“I’ve had the pleasure and honour of umpiring the world over and what I’ve achieved is one thing I didn’t even dream of after I began within the career,” Dar mentioned in an announcement launched by the ICC on Thursday.
“Although I’m nonetheless eager to proceed as a world umpire, I felt it was now the fitting time, after 19 years on the highway to step away from the Elite panel and supply a chance to somebody from the Worldwide Panel. My message to umpires the world over is to work laborious, preserve self-discipline and by no means cease studying.”
ESPNcricinfo understands that Dar had been contemplating stepping down for some time now, since earlier than even the Covid-19 pandemic. However the ensuing lack of video games and journey restrictions meant he by no means acted on it.
“I thank the ICC, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and my colleagues on the panel for his or her help over time,” Dar mentioned. “I might additionally prefer to thank my household; with out whose help I couldn’t have gone on for thus lengthy. I sit up for persevering with to serve the sport as an umpire”.
The ICC welcomed two new umpires onto their Elite Panel, taking its quantity from 11 to 12. Adrian Holdstock (South Africa) and Ahsan Raza (Pakistan), who occurs to be the one particular person to face in additional males’s T20Is than Dar’s 69, be part of an inventory that features Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand), Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka), Marais Erasmus (South Africa), Michael Gough (England), Nitin Menon (India), Paul Reiffel (Australia), Richard Illingworth (England), Richard Kettleborough (England), Rodney Tucker (Australia), Joel Wilson (West Indies).
Holdstock has officiated in 5 Checks, 42 ODIs and 48 T20Is whereas Ahsan has stood in seven Checks, 41 ODIs and 72 T20Is. Each umpires have been a part of the panels for the lads’s T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022.
