New Zealand's longest-serving international umpire Steve Dunne will become the first umpire in the world to stand in 100 One-Day Internationals when walking out for the National Bank Series decider between New Zealand and England in Dunedin tomorrow.

Dunne was unavailable to discuss his career yesterday, as he wanted to prepare for the game without any distraction. But before he ended the call he did acknowledge that he was unaware of the fact that he will be the first to achieve the milestone.

The top 10 list of most appearances in ODIs by umpires reads: Steve Dunne (NZ) 99, David Shepherd (England) 97, Steve Randell (Australia) 88, Tony Crafter (Australia) 84, Steve Bucknor (West Indies) 83, Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe) 82, Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) 77, David Orchard (South Africa) 77, Darrell Hair (Australia) 74, Dickie Bird (England) 70.

The top five New Zealand ODI umpiring list is: Dunne 99, Doug Cowie 63, Brian Aldridge 45, Steve Woodward 30, Dave Quested 30.

It started for Dunne back in the summer of 1988/89 when he stood in his first One-Day International, on the same Carisbrook ground he had graced during his playing career for Otago. New Zealand were playing Pakistan and the most notable feature of the game was that it was a replacement match for the first Test of the series that had been abandoned without a ball being bowled.

New Zealand won a low scoring game.

His list of appointments was slowed by the fact that he was not on New Zealand's list of World Cup umpires in 1992, as Aldridge and Woodward were the preferred umpires. However, he was on the panel for the 1996 and 1999 World Cups.

His first overseas appointments under the independent umpires scheme was at Sharjah in 1995/96 for a series involving Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies.

Forty-six of his games have been in New Zealand, 24 in Sharjah, eight each in India and Canada, five in England, three each in Pakistan and Bangladesh and two in Sri Lanka.

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