da pinnacle： The last day of the Patron’s Trophy Grade-I National CricketChampionship was dominated by a bizarre incident Sunday whenMahmood Rasheed, the match referee at the PIA-PWD tie,breached the Pakistan Cricket Board rules by dereliction ofduty
Khalid H. Khan12-Nov-2001The last day of the Patron’s Trophy Grade-I National CricketChampionship was dominated by a bizarre incident Sunday whenMahmood Rasheed, the match referee at the PIA-PWD tie,breached the Pakistan Cricket Board rules by dereliction ofduty.Mahmood, younger brother of ex-Test batsman Haroon Rasheedand a former first-class cricketer himself, instead ofcompleting the final day’s rituals left everyone in thelurch at UBL Sports Complex.The referee apparently decided to give priority to anotherwise inconsequential final of a veterans tournament -organized by a controversial group – since he was a keyplayer of one of the teams.Raees Ahmed, who is also on the PCB panel of match referees,took over from Mahmood after some 45 minutes of play whenthe latter left for Clifton.According to sources, Mahmood had presumably taken priorpermission from one of the Cricket Management Committee’scity-based members to make himself unavailable Sunday.A referee, who is the liaison between the umpires andplayers, has to ensure that the match for which he isappointed is completed in a fair and friendly environment.In between, he can’t skip the match unless in exceptionalcircumstances, such as illness or a family-related problemetc.Therefore, Mahmood’s action had clearly violated the rulesprescribed by the PCB since he was neither ill nor was thereany emergency where the referee’s presence was needed. InMahmood’s case, the only reason was personal satisfaction.Just last week, Sajid Abbasi, a match referee, turned down asimilar request to make himself available for anotherveterans game because he was supervising the PWD-Allied Bankfixture at the same venue.Coincidentally, Mahmood, who was allotted just one Patron’sTrophy, had failed to pass the referees’ examinationconducted by Pakistan’s representative on the ICC panel ofmatch referees, Col Naushad Ali, here sometime ago.Efforts to contact Mahmood proved fruitless at the time offiling the report as he was busy playing at Asghar Ali ShahStadium in a night tournament!