South African umpire Allahudien Paleker, who recently made his umpiring debut in the second-Test match between India and South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg has a special connection with India. Not many are aware of the fact that Paleker’s family traces its origins to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.
Paleker has his roots in Shiv village which is situated in Khed tehsil of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. He comes from a family of five umpires including his father, uncle, and two cousins. Allahudien had started his cricketing career as a keeper-batsman and has played for the domestic South African side – Titans till 2016.
“Umpiring is something I always wanted to do, I always knew, as it runs in the family,”
Paleker took inspiration from South African veteran umpire, Marais Erasmus. “He (Erasmus) adviced me to begin my umpiring career as soon as possible,” Palekar told ABP Live.
Paleker takes his job very seriously and if he makes a bad decision, it keeps haunting him for several days. Paleker said: “Umpiring is a task that requires concentration. Mentally, you need to be present all the time. Once I had given Ben Stokes out, it was a wrong decision which I kept on thinking about for several days.”
Talking about the future of umpiring, he said that umpires not only give the decision but also manage the game. He said:
“Just yesterday, (referring to Johannesburg Test), there were some feisty confrontations between the players and we needed to intervene. As Umpires, we are assessing playing conditions, managing the match, and not just giving decisions,” Paleker said.
“Technology is excellent, and it is helping the umpires, but robots cannot be Umpires, you need a human to be out there,” he said.
A few years ago, Paleker had visited his village in India as a part of an umpire-exchange program between two boards and had umpired in Ranji Trophy games in Mumbai and Chennai. However, he has more fond memories of his trip from 2000 when he had visited his ancestral village in Khed taluka of Ratnagiri. Remembering those memories, Paleker said:
“I visited my village for five weeks for a marriage. I enjoyed my time there and even played for my village’s team during a local cricket tournament. We played cricket on huge fields with long green grass on the outside. There was volleyball on one end of the field and cricket on the other. I really have fond memories of playing cricket back in 2000,”
Paleker also talked about his family and revealed how his uncle has inspired him so much. He said: “What (mannerisms) Billy Bowden would do, my uncle used to do such stuff years before that!” Paleker had said in an interview to Indian Express. “He would say, you didn’t move quickly, you were too slow in getting into position, very critical,” Paleker added.
The 44-year-old umpire became South Africa’s 57th Test umpire when he made his debut in the 2nd Test match.
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Source: The Week
