Aleem Dar continues to raise the bar in umpiring

LAHORE: ICC Elite Panel umpire Aleem Dar added yet another record to his vast collection of feats when he supervised his 350th international match against visiting West Indies cricket team. Dar attained the amazing distinction during the 3rd T20 International against the Caribbean side at Karachi on April 3, 2018.Dar, who now sports a beard, gave his country’s depressed people a strong reason to cheer at a time when Pakistan is struggling somewhere at bottom in almost all the games. Dar, who consumed 18 years to reach this far in his illustrious career, needs to focus on his fitness and umpiring because from now each and every international match will take him to new height which is definitely a matter of pride for all the Pakistanis.Retired South African umpire Rudi Koertzen, who stood in 331 international cricket matches including 108 Tests, 209 One-day Internationals and 14 T20s in a career spanned 18 years, placed second in this list.It’s worth-mentioning here that out of hundreds of international umpires, only four – Pakistan’s Aleem Dar (350), Rudi Koertzen of South Africa (331), Steve Bucknor of West Indies (309) and New Zealand’s Billy Bowden (308) could cross the mark of 300 international matches.Among the three formats, Aleem topped the T20 match list with 43 games, placed second in Test match chart with 117 matches behind Steve Bucknor (128) while in ODIs he is behind Rudi Koertzen (209) and Billey Bowden (200) with 190 internationals. He requires another 12 Tests and 20 ODIs to grab the top position in these two formats. It’s expected that he will supervise the required number of matches in the next couple of years.Aleem has also won three consecutive ICC Umpire of the Year awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He was also nominated twice in 2005 and 2006 for the coveted award. It’s worth mentioning here that Aleem could have got the fabulous award for the fourth time in a row in 2012 had ICC not forgotten the merit while selecting the umpire of the year.Most int’l matches as an umpireUmpires Span MatchesAleem Dar (Pak) 2000-18 350RE Koertzen (SA) 1992-10 331SA Bucknor (WI) 1989-09 309BF Bowden (NZ) 1995-16 308SJA Taufel (Aus) 1999-12 282DJ Harper (Aus) 1994-11 279DR Shepherd (Eng) 1983-05 264IJ Gould (Eng) 2006-18 227DB Hair (Aus) 1991-08 223SJ Davis (Aus) 1992-15 220RB Tiffin (Zim) 1992-17 212NJ Llong (Eng) 2005-18 200Most Test matches as an umpireUmpires Span MatchesSA Bucknor (WI) 1989-09 128Aleem Dar (Pak) 2003-18 117RE Koertzen (SA) 1992-10 108DJ Harper (Aus) 1998-11 95DR Shepherd (Eng) 1985-05 92BF Bowden (NZ) 2000-15 84DB Hair (Aus) 1992-08 78SJA Taufel (Aus) 2000-12 74S Venkatraghvan (Ind) 1993-04 73HD Bird (Eng) 1973-96 66Most ODI matches as an umpireUmpire Span MatchesRE Koertzen (SA) 1992-10 209BF Bowden (NZ) 1995-16 200Aleem Dar (Pak) 2000-18 190SA Bucknor (WI) 1989-09 181DJ Harper (Aus) 1994-11 174SJA Taufel (Aus) 1999-12 174DR Shepherd (Eng) 1983-05 172RB Tiffin (Zim) 1992-17 152DB Hair (Aus) 1991-08 139SJ Davis (Aus) 1992-15 137Most T20 matches as an umpireUmpire Span MatchesAleem Dar (Pak) 2009-18 43IJ Gould (Eng) 2006-16 37RJ Tucker (Aus) 2009-16 35SJA Taufel (Aus) 2007-12 34S George (SA) 2010-18 33NJ Llong (Eng) 2005-16 32R Palliyaguruge (SL) 2011-18 31Ahsan Raza (Pak) 2010-18 29Sarika Prasad (SIN) 2008-16 29Shozab Raza (Pak) 2012-18 29.

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