An unassuming character he may appear on the field, his economy of mannerism does not affect his ability to be the man in charge. The award, beyond doubt, is a matter of national pride, but has added significance when one sees it in the backdrop of all controversies associated with Pakistani umpires before the advent of the ICC Elite Panel. His role in the 2007 World Cup final, perhaps, is the only blemish on his record. Adam Gilchrist's scintillating 149 0ff 104 balls that resulted in Australia picking up its fourth title was overshadowed by the final overs of that rain-hit contest that were played out in near-darkness. It was too dark for the fielders to see anything, the Australians had already celebrated their moment of victory at the end of the 33rd over, when Sri Lanka accepted an offer for bad light, and appeared to have conceded the game with an improbable requirement of 63 from 18 balls.

As Australians celebrated on the field, the match officials were in a huddle of their own, and what a lineup it was Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar as the on-field umpires, Rudi Koertzen as the TV umpire, Billy Bowden as the fourth umpire and Jeff Crow as the match referee. It was the elitest of the elite and yet they reached the wrong conclusion, asking the players to finish off the game in darkness. The ICC duly banned five officials from the first Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa.

In an interview following the recent award, Dar recalled the incident as “a bleak moment” for all the match officials involved, but stressed that it was “something not committed intentionally”. If the incident was a reminder that to err was a human attribute, the award is a proof of Dar's mettle as an individual and a professional for it would not have been easy to make people forget about such a dreadful episode so quickly.

Talking of horrible episodes on the field, it is worth recalling a few incidents involving Pakistani umpires from the past that stand out for all the wrong reasons. Let's start with Idrees Baig — Bhai Idrees to his friends — who was picked up from his hotel room in Peshawar by the visiting MCC-A team captained by Donald Carr and roughed up for alleged indiscretion on the field. It led to a diplomatic furore that took some time to settle.

Famed cricket commentator and writer Omar Kureishi has narrated the episode with his inimitable wit in his book Home to Pakistan (pp110-123), every word of which is worth reading and enjoying.

Some three decades later, it was once again an Englishman who had an issue with a Pakistani umpire. The year was 1987, the venue Faisalabad where the protagonists involved were Mike Gatting and Shakoor Rana. The incident came on the second day of the Test when Gatting signalled to a fielder in the deep as Eddie Hemmings moved in to bowl. Rana immediately put his hand up to stop play and then accused Gatting of cheating. The furious finger-wagging exchange between the two is even today one of the most reproduced images in the game.

Though it is the Rana-Gatting affair that has come to symbolise the series, it was a string of some atrocious decisions by Shakeel Khan in the preceding test at Lahore that rubbed the visitors the wrong way. It included the one against Chris Broad who was given caught behind to a ball that had missed the outside edge by more than a few inches. The batsman simply refused to leave the middle till he was ushered off by Graham Gooch.

It was, however, more a case of incompetence than 'patriotic' umpiring because the list of hilarious decisions by Shakeel Khan included the one against Abdul Qadir who he gave stumped before Bruce French had even removed the bails!

Such acts of omissions and commissions by umpires — especially, but by no means exclusively, in the subcontinent — led to the introduction of neutral umpires in cricket, but even then at least one Pakistani umpire made a name for himself the way he shouldn't have. Javed Akhtar's career as an international umpire ended under a cloud in 1998 when at Headingley, he was accused of favouring England against South Africa, giving eight dubious decisions in England's favour in the series decider. So embarrassing was his performance that former England captain David Gower, who was doing the commentary on the match, described one of his decisions as, “umpire Javed Akhtar strikes again!”

The fact that Aleem Dar has now been nominated as the ICC Umpire of the Year is testimony to the fact that Pakistan has come a long way from such ugly episodes. Good for him. Even better for the nation.

(From L to R) William Porterfield of Ireland, Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka, Gautam Gambhir of India, Claire Taylor of England, Mitchell Johnson of Australia, Peter Siddle of Australia and Aleem Dar pose with their awards during the ICC Annual AwardsCeremony in South Africa — AP Photo

(Left) Aleem Dar poses with his ICC Umpire of the Year award — Reuters Photo