Aleem Dar’s ‘Scottish sons’ cause row in Britain

LONDON: Aleem Dar, the Pakistani umpire who recently officiated in his 100th Test, has been drawn into a row involving one of Britain’s oldest cricket clubs, after his sons lied about being Scottish.

Kilmarnock Cricket Club were this week thrown out of the first division of the Western District Cricket Union in Scotland after it emerged that Ali and Hassan Dar had circumvented eligibility rules by falsely claiming to have been born in Glasgow.

The pair registered under the pseudonyms Umer Mustafa and Saleh Mustafa to compete for Kilmarnock in a number of fixtures in the 2015 season, one of which - against Stenhousemuir in August - was watched by Dar himself.

The umpire’s trip to watch that contest came after England’s three-day victory over Australia in the third Test at Edgbaston, which had left him with a rare spare weekend. According to a report in The National he had arrived at Stenhousemuir’s Tryst ground to watch a “cousin and nephew” in action.

Now, however, Kilmarnock have been relegated to the second tier of the Western District Cricket Union, after it emerged that “Umer” and “Saleh” had actually been born in Pakistan.

A Western Union official declared: “We received information regarding possible breaches of league rules and our investigation proved this to be the case.

“It was found that two players were registered with improper details and one, or both, participated in a number of matches during the 2015 season.

“The CMC [Cricket Management Committee] has decided to follow precedent by deducting all the points gained by Kilmarnock in the matches in which the two illegally registered players participated.

“Kilmarnock have therefore been deducted 49 points and are now relegated.”

In a statement posted to the club’s website, Kilmarnock accepted the punishment but insisted it had been misled by “the fraudulent actions of a single committee member”.

“The club denies in the strongest terms that we knowingly provided false and misleading information in the registration of the two players,” the statement continued.

“Whilst this has been a hugely stressful and ultimately disappointing period in the history of the club, we have fought back from fire, flood and countless other setbacks since 1852.

“The strength of any club is its members and whilst it is galling that the fate of the club and its members has been influenced by the misguided efforts of a few, we as a club can push on again if everyone sticks together.

Kilmarnock, who won the league on seven occasions between 1949 and 1970, have been replaced in the top flight by St Michael’s, who had previously been relegated at the end of the 2015 season.

Ironically, Kilmarnock’s regular club captain is Muhammad Azeem Dar, a Scotland Under-19 player and a genuine nephew of Aleem Dar. However, he was not playing on the day of his uncle’s visit.