Rudi Koertzen reflects on his umpiring career

On this week's ICC Cricket World audio show Rudi Koertzen talks about his recent decision to retire from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires after 18 years of umpiring at the highest level.

'I just woke up one morning and realised that I was ready to stop umpiring and travelling and spend time at home with my wife and kids.

'I'm still very passionate about the game and I hope that I can somehow continue to work in umpiring, perhaps working with Cricket South Africa to bring young umpires through the system," says the 61-year-old South African from Knysna.

'I've enjoyed umpiring all over the world and one of my favourite people to officiate with was the late David Shepherd. Of the current panel, I particularly enjoy standing with Steve Davis. Steve is a great umpire and a really nice man to be with on and off the field," says Koertzen who upon retirement in July will have officiated in 108 Tests, a record 209 ODIs and 14 T20Is.

The show can be used in whole or part by radio stations that want cricket content, while the public can also download it straight from the ICC website at http://www.icc-cricket.com/media_interactive_zone/podcast.php.

Also on this week's show, Kenya captain Maurice Ouma talks about his side's prospects and preparations ahead of the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 tournament in the Netherlands.

'This tournament is very important to us as a cricketing nation and also to Kenya as a whole as we rarely get such a great opportunity in the 50-over format ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup.

'We haven't had too many opportunities to train together since we played the Netherlands and beat them in the Intercontinental Cup in February. We're very much looking forward to next month's tournament especially since we enjoy playing in it.

'We won the inaugural Division One tournament in 2007 when it was hosted in Kenya, so hopefully we can repeat that," says Ouma.

Apart from the above interviews, the show has the usual round up of cricketing news and an update of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test and ODI cricket.

The weekly ICC Cricket World audio show runs for 15 minutes and has been put together by the ICC's global broadcast partner ESPN STAR Sports.