Egar started his career as an umpire of Australian rules football and quickly gained a reputation for being a forthright arbiter.
[1] Egar made his first-class umpiring debut during the 1956–57 season when he stood in South Australia's home Sheffield Shield match against Queensland at the Adelaide Oval.
[2] At the time, there were no neutral umpires, and the host association provided the officials, so Egar's Sheffield fixtures all took place at the Adelaide Oval.
In 1958–59, Egar stood in all but one of South Australia's three home Shield matches, and officiated a game involving an international team for the first time.
[4] Egar stood in South Australia's matches against Victoria, the West Indies and Tasmania, before being selected to make his Test debut.
During the match, Egar no-balled South Australian fast bowler Brian Quigley twice on the first day as Victoria batted first.
[7][8] Hoy wrote in the newspapers about his experiences at the end of the season; at the time, the practice of player and officials concurrently doing media work was heavily frowned upon and he never umpired a Test again.
[2] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was increasing concern in the cricket community about illegal bowling actions, especially as during that period there were only home umpires, rather than officials from third nations.
One of the main points of controversy was the Australian fast bowler Ian Meckiff, whose action had particularly angered the English press and parts of the cricket community.
He topped the bowling averages for the Australian first-class season with 58 wickets at 19.86 from ten matches,[2][13] as Victoria won the Sheffield Shield.
[16][17] Meckiff's performances as the leading wicket-taker during the 1962–63 season meant that he could not be justifiably denied national selection on grounds of productivity,[13] so the matter of his legitimacy had to be resolved.
Meanwhile, the retirement of pace spearhead Alan Davidson left a vacancy in the Australian team ahead of the 1963–64 home Test series against South Africa.
[20] Keith Miller predicted that the umpires Egar and Lou Rowan would be having sleepless nights and claimed that the selectors would be biting their fingernails, and that he Meckiff might be a scapegoat for the anti-throwing movement.
[22] As a close friend of the fast bowler, umpire Egar was in a difficult situation; the duo had won a pairs lawn bowling competition just a few months earlier.
[20] Meckiff then took the ball for the second over, bowling from the Vulture Street End to South African captain Trevor Goddard.
[24] At the same time, the South African manager Ken Viljoen set up a camera and began filming the left-armer's bowling action.
[28] Barry Gibbs, the secretary of the Queensland Cricket Association and the manager of the Australian team, said that the "humiliation" of Meckiff was "without a doubt the most dramatic and emotion-charged" sporting moment he had witnessed.
[31] Half an hour before the close of the day's play, proceedings were suspended for two minutes as the crowd repeatedly chanted "We want Meckiff".
[27][30] When play ended, spectators stormed the field and carried the fast bowler off the arena on their shoulders, hailing him as a hero.
[24] During the Second Test, which was held in Meckiff's home town of Melbourne, Egar was given a police escort throughout the match after receiving death threats.
"[33] The South African Charles Fortune wrote that Meckiff's action was "not according to the laws of cricket" although he would not call the Australian bowler a "chucker".
[33] England captain Ted Dexter implied that Meckiff was throwing, saying that "one courageous Australian umpire has brought it to a timely end".
[34] Team manager Gibbs reported that at the end of the first day's play the Australian dressing room was stunned into silence.
Egar asked Benaud for permission to enter, and after the Australian captain allowed him in, the umpire sat quietly for a period before speaking to some other players and then to Meckiff.
[36] Benaud received criticism for not bowling Meckiff again at the other end,[37][38] but Rowan later indicated that he would have agreed with Egar, writing in his book that the action was illegitimate.
[40] Sections of the cricket community believed that Meckiff was no-balled to prove that Australia was serious about dealing with the wave of complaints regarding suspected throwing in the 1950s and 1960s.
[41] A dinner hosted by board member Don Bradman in January 1963 for visiting state captains was later cited to suggest that Meckiff may have been a sacrificial offering.
[44] Many members of the Australian media alleged a conspiracy against Meckiff, using words such as "the whole affair smacks of a set-up",[33] "obvious fall-guy",[33] and "sacrificial goat".
[19][30] Cricketer-turned-journalist Dick Whitington cited the fact that Egar and Bradman had travelled from Adelaide to the Brisbane Test together as evidence of a plot.
[26][51] Illingworth took 4/92 in South Australia's first innings but was no-balled a total of three times by Egar and his partner Jack Ryan, both standing at square leg.