LAHORE: After reshuffling in its panel of referees and umpires, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the names of 130 referees and umpires, including 20 in the elite panel, to supervise the matches of upcoming domestic season 2020-21, starting with the National T20 Cup in Multan on Sept 30.

In the elite panel, six referees and 14 umpires are included and they all will get monthly salary. In the supplementary panel, eight referees and 15 umpires are included. The development panel has been divided into two sections-I and II with 15 referees and 36 umpires included in the category I and 36 umpires with no referees in its panel two.

Six referees included in the panel are Ali Naqvi (Lahore), Iftikhar Ahmed (Karachi), Muhammad Anees (Lahore), Muhammad Iqbal Sheikh (Hyderabad), Nadeem Arshad (Faisalabad) and Prof. Mohammad Javed Malik (Multan), while 14 members of the PCB Elite Panel of Umpires are Ahsan Raza (Lahore), Aftab Hussain Gillani (Bahawalpur), Asif Yaqoob (Islamabad), Faisal Khan Afridi (Sargodha), Ghaffar Kazmi (Lahore), Imran Javed (Karachi), Nasir Hussain Snr (Lahore), Qaiser Waheed (Lahore), Rashid Riaz Waqar (Lahore), Saqib Khan (Abbottabad), Shozab Raza (Lahore), Syed Imtiaz Iqbal (Karachi), Waleed Yaqub (Lahore) and Zameer Haider (Lahore).

All these 20 elite officials will be on 12-month retainer contracts and will be responsible for sharing officiating duties in the First XI Cricket Association and HBL Pakistan Super League matches.

As a good number of officials included in the 20-member panel are employees with different government organizations, they are bound to submit a NOC letter from their parent organizations to the PCB before taking any assignment. It may be mentioned that earlier it was a report in the media that the PCB may ask these officials to come on the panel on deputation to get salary from one department, but now only NOC will be enough.

“Consistent to domestic player contracts policy, an employed match official can be offered a contract provided that the match official has submitted the relevant NOC from his employer to the PCB in accordance with the rules and regulations applicable to such match officials. Once the relevant NOC has been issued by the match official’s parent organisation and submitted to the PCB, the PCB will make payments in accordance with the terms of the contract executed with the match official.

“Whether or not the match official will be paid by the (parent) employer is a matter between the two entities,” a PCB spokesman said.

Professor Nasir Hussain (Government College), Professor Aftab Gilanni( Bahawalpur University), Ghaffar Kazmi (Lahore Grammar School), Rashid Waqar (National Bank), Imran javed (National Bank), Muhammad Anees (Assistant secretary in Punjab government), Iqbal Sheikh (Wapda), Prof Javed Malik (Bahawauddin Zikriya University), Faisal Khan Afridi (KRL), Shozab Raza (Customs) are also included in the elite panel and working in different departments.

Ahmad Shahab, a seasoned well reputed umpire, demoted from Elite panel to supplementary panel. Moreover, Tariq Rashid, who has supervised 13 matches of the Pakistan Super League in the past as on field umpire demoted from elite panel to supplementary one. Abdul Muqeet, who was liaison officer in last PSL demoted to the supplementary panel from the elite. Khalid Mahmood Senior, who has supervised Bangladesh and Pakistan cricket leagues matches also went down to supplementary from elite.

Waleed Yaqoob, who has been demoted from elite to supplementary panel in 2018 again entered the elite panel.

Meanwhile, former Test cricketers Nadeem Ghouri and Adnan Rasheed have been demoted from development panel to development panel two.

The PCB in a press release says that all the appointments were made after going through a process of assessment, carried out by a referee Khateeb Rizwan and former Test umpire Salim Badar.

“The PCB has introduced a supplementary panel for the first time, which includes the match referees and umpires who were unable to find places in the elite panel. They will be offered season contracts, which includes match fees and daily allowances. This panel will be responsible for officiating in the Second XI Cricket Association matches and will set-up for First XI and HBL Pakistan Super League duties as and when required,” a PCB press release says.

“The 72-member PCB Development Panel of Umpires has been equally divided into two groups, with the first group to officiate in the PCB-organised age-group matches and the second group to stand in club, grassroots and school fixtures. The playing control team in these matches will be led by the PCB Development Panel of Match Referees, which comprises 15 officials.

“The PCB Development Panel of Match Referees includes a female official, Saman Zulfiqar from Sheikhupura. This is the third successive year she has been named in the panel as the PCB continues to encourage its women officials to get involved with the game if they have any aspirations of representing the country at the international level.

“Similar process was followed and adopted while finalising women umpires for the 2020-21 domestic season, who will be offered season contracts. These women officials will be involved in officiating women’s domestic matches, schedule of which will be shared in due course.

“The notable inclusion in the eight-member PCB Panel of Women Umpires is the addition of Sabahat Rasheed, who played 13 One-Day Internationals for Pakistan from 2005 to 2007. The 37-year-old from Lahore was a right-arm off break and is a graduate of Arts and Education.

PCB Panel of Match Officials for 2020-21 season:

PCB Elite Panel of Match Referees - Ali Naqvi (Lahore), Iftikhar Ahmed (Karachi), Muhammad Anees (Lahore), Muhammad Iqbal Sheikh (Hyderabad), Nadeem Arshad (Faisalabad) and Prof. Mohammad Javed Malik (Multan).

PCB Elite Panel of Umpires — Ahsan Raza (Lahore), Aftab Hussain Gillani (Bahawalpur), Asif Yaqoob (Islamabad), Faisal Khan Afridi (Sargodha), Ghaffar Kazmi (Lahore), Imran Javed (Karachi), Nasir Hussain Snr. (Lahore), Qaiser Waheed (Lahore), Rashid Riaz Waqar (Lahore), Saqib Khan (Abbottabad), Shozab Raza (Lahore), Syed Imtiaz Iqbal (Karachi), Waleed Yaqub (Lahore) and Zameer Haider (Lahore).

PCB Supplementary Panel of Match Referees — Ahmer Saeed (Karachi), Aleem Khan Moosa (Karachi), Ali Gohar (Karachi), Aziz-ur-Rehman (Lahore), Kamran Chaudhry (Lahore), Khalid Jamshed (Lahore), Muhammad Aslam (Quetta) and Tanveer Afzal (Faisalabad)

PCB Supplementary Panel of Umpires - Abdul Moqeet (Lahore), Ahmed Shahab (Lahore), Aley Haider (Karachi), Aslam Bareach (Quetta), Farooq Ali Khan (Abbottabad), Ghulam Sarwar (Sibi), Kashif Sohail (Khanewal), Khalid Mehmood Sr. (Karachi), Majid Hussain (AJK), Mir Dad (Islamabad), Muhammad Asif (Lahore), Muhammad Imran (Sargodha), Muhammad Sajid (Charsadda), Tariq Rasheed (Lahore) and Zulfiqar Jan (Charsadda)

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2020