Top 5 umpires in ICC Elite Panel 2016-17
The Cricketing world has always been full of glamour, paparazzi and larger-than-life stories of celebrated people. Often considered as the “short-cut to fame” arena, we have seen people spend their lives in the desire to become a household name, thrashing a few records and becoming a role model in the field of Cricket. But somewhere in this fast moving sport, few essentials are intentionally or otherwise overlooked.
These primal people, who are criticised for their bad decisions more often than praised for the right ones, are the umpires. Umpires, whose wrong calls certainly become a game changer but the right ones take an immeasurable amount of concentration, knowledge and, not to forget, courage to make those judgements.
It is almost impossible to even anticipate how an umpire would be adjudicating in the midst of all the noise, uproar and shout-outs within the stadium, let alone the meticulous side of it. Therefore, such magnificent talent is only handpicked after sharp observation of their ability & skill to create a panel of the best umpires, expecting the least scope for error.
One group of similar talent is the ICC Elite Panel which comprises of umpires thought to be the best in the world. Established in 2002, the panel is appointed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to officiate Test matches and One Day Internationals, globally.
Every year the selection of the umpires to be officiating the matches is revised based on their performance/correctness on the field. In a recent event, this panel was chosen to be kept constant for 2016-17 season citing an impressive degree of skill in their previous endeavour(2015-16).
The 2015-16 season was a pretty successful one for the panel as they effectively achieved a correct decision percentage of 95.6 percent in 220 matches across the three formats of Tests, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. Not only was there an improvement from the previous score of 94 percent but is the highest since the Decision Review System was introduced in cricket in 2008.
Taking note of the people who contributed to the climb, let’s glance through the 5 big names from the coveted Elite Panel of ICC umpires.
#1 Aleem Dar
In stark contrast to his eminent umpiring which took him places, Aleem Dar’s playing career for the Pakistan’s national side could never really take off in a span of a decade.
Post retirement from the sport as a player, the Pakistani cricket umpire and current member of the Elite Panel made his international umpiring debut in 2000 in a face-off between Sri Lanka and his national side – Pakistan. He first stood as an umpire at the age of 32 where, after noticing his impeccable precision in the game, he was chosen to umpire the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, within a gap of mere two years.
Since then he has earned a reputation as one of the best, and with Simon Taufel he represents the pick of the younger officials. To add a feather to his already shining cap, Aleem was also awarded ICC Umpire of the Year consecutively in 2009, 2010 & 2011.
Aleem’s journey could not be completely put across without mentioning the 2007 World Cup incident. In the Final match of that World Cup series, Dar was held responsible for misinterpreting the rules regarding bad light which led to his suspension for the Twenty20 World Championships in the following September.
Also recently, he was officiating in 2015 Cricket World Cup where he came under the scanner for giving a no ball against Rubel Hasan in Bangladesh's game against India in the quarter-final even though the ball looked below waist high.
But keeping the bad phases aside, Dar has always been ardently supported by his wife during the course to become one of the best umpires of his time. This was to an extent that his wife kept the news of the death of their daughter Jhaveri under wraps, only to let Dar focus on his job in 2003 when he was umpiring the World Cup matches in South Africa.