Akram Raza, Kamal Merchant under criticism as umpires

KARACHI: The two umpires who officiated in the 2008-09 Royal Bank of Pakistan (RBS) Pentangular Cup One-day Cricket Championship final, between Punjab Stallions and Federal Area Leopards, here at the National Stadium on Wednesday, came under criticism from officials of some regional cricket associations and certain sections of the press on the eve of the match itself — for no fault of their own.

While the cricket officials came down a bit hard upon the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for appointing Akram Raza and Kamal Merchant for the crucial encounter, the press considered this move as a ‘mistake’ getting upset about the fact that the ‘set standards’ were not followed while naming the two umpires.

The critics said that both umpires were not part of the original panel selected for the Pentangular Cup One-day Championship, and neither was match referee Ilyas Khan. They believed it was not the right move for an important fixture as the tournament’s final.

Meanwhile, the PCB Director General and Member Governing Board, former star Pakistan batsman and captain Javed Miandad, feels that the criticism of the umpires was totally out of order.

He is of the opinion that men like Akram Raza and Kamal Merchant should have been among the leading umpires of the country because of their knowledge of the game and their quality of making fair judgements, for a long time anyway. Miandad says he fails to understand why these two have been kept in the background for so long.

The Board’s DG said that he believes both Akram and Kamal have the ability to be groomed into Pakistan’s next two candidates as members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Elite Panel of Umpires.

Akram and Kamal, who had earlier been named as TV umpire for the final but then took his place as a field umpire before the start of the match, gave quite a good account of themselves in yesterday’s match, without anyone pointing any fingers at them in accusation. Perhaps, they do need to be presented before the world as two of Pakistan’s best umpires, as Miandad believes.

Akram has the stigma of being named in the Justic Qayyum report regarding the match-fixing scandal and his critics feel he should not be elevated to any important post in the country’s cricketing set-up. But with even Saleem Malik having been finally pardoned, this consideration seems to have not much value anymore.

THe now 44-year-old Akram Raza played nine Tests and 49 One-day Internationals for Pakistan as an off-spinner from 1989-90 to 1994-95. He took up umpiring in 2006-07 but has yet to get a first-class posting, though having performed the duty in a Youth Test match between Pakistan and Bangladesh Under-19s here at the National Stadium Karachi in November last year.

Akram has, however, now been named as umpire in three matches in the 2008-09 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Championship, which gets under way from December 28. His Pentangular Cup final colleague Kamal Merchant will officiate in four matches in the same tournament.

Kamal, who is now 52 years old, played as a lower-order batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler for Karachi and United Bank from 1974-75 to 1997-98. He began his umpiring career from 1998-98.

He was nominated for first-class and major limited overs matches until 2000-01 when he was suddenly restricted only to the inter-district and lower levels. He has continued to do so until this season, but his first-class umpiring career had come to a halt some eight years ago.

Kamal spent a few months of the summer this year in Dublin, Ireland. There he not only played in the city’s main League but was also asked to stand as umpire in matches.

Perhaps, both Akram and Kamal do need to gain more exposure, get more chances of umpiring and then, maybe, they could even get into the Elite Panel.