New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden will replace Aleem Dar for the second Ashes Test at Edgbaston after Dar was forced to return to Pakistan to be with his wife following the premature birth of their baby this week.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said that Bowden will stand with Rudi Koertzen at Edgbaston, where the Test gets underway on Thursday, and will continue his Ashes uties with Steve Bucknor in the third Test at Old Trafford.
Meanwhile, Clive Lloyd has been appointed as match referee for the three-match Afro-Asia Cup One-day International series between representative African XI and Asian XI teams in South Africa next month.
Billy Doctrove of the West Indies and Australian Steve Davis will stand in each of the matches at Centurion on August 17 and Durban on August 20 and 21. —AFP
Our correspondent adds: The 37-year-old Jhang-born Aleem Dar, who was a modest leg-break bowler and lower-order batsman for Pakistan Railways, Lahore City, Gujranwala and Allied Bank from 1986-87 to 1997-98, took up umpiring six years ago. He officiated in his first One-day International in February 2000 and since then has stood in 53 matches at this level.
He is the only Pakistani umpire currently on the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires and last week took part in his first Ashes Test match at Lord’s, where Australia beat England by a whopping 239 runs margin.
This match was Aleem’s 21st Test as an Elite Panel umpire. Incidentally, eversince he started at this level in October 2003, he has never stood in a Test match on Pakistan soil. All his 21 games have been in his capacity as an Elite Panel nominee.
He has officiated four Test matches in Bangladesh, three each in New Zealand, West Indies and Australia and two each in Sri Lanka, England, India and South Africa.
New Zealand’s 42-year-old Billy Bowden, one of cricket’s eccentric gentlemen in umpires’ clothing, has so far officiated in 27 Test matches having started at this level in March 2000. But the Birmingham match beginning from August 4 will be his first in an Ashes Test series.
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