire on the Cricket Australia Project Umpire's Panel. He stood in two Twenty20 International games in 2014. He stood in his first One Day International match on 8 November 2014 between Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea in Australia.
In January 2018, he was named as one of the seventeen on-field umpires for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. In April 2019, he was named as one of the sixteen umpires to stand in matches during the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
In September 2019, in the one-off match between Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Wilson stood in his first Test match.