Aleem Dar named Umpire of the Year

Aleem Dar, the Pakistan umpire, has been named Umpire of the Year at the ICC Awards ceremony in Bangalore. He has won this award - named the David Shepherd Trophy - for the second time in successive years. The other nominees in the category were Steve Davis, Tony Hill and five-time winner Simon Taufel.

Dar, 42, was voted by the captains of the ten full members of the ICC and the eight-man elite panel of ICC's match referees for the period August 24, 2009 to August 10, 2010. Their choice was based on his decision statistics and officiating skills over the past 12 months.

After collecting his trophy from match referee Chris Broad, Dar said: "I think the fact that I'm still playing cricket in Pakistan makes me a good umpire. In the last four times I've played cricket I've scored centuries so I definitely think that has helped."