Pakistan’s Aleem Dar is counted among the best umpires in the cricket world. Dar holds the record of umpiring in most international matches. Aleem Dar umpired in 145 Tests, 231 ODIs and 72 T20 Internationals in his career between 2000 and 2023. The players also had to think many times before challenging Dar’s decisions. Now Aleem Dar has shared the saddest moment of his life.
Dar made painful revelations
Aleem Dar told that in the year 2003, during the initial phase of his international career, his wife and family members hid the news of the death of their 7-month-old daughter from him. Dar told a Pakistani channel that when he was umpiring in the 2003 World Cup, his wife and family did not tell him about the death of their newborn daughter.
56-year-old Dar said in the show, ‘This was the beginning of my career as an ICC panel umpire and it was a very important tournament for my career. He knew that if I came to know about my daughter’s death, I would immediately return home. This highly respected Pakistani umpire said that when he finally came to know about his daughter’s death, it was the saddest moment of his life and he felt very sad.
I was kept in the dark: Dar
Aleem Dar said, ‘After his death I was kept in the dark for almost a month. And I came to know about it coincidentally in Johannesburg where a Pakistani man hailing from my hometown Sialkot came to express his condolences to me. At that time I got a huge shock and I immediately informed the ICC and returned home.
Aleem Dar said that as soon as he came to know about his daughter, he called his wife and she started crying on the phone. I later came to know that my father had strictly told his media friends not to publish this news.