Aleem Dar – ICC Umpire of the Year
Not many Pakistanis have won much at the ICC Annual Awards. However, there is one man who has been winning consistently for the past three years and making his country proud.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aleem-Sarwar-Dar-c43094, the umpire from Pakistan, is one of the best in the business. He has been consistently doing a terrific job since first officiating in an international game back in 2000.
Dar, who was only 32 at the time when he stood in his first One Day International (ODI), did not take long to impress the International Cricket Council (ICC) and was selected on the umpire’s panel of the sport’s governing body.
After gaining plenty of experience and making sound decisions, Dar got the honour of umpiring in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World Cup in 2003. He did a terrific job in the Mega Event and went on to make his debut as an umpire in Test cricket later that year.
With his ability to make outstanding decisions in every format of the game, the umpire from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 was selected on the ICC’s elite panel of umpires. This was an honour for him and the country and since then he has become even a more consistent official.
The 43-year-old is considered to be one of the best umpires of all time alongside Australia’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Simon-James-Arnold-Taufel-c90354, who has won the ICC award for five times in a row. Both officials have earned a lot of respect amongst players from all teams and are the first choice
for every pressure series.
Dar has a lot of respect for his colleagues and has always stated umpiring is also teamwork, as every official helps the other to make decisions.
He is certainly correct while saying this, as a collective mistake in the ICC World Cup 2007 Final between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 saw five officials including Dar to be penalised for a few games.
The match officials failed to interpret the light rules and caused a panic amongst the teams playing. The light was poor for cricket, but the on-field umpires Dar and West Indies’ http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stephen-Anthony-Bucknor-c91028 forced the players to continue the game.
However, the Pakistani umpire stated after the controversy that the mistake was not on the part of the on-field umpires, as they were following instructions from outside. He further criticised the hectic schedule of the Mega Event and requested the sport’s
governing body to cut it short.
The perfectionist sees umpiring as a challenging task. He once stated, “It’s not an easy job [umpiring] in this modern age where technology checks your progress all the way through television replays from various angles. It’s not humanly possible not to
commit errors here and there. However, at least one should try to learn from this and try not to repeat the same [mistakes] again.”
The calm umpire from Pakistan won his first ICC Umpire of the year award in 2009 and has been unstoppable since then, winning it for the next two years as well.
After winning the award this year, he said, “It’s a great honour and I’m thankful to everyone at the ICC and also my colleagues on the Elite Panel of ICC umpires along with the Pakistan Cricket Board.”
Dar has certainly made the entire nation proud and has the ability to win many more awards in his career. He had a terrific record in this year ICC World Cup when all of the decisions reviewed against him were upheld.
The Pakistan cricket team should learn lessons from the great umpire and work hard to be consistent in all formats of the game.
Tags: