To be in a position of judgment is a thankless and a demanding job. It requires reliability, trust, sanity and integrity of the highest order. Aleem Dar, one of our own who has now reached the landmark of hundred Tests and is officiating in the ongoing Test between South Africa and England at Newlands in Cape Town, has in him all the above ingredients rolled into one which makes him the top man in his trade.

If it wasn’t for these qualities, he may not have survived for more than a decade as one of the leading umpires of the ICC Elite Panel. Having won the best ICC umpire award a couple of times, he also is the proud recipient of Pride of Performance and Sitara-e-Pakistan which is his just reward for the trust that has been shown in him by his employers and the cricketers around the world.

A down to earth and an honest and conscientious individual, he would never raise his right hand index figure when declaring someone out for he knows well about the religious importance of right hand in Islam. Though a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-spin bowler in his playing days at first-class level, he would always give a batsman out by raising his left-hand index finger, a fact he confided to me about when I first met him nine years ago in an Old Trafford Test.

When I introduced myself after the end of a day’s play in the players pavilion at Old Trafford, he immediately reacted in his own humble way, ‘Sir, you don’t need to introduce yourself. I very well know who you are.’ That showed to me the humility and respect that he has for his elders and seniors.

No doubt he has been bestowed with fame and name for his impeccable behavior, his decision-making and for his fitness and endurance at a level where pressure is so taxing that an ordinary mortal is likely to crumble under it more often than not.

A couple of years ago I watched him play in a veterans match at NBP complex in Karachi and he looked a very impressive cricketer amongst the many playing in that match. Myself as well as so many of his friend and fans surely must be delighted at the feat he has accomplished in a glittering career as cricket umpire. I am glad too for the his feat at a venue where I reached the landmark of covering my 300th Test as a journalist when Waqar Younis led Pakistan in a Test fifteen years ago.

The word umpire comes from the French word nompere meaning not a peer, not a member of the competing teams. The ‘n’ and ‘o’ vanished from fourteenth century onward and the word became ‘umpire’.

Dar joining the other two — Steve Bucknor and Rudi Koertszen — to have done hundred Tests makes us no less proud that he dons the ICC Elite Panel Umpires’ hat with such pride to bring honour to the game and to his country.

My respect from him is as much as I have for Dickie Bird, David Shepherd, Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel, the best umpires that I have had the experience of dealing with as a journalist. They did falter at times and if they didn’t they would not be counted among mortals that all of us are.

In the top bracket amongst the Elites, receiving an annual salary of nearly 45,000 dollars a year from the ICC, Aleem Dar like others in the panel gets just over 3,000 dollars per Test besides all the perks that go with it.

Unquestionably, he deserves every bit of it.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2016