BHOPAL, 12 December 2006 — International hockey umpire Grade 1 Shakeel Ahmed Qureshi, who hails from the central Indian state Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, has called it a day and hung his whistle on the wall after a remarkable career spanning 16 years from 1991 to 2006.
Shakeel, looking quite composed while talking to Arab News, said that he is satisfied with his performance on the field.
“I am happy with the experience of umpiring in 75 international hockey matches. The most important thing for me was the non-controversial career I had,” he said.
He informed that after supervising the final match of Indian national hockey tournament held at Jallundhar last month he had decided to retire. He is credited to be the only Indian to have supervised all the final matches of national hockey final played from 1991 to 2006. He is a recipient of Vishwamitra Award, the highest Madhya Pradesh sports award for umpires and coaches.
Replying to a question Shakeel said that the International Hockey Federation (FIH), has now fixed the retiring age of an international umpire at 47 years. The age has been lowered over the years with the game getting faster and faster for which the fitness of the umpires has to be in top gear, he remarked. Shakeel disclosed that after retirement he would undertake coaching of umpires and work as director of tournaments at the national and international level.
He revealed he has received a letter from World Hockey saying that FIH Umpiring Committee has accepted his nomination to the FIH Umpire Managers List as a trainee. He will be required to participate at a tournament as a trainee and successfully work alongside the appointed Umpires’ Manager throughout that event before he can be accepted as an Umpire Manager onto the full list.
Shakeel’s last appearance in an international hockey tournament was in the four-nation championship that was organized in Germany in June this year. The final match played between Holland and Germany in the four-nation tournament at Hamburg in 1996 was a memorable fixture, he added.
An employee of the State Bank of India, Shakeel gave full credit to his bank that supported him a lot. “It was the SBI that has supported me in smoothly conducting my umpiring career,” Shakeel pointed out.
