Career
As a player he played first-class cricket for Border and Eastern Province in South Africa. A left-hand batsman and a left-arm medium bowler he played 119 first-class games scoring 3767 runs with 5 hundreds and 13 fifties and a batting average of 26.90. His top score was 115 not out.
He took 243 first-class wickets with 5 five-wicket hauls with a best of 6/38 and a bowling average of 35.74.
He is eligible to officiate in ODI"s in South Africa as the home umpire, and as the television umpire in Test matches. In December 2006 he replaced Mark Benson on-field during a Test match in Centurion when Benson was taken to hospital with heart palpitations, making him the first person to umpire in a Test match in his native country since the introduction of the Elite Panel of umpires in 2002.
Howell is also regularly appointed by the Interstate Commerce Commission to stand in Test matches and ODI"s away from South Africa to support the Interstate Commerce Commission Elite umpire panel at busy times in the cricket calendar.
