RIYADH, 24 March 2005 — Emirates Airlines will sponsor Riyadh Cricket Association (RCA) umpiring activities during the 2004-2005 season. This was announced in a joint press release by Karunakaran Pillai, sales manager Central Province Emirates Airlines and Nasir Ali Khan, vice president RCA.
Pillai said Emirates is proud to be associated with RCA and it is heartening to note that the association is striving hard to promote cricket and to improve umpiring standard in the Kingdom.
Emirates is the global sponsor of ICC umpires and in the Kingdom it extended its involvement in the game of cricket. This is the first time in the Saudi cricket history that professional umpires are being introduced by RCA.
Recently, RCA umpiring coordinator Ahsan Raza conducted an in-house two-day workshop for their umpiring panel. It was a big success and hopefully one more workshop before the season ends for players and managers will be organized to educate and update on cricket rules and regulations. Three RCA Official umpires Kamran, Muzzamil and Mahboob attended and came out with flying colors in the just concluded ICC/ACC umpiring seminar which was held in Jeddah under the supervision of former Test umpire and ACC umpiring resource person Khizar Hayat. Nasir Ali Khan VP RCA, Raza Ur Rahman PRO RCA and Razi Mohiuddin General Secretary RCA welcomed Emirates’ decision to sponsor RCA activities. They thanked Emirates and hoped that the relationship continue to flourish in future.
