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The last day of the Patron's Trophy Grade-I National Cricket Championship was dominated by a bizarre incident Sunday when Mahmood Rasheed, the match referee at the PIA-PWD tie, breached the Pakistan Cricket Board rules by dereliction of duty.

Mahmood, younger brother of ex-Test batsman Haroon Rasheed and a former first-class cricketer himself, instead of completing the final day's rituals left everyone in the lurch at UBL Sports Complex.

The referee apparently decided to give priority to an otherwise inconsequential final of a veterans tournament - organized by a controversial group - since he was a key player of one of the teams.

Raees Ahmed, who is also on the PCB panel of match referees, took over from Mahmood after some 45 minutes of play when the latter left for Clifton.

According to sources, Mahmood had presumably taken prior permission from one of the Cricket Management Committee's city-based members to make himself unavailable Sunday.

A referee, who is the liaison between the umpires and players, has to ensure that the match for which he is appointed is completed in a fair and friendly environment. In between, he can't skip the match unless in exceptional circumstances, such as illness or a family-related problem etc.

Therefore, Mahmood's action had clearly violated the rules prescribed by the PCB since he was neither ill nor was there any emergency where the referee's presence was needed. In Mahmood's case, the only reason was personal satisfaction.

Just last week, Sajid Abbasi, a match referee, turned down a similar request to make himself available for another veterans game because he was supervising the PWD-Allied Bank fixture at the same venue.

Coincidentally, Mahmood, who was allotted just one Patron's Trophy, had failed to pass the referees' examination conducted by Pakistan's representative on the ICC panel of match referees, Col Naushad Ali, here sometime ago.

Efforts to contact Mahmood proved fruitless at the time of filing the report as he was busy playing at Asghar Ali Shah Stadium in a night tournament!

© Dawn