Richard Kettleborough was a left-hand top-order batsman and occasional seamer who was on Yorkshire's books for several seasons without being able to make a first-team place his own. His only hundred came at the end of the 1996 summer but the following year he made only three appearances and he moved south to Middlesex where there was an opener's berth up for grabs. He was given an extended run but in 20 matches he only passed fifty five times and he was released at the end of 1999. He continued to play with great success in Yorkshire club cricket and in 2006 he was added to the ECB list of umpires. He made his international umpiring debut in the Twenty20 between England and Australia at Old Trafford in 2009 and was in the panel of 18 umpires for the World Cup in India in 2011. Later the same year, he was promoted to the ICC's Elite Panel and, 38 at the time, was the youngest man in the group. In 2013, just two years after getting into the Elite Panel, Kettleborough won the ICC's Umpire of the Year award.
Martin Williamson