The game of cricket took long 22 years to confer a marvelous award on Pakistani umpiring, when Pakistan's great Aleem Dar became the only choice of the ICC for the Umpire of the Year Award. Some 22 years ago in 1987, a great Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana was humiliated by a defiant English batsman Mike Gatting who put a blot on the fair umpiring of Pakistan, though the world of cricket including the Australian and English cricket boards and the media and all the nations condemned Gatting in the harshest words and sided with Shakoor.

While International Cricket Council has strict vigil on any such breach of code of conduct, and imposes heavy fines and game bans, the regrettable incident involving a fierce row between Shakoor and Gatting during the Faisalabad Test between England and Pakistan in 1987, will always remain a dark blot on cricketing history. Gatting entangled Rana into a finger-wagging confrontation before close of play on the second day of the second Test on December 8, 1987. Gatting moved one of his fielders from behind the batsman's back while Hemmings was bowling. Rana accused Gatting of cheating and of contravening Law 42, which prohibits fielders from moving behind the batsman's back while the ball is being delivered. Rana demanded an apology but Gatting refused and no play was possible on the third day. It nearly ended the tour before officials from both sides intervened and Gatting apologised. The incident emerged as one of the darkest episode in the history of English cricket. It was a shame that an English captain got the notoriety of defying and even abusing a cricket umpire -ó a fact apparent from the volleys of criticism heaped on Mike Gatting by the British press.

But when Aleem Dar, 41, was voted to this award by the 10 Full Member captains as well as the eight-man Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees based on his decision statistics over the last 12 months, it was an emotional moment. A Pakistani had been selected by the English as the best umpire.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt and the management congratulated Aleem Dar on winning the ICC Umpire of the Year award in Johannesburg. Pakistan Veteran Cricket Association Chief Executive Officer Ashiq Hussain Qureshi has congratulated Aleem Dar. Aleem Dar expressed his jubilation over winning the Umpire of the Year Award and dedicated his achievement to his late father. "Normally I am quite calm and so the pressure is not big for me. It is important to stay cool and if you make a mistake you can't let it get to you. You have to concentrate all the time."

Aleem made his international debut in an ODI between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2000, and became a member of the ICC International Panel of umpires two years later which ultimately led to his choice for the ICC Cricket World Cup in early 2003.

But still there was more to come; in April 2004, he became the first Pakistani to be part of the ICC Elite Umpires Panel.

Since then he has been regarded as one of the top umpires, and when he was nominated for the ICC Umpire of the Year Award in 2005 and 2006, he could not beat his senior rival Simon Taufel of New Zealand.

When Dar umpired in his 100th ODI on October 17, 2007, he had just seven years of experience, making him the 10th umpire in the history to reach that landmark and became the first Pakistani to officiate in a century of one-day internationals.

Though Dar has stood in five Ashes test matches and in the final of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, his appointment to stand in the final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup granted him an all time high status.

But when Dar won the Umpire of the Year award last days at the annual ICC awards, he had won a unique and unprecedented honour for Pakistan and the umpires of Pakistan. It is, no doubt, a great thing that Aleem ended Simon Taufel's monopoly which had been established throughout the six years since the start of the prestigious award.

While a cricket match is always a fight between two teams, it is much more dependent on the working of a third factor; the umpires. Nevertheless, they never influence the game. They are neutral, absolutely neutral, but they are human beings and may commit a mistake, spontaneously or unconsciously. This factor of committing the mistake has added to the versatility of cricket and imported some of them as more than just umpires.

While the long careers of Dickie Bird and David Shepherd earned them good names, Steve Bucknor and Rudy Koertzen came to be known as slow death stylists, New Zealand's Billy Bowden amused the cricket fans with his dramatic signalling style, Pakistan's Aleem Dar is less demonstrative, reserved and highly dedicated to his responsibilities as an umpire. He also commands an honour of making the fewest controversial decisions among contemporary umpires.

The umpiring controversies sparked by Australian umpire Darrel Hair through his controversial decisions since his first Test match in January 1992 continued burning through his 15 years long career because of blundering decisions. His first match umpiring attracted criticism from Wisden, also called Bible of Cricket, in the words that the game was "marred Ö by controversy over LBW decisions ñ- eight times Indians were given out, while all but two of their own appeals were rejected".

But he got an unparalleled distinction in his country's match against Sri Lanka at Melbourne in December 1995 when he called Muttiah Muralitharan seven times in three overs for throwing. Wisden stated "unusually, he made his judgment from the bowler's end, and several minutes passed before the crowd realized that Muralitharan's elbow, rather than his foot, was at fault".

And when in November 2005, Darrel Hair declared Pakistan captain Inzamam as run out during Faisalabad Test, just for taking an evasive action as a reaction to the ball throw of England's Steve Harmison onto the stumps, it was foreshadowing another such misdemeanour with Pakistan's legendary captain at the Lord's a few months later. He was Darrel Hair, but this is Aleem Dar, who is still in his umpiring youth and is sure to achieve great milestones in the days to come.

The most accepted yardstick to measure a country's standing in the world sports is its showing at the Olympics.

Pakistan has won three Olympic golds and as many silvers, all courtesy one sport, hockey which is also our national game. Hockey's total tally for Pakistan at the Olympics is three golds, three silvers and two bronze. All the other sports combined have yielded a grand total of two bronze.

One family has the unique honour to have featured in all the three gold medal campaigns. Munir Dar was the member of the 1960 team, his brother Tanvir was in the 1968 squad and Munir's son Taqueer won the most coveted title in hockey in 1984. All the Dars were full backs and excelled at penalty corner conversion. It is worth mentioning that Munir's uncle Zakauddin, later Taqueer's father in law, also featured in the 1960 victory. For good measure, Dars also figured in all the three silvers: Munir (1956 & 1964) and late Tanveer (1972).

The Dar success saga had all the makings of adding more chapters. Munir's second son Taseer created a sensation in his maiden international appearance in 1984. Playing for Pakistan juniors against the visiting German juniors, he slammed a penalty corner hat-trick. The connoisseurs rated his hit on penalty corners even more forceful and accurate than that of his father, uncle and brother. Taseer was a standby for the '84 Olympic team.

But after the departure of the then PHF president Air Marshal Nur Khan in 1985, the Pakistan hockey went into turmoil. The internal bickering ruined the game. The decisions especially relating to selection were based on personal likes and dislikes, and scores were settled by the powers that be. Both Taqueer and Taseer were not even included in the national camp.

Such mind boggling decisions were the order of the day in that period and even Hasan Sardar, arguably the greatest forward in the history of the game, was not spared. Little wonder the Pakistan hockey reached its nadir in 1986. The two time defending champions finished 11th out of 12 at the World Cup!

All this made the Dar clan so disheartened that they decided to bid hockey adieu.

Things went to such an extent that the youngest sibling Tafseer Dar deserted hockey. The boy had not only led Government College, Lahore (the alma mater of all the Dars) to the title of the board champions but was also the scorer of both the goals in the final. Yet, he turned his back to the sport which had become his family's identity, and moved to cricket. Tafseer appeared for the ADBP in first class cricket.

The family's ties with hockey seemed over forever. But the game is in Dars' blood and they can not remain aloof from the state of Pakistan hockey. Pakistan once synonymous with the hockey glories has failed to win any title even at the Asian level since 1994.

What is the prime cause? For most of us it is the negligence at the grass roots.

After all these years of heart burning, the Dars finally decided to address the root cause.

In 2006, Taqueer Dar launched a hockey academy in Lahore, in the name of his illustrious late uncle.

Tanvir Dar Hockey Academy began with just seven kids, almost all from the Dar family but now they have seventy. The academy provides everything including stick, shoes, etc. The needy boys are even given monthly stipends. The academy is not restricted to Lahore boys with boys from Sargodha, Sheikhupura, Peer Mahal, D.G.Khan also in the camp.

"Almost all the boys are enrolled in the Model high school, Model Town where they regularly attend classes in the morning. The outstation boys reside in the school hostel and the academy caters for their boarding and lodging. In the evenings, the boys undergo hockey coaching. " said Tauqeer when asked about the boys' education.

"Hockey on astro turf is physically a very demanding sport and the kids' nourishment is vital. We make sure they are given proper diet including milk and fruits.

"First four days of the week, the boys play at the Noble Hockey Club's ground in Model Town, one of the best grassy grounds in Lahore. On Fridays and Saturdays, they get training on the astro turf of the National Hockey stadium.

"We have a very dedicated team of coaches: Olympian Akhlaq, Amer Jalil, the long serving coach of the Punjab Sports Board, and Abdul Wahid Khan. The man who is mainly engaged with the day to day running of the academy is my childhood friend, the hockey fanatic Irfan Butt"

Such a grand endeavour requires sound financial backing.

"We were quite apprehensive in the beginning but have been are very lucky to get a number of sponsors. If you have a goal and the will to achieve it then help arrives from everywhere. We are managing all this without any support from the government."

The success of any project/academy is gauged by it output/product.

"Our trainees have achieved success at every possible level. The Model high school's hockey team, comprising almost entirely of our boys, has won all the school tournaments not only local but also at the provincial level. As many as 13 players of the Tanvir Dar Hockey Academy figured in the recent national under- 18 super league.

"We have won laurels even outside the country. Yes, the academy participated in the All India Maharaja Ranjit Singh under 15 tournament in Amritsar and returned victorious.

"The academy's motto says it all: ëCome, Learn and Play for Pakistan'," he said.

"It gives me immense satisfaction and pride to see seven youngsters of our academy selected in the recently announced Pakistan under-18 camp."

It is very easy lamenting the declining fortunes of Pakistan hockey and blaming the system, government, etc. for all this.

Taqueer Dar is only one of the numerous stalwarts of Pakistan hockey. Indeed, some others have also been serving hockey at the grass roots level, running clubs etc.

The present PHF hierarchy also realised the importance of tapping the widespread talent in the country in a proper way and has set up 18 academies across the length and breadth of the country.

But the privately-run Tanvir Dar hockey academy is an eye opener and should serve as an example and it is hoped that at least a few other former hockey greats also step up and share the responsibility with the government institutions revive the game which has given them so much.

After the shuffling scenarios in Formula One, Italian team Ferrari are the happy campers now since Spain's two time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso signed a three-year contract after wandering between Renault and McLaren -- in which he spent his worst year. The agreement covers three racing seasons starting in 2010, but the amount of money he is going to get from this contract is not surfaced yet, Ferrari said in a statement.

The ex-Renault driver will line up with Brazilian Felipe Massa while Giancarlo Fisichella would take the role of reserve driver.

"I'm very happy and proud to become a Ferrari driver. Driving the prancing Horse represents a dream for everyone who does this job and now I have the good fortune to be able to realise that," said Alonso.

Alonso, 28, who had his contract with Renault until 2010 with an option that he could end it up a year before, and he did -- is looking ahead for his future and it's a good thing.

"Fernando will miss Renault and Renault will miss Fernando," Renault managing director Jean-Francois Caubet said.

A while ago, Renault were in trouble when the International Automobile Federation (FIA) handed the Renault Formula One team a suspended ban from the sport for ordering Nelson Piquet junior to crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The FIA told the French team that the threat of a permanent ban from the sport will hang over them until the end of the 2011 season and be activated during that time if they are found guilty of a similar charge.

After all these incidents, Renault were in the muggy waters when they were forced to strip its cars of key sponsor logos after Dutch banking group 'ING' and Spanish insurance company 'Mutua Madrilena' severed ties.

ING dropped a bombshell by announcing that its three-year deal would be terminated with immediate effect after the French car manufacturer was handed a two-year suspended ban for its part on the Singapore race-fix scandal.

It followed former driver Nelson Piquet junior's claims that he had been ordered to deliberately crash at the 2008 race to allow teammate Fernando Alonso to win.

Shuffle stories are running in media so powerfully that no one can possibly deny them, like BMW-Sauber's Polish driver Robert Kubica is seen as the front-runner to replace Alonso at Renault after confirming last week that the team was one of his options. Other widely predicted moves are for Germany's Nico Rosberg to switch from Williams to Brawn, with Mercedes likely to increase their involvement in that team.

On the other side -- Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian F1 driver, has signed for Williams and will leave current stable Brawn GP at the end of the current season, a Brazilian newspaper reported.

Barrichello, currently on a reputed two million dollars annual salary, "has already signed a contract with Williams for the 2010 season with a mutual option to extend for another year", the paper said.

Toyota surprised everybody, when their senior executive said that there is a option that Toyota might quit Formula One racing, the financial crises of its parent company -- Toyota Motor Corporation -- is the reason involved, Japanese media reported.

"We need to turn it into a Formula One where you don't need so much money," Toyota team head Tadashi Yamashina told a news conference in Tokyo, according to a local newspaper. "We'll have to consider various issues while bearing in mind our ties with the main company."

Toyota have told Timo Glock, that he is free to look around, although he could also stay, while also suggesting weeks ago that Italian Jarno Trulli will not be retained.

That could provide an opening for Kovalainen and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima, a Toyota protege who has yet to score a point this year at Williams.

Honda have already pulled out of F1 at the end of 2008 while German carmaker BMW announced earlier this year that it will end its involvement in F1 at the end of the current season.

Four new teams, and possibly five if BMW-Sauber are given the green light under new ownership, are also looking for drivers.

McLaren's Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa looks likely to be in the Campos GP cockpit while Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of the late triple champion Ayrton, is confident he will find a race seat.

A look inside Vijay Mallya's Force India, is not so different then the other Formula One teams, because Bernie Ecclestone, CEO and President of F1, is eager to see an Indian driver in a Formula One car in the near future.

"I was hoping Vijay would give Karun Chandhok -- a Chennai based driver -- a chance," Ecclestone said. "And I'm a little disappointed that he has put the Italian guy in. Whether he has to do this by contract I don't know, but I would've liked to see Karun in the car for rest of the season."

Last month, Force India picked Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi to replace Giancarlo Fisichella.

Ecclestone feels an Indian's presence in the cockpit will help in the build-up for the proposed 2011 race in India.

"We need to get Karun in the Formula One car quickly," Ecclestone said. "And he has got the talent and the ability, so it's a case of somebody just getting on and doing it now."

"We haven't seen him in a Formula One car to know but there's no reason why he shouldn't perform," he added.

Now Force India decided to give Chandhok, an opportunity to prove his F1 mettle but Mallya is not happy by the romanticism that the Chennai driver deserves a seat in the outfit just because he is an Indian.

"The entire issue has got too dramatised. I have been discussing the issue with Karun Chandhok and have already agreed to put him in the driver simulator to see how he handles the Formula One car," Mallya said.

"At the end of the day, Karun must win some GP 2 races and come out good in F1 simulator in which I put him in. And if he is competitive in the simulator, I would be the first one to offer him a position in Force India," he added.

Contenders, selectors and management of every competitive sport in our country face the selection problems especially when it comes to tours abroad. Maneuvering and leg pulling becomes the order of the day and the entire effort of team management and federation office bearers is focused at the selection of blue eyed, unfit and out of form athletes. This all is easily done in our system because of existing gaps in the selection process and non transparent and unscientific methods of talent hunting by the sports boards and federations from grass roots to the top.

As the clock ticks by quickly, sports in Pakistan progresses in a retrograde fashion and the selection of probable becomes more intricate, complex and biased. The interest groups during trials lock their horns and pass judgments on player's talent subjectively with personal likes and dislikes, leaving behind many deserving and talented players who keep guessing about what went wrong in their performance and selection process despite brilliant performance throughout the season.

The unfortunate axe of the beholder's eye has recently fallen at the brilliance of poor Misbah-ul-Haq whose name has not been included in the list of final 25 aspirants for the forthcoming one day and T-20 series against New Zealand in the UAE. The able selectors now seems geared to develop a new and comparatively young Pakistan side that may show its peak performance in 2011 World cup. This is not a bad idea at all and the selection committee deserves kudos for this positive and aggressive approach, however we all know that there are many more important names than Misbah in the Pakistan side who does not qualify for final plying eleven due to their poor fitness and form when it comes to 50-over or T20 format. May be someone at the helm of affairs in PCB is myopic to an extent of being squint or blind, unable to differentiate between a donkey and a horse.

As most sports gurus in Pakistan consider talent hunting a matter of personal choice picked by the eye of beholder, the sports scientists and famous coaches internationally take it as a serious business of sport science based on objectivity and transparency.

Bill Beswick of Manchester United says, "Signs of developing players must include physical, technical, tactical, mental, emotional and lifestyle attributes. The positives must exceed negatives. The key emotional characteristics in every sport includes a desire to achieve, a capacity to learn, an attitude to practice, dogged self confidence and game playing intelligence. The talented players must also exhibit composure under pressure, mistake management and ability to accept criticism and responsibility."

Most of the coaches and selectors give maximum weight -- age to the physical characteristics that includes size of the athlete, speed, quickness, strength, power, agility, flexibility, aerobic fitness and optical vision. While the requirements of physical characteristics vary for different sport, vision is an emerging science in sport talent spotting that encompasses elements such as acuity, tracking, contrast sensitivity, peripheral vision, depth perception and color vision.

And it's not just the 20-20 kind of visual acuity that most people have periodically. Exceptional sports vision includes the five components of acuity, contrast sensitivity, peripheral vision, depth perception and tracking ability all of which are measurable and objective.

For example the peripheral vision is the ability to see things outside the central area of focus, both side to side and up and down. It is one of the most valuable visual skills an athlete can possess. Seeing beyond 180 degree to either side is not physically possible but legendary athletes such as Pete Maravich had amazing side vision.

Recognizing the mental and emotional skills, sport psychologist Jim Loehr says that 'drive' is the most important predictor of exceptional athletic success -- beside passion, stability, mental toughness, positive attitude, realism, focus, effort, persistence and competitiveness. Those players who possess drive spent extra hours in practice at their own like great Jahangir Khan. Children who hold this virtue nag their parents to throw at them, hit with them or kick balls to them. If they can't find anyone, they'll play by themselves, make up games or create make-belief situations in which they make the last big play that wins the game.

However, we in Pakistan still live in oblivion thinking that stick work alone can do wonders in hockey and inclusion of unfit and injured players in the side can win cricket championships for the nation. Above all the mafia has the strength to brand the able qualified and educated coaches as 'laptop coach' to side line them for achieving their sinister designs.

The sport talent in our country needs to be recognised at appropriate age without falling to the four lethal temptations that I would mention later in my article. If the deserving talent is spotted and picked in appropriate age through scientific and transparent methods and coached by trained and committed coaches, there is no reason why we can't raise a sufficient pool of champions in almost every sport.

According to a research by Dr Jean Core of Queen University Kingston, Ontario, Canada the sport talent can be identified and developed in four distinct brackets as sampling Years (6-13 Yrs emphasis on fun & excitement), specializing Years (13-15 Yrs, focus on one or two sports with skill development), investment Years (15-18, achieving elite status in one sport) and perfection Years (Age 18 +, performance stage). The formula for success for talented athletes to reach their fullest potential is 'ability + opportunity + drive'. While the formula is simple and straightforward identifying & developing sports talent is less so.

To conclude, in pursuit of sports excellence coaches, selectors and gifted athletes are confronted with four dangerous temptations. The first temptation is to over evaluate talent, the second is to overrate physical talent and underrate mental and emotional strengths, the third is to misuse talent and last but not the least is to overemphasize sports talent.

Nothing is sadder then the wasted life of an athlete who can't adjust to the world beyond sports. When the game is over, athletic talent should be just one dimension of a well-rounded person and that is the reason why sport and education are so imperative for each other. It is therefore a must that true talent must be discovered objectively, and later supported and developed properly as a national asset.

The ministry of sports, sports boards and federations need a serious soul searching and capacity building in developing robust talent hunting programs so that the much wasted sport talent in the country is utilized for developing the champions in right age.

Aamir Bilal is a qualified coach, sdfsports@gmail.com