Steve Bucknor inspired me to umpiring: Aleem Dar
Dar demanded to increase umpiring fee for domestic match to ?Rs10,000.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – World-renowned Pakistani cricket umpire Aleem Dar on Wednesday said that he started umpiring watching Windies umpire Steve Bucknor.
Speaking at a ceremony held in Lahore in his honor on Wednesday, he said that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should give central contract to at least 20 umpires.
Dar said that he has been umpiring for the last 15 years and demanded the authorities to increase umpiring fee for domestic match to Rs10,000.
Earlier, officiating in the second Ashes Test at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, Aleem Dar equaled West Indies’ Steve Bucknor’s record of officiating in the most number of Test matches.
The ongoing England versus Australia Test was the 51-year-old Dar’s 128th Test as an umpire.
“It’s a great honour to equal the number of Test matches of my role model, umpire Steve Bucknor,” Dar was quoted as saying in an ICC tweet.
The Bangladesh versus England Test in October 2003 in Dhaka was Dar’s first Test match as an umpire. Thus far, he has officiated in 376 matches across the three formats of the game.
While Dar and Bucknor are at the top of the list, Rudi Koertzen of South Africa is on the second spot, having stood in 108 Test matches before he announced his retirement from umpiring in 2010. Koertzen remains only the third umpire to have officiated in more than hundred Tests.
Coming to Lord’s Test, after a washout on the first Day of the second Test, Australia are in the driver’s seat, having ran through the England top and middle-order.
