RIYADH — A six-day ACC Level-1 umpiring course, hosted by Riyadh Cricket Association (RCA) and organized by Saudi Cricket Centre (SCC) as part of its strategic developmental plan 2014 under the auspicious of Asian Cricket Council (ACC), ended here successfully recently. Twenty six umpires from Riyadh and Dammam attended the course.



Mahboob Shah, former Pakistan Test umpire and the resource person of ACC, conducted the course. The well-respected Pakistani umpire supervised 28 Test matches and 32 ODIs between 1975 and 1997.  Currently, Shah is a member of ACC’s Umpiring Educators’ Panel. Khaleel Kazi, umpiring educator for Saudi Arabia, also assisted and coordinated during the course.



The 26 umpires, selected on the basis of the elementary courses conducted by the SCC earlier, were comprehensively trained during the course.  The Laws of Cricket were thoroughly discussed to improve the knowledge and skills of umpires and the techniques of umpiring were imparted and explained. A T20 match was also organized at the end of the course to practically judge the ability of the participating umpires.



Participants were: Nasir Mehmood Abbasi, Syed Khawar Abbas, Mohammed Akram, Qaiser Mahmood, Mahboob Ahmed, Farukh Ansari, Zahid Mahmood, Sajid Nawaz, Gulzar Ahmed, Arsalan Mushtaq, Syed Abdulaziz, Shaikh Shamsuddin, Mohammed Faraz, Asif Sheikh, Riaz Ahmed, Zakarya Hassan, Eisa Hatem, Samir Ahmed, Ishfaque Qureshi, Mobeen Ahmed, Mohammed Kaleem Khan, Tahir Karamat, Asif, Nadeem, Abdul Aleem and Umar. 



Riyadh Cricket Association presented shields to Mahboob Shah and SCC. — SG