Dubai: For Akbar Ali Khan, umpiring is a passion. A recipient of the Shyam Bhatia award for cricketing excellence in the UAE, the Dubai-based umpire was in for a pleasant surprise when he was asked to officiate in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Division Four matches in Singapore last month.
The 38-year-old Khan, who hails from Allahabad of India, works as a quality controller with a US-based company from 6 am to 4 pm but rushes almost every day during the domestic cricket season to a cricket ground to officiate in night tournaments. On holidays, he enjoys officiating matches from morning till night — which saw him officiating in over 100 matches in the 2013-14 season.
Speaking to Gulf News, Khan said: “Umpiring is my passion. Whenever I get spare time, I think of utilising it do umpiring. Being selected to officiate in the ICC matches in Singapore was a special moment for me. I am thankful to Emirates Cricket Board for recognising my devotion towards umpiring.”
The Shyam Bhatia award for best umpire was, according to Khan, a reward for hours of hard toil under the scorching sun. “I officiated in 110 matches that season. There wasn’t a single tournament that I missed. It is due to the support and encouragement from Dubai Cricket Council [DCC] officials like Farukkh Siddique that I could entertain my passion. Umm Al Quwain’s Cricket Association’s Mushtaq Ahmad too gave me chances to officiate in their matches. I am also grateful to Mazhar Khan who made sure I also get to officiate in Asian Cricket Council [ACC] matches here.”
Khan, who is among the UAE’s most respected umpires today, has one big regret though. “My brother Bahadur Ali Khan, who was also as passionate like me about umpiring, died in a car accident in 2013. He would have been so happy to see me umpire in International Cricket Council matches abroad. My brother had umpired for over a decade in UAE cricket and used to encourage me a lot. We used to officiate matches together a lot,” said Khan, who was a club-level cricketer in Allahabad before falling in love with umpiring and officiating many matches in his home city.
“I came to the UAE in 2007. I attended Test umpire Mehboob Shah’s classes and qualified as Level One umpire and then attended Umpire Peter Manuel’s classes and became a Level two umpire. My dream is to officiate at the highest level in world cricket one day,” said Khan.
“When I am not umpiring, I read up all rules and modification and interpretations of the rules on the internet. I am in touch with many international umpires through email and most of them help me with feedback. I recently officiated the Women’s One Day International match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka here and had also officiated in a triangular series involving Afghanistan, West Indies and UAE.
“Whether I officiate in an international match or domestic match, I try to learn something new,” said Khan who is now gearing up to officiate the Emirates Twenty20 Cup involving Test stars like Alistair Cook and Yuvraj Singh in Dubai next month.
