The International Cricket Council (ICC) Elite umpire Aleem Dar has advised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to conduct regular fitness tests of all the umpires and to use kookaburra cricket ball in domestic cricket. "ICC carries out regular eye tests and hearing tests and it should also be done in Pakistan particularly before any major tournament," Aleem told Pakpassion.net.
Aleem said currently in Pakistan the eye, hearing and fitness tests are not being performed on a regular basis on umpires. "It is been quite a few years since I had my tests in Pakistan. I think my last hearing and eye test under the supervision of the PCB was about 5 or 6 years ago. At the moment the ICC are keen to raise the levels of fitness amongst the umpires and I think this should also be the case in Pakistan," he said.
Aleem said I have also told PCB to use the kookaburra cricket ball in domestic cricket, as whenever our cricketers use this ball in other countries they struggle to cope with it. These small things like the cricket ball and the video recording are small but very important things that can help Pakistan cricket, he said.
Talking about umpiring Aleem said to umpire in the Ashes series is just something special. Umpiring in the Ashes series is very tough but I feel umpiring matches in your home country is much tougher than umpiring in any neutral series, he said.
Aleem said he firmly believes that a person learns from his mistakes. Any decisions we have made during a match are made available to us by the ICC. They are available to the umpires in slow motion so we can look at each of the decisions in detail, which is of great benefit to all of the umpires, he said.
Aleem said Gaddafi stadium (Lahore) is his favourite grounds as the umpires room at that stadium are named after him. Lords is another personal favourite of mine, he concluded.