Player jailed for assault on umpire

A Yorkshire club player has been jailed for three years after a row which started during a Sunday league match ended with an umpire suffering a fractured arm in a revenge attack.

York Crown Court was told that Mahmood Akhtar was so incensed when he was given out leg-before by Qadeer Hussain in September 2002 that he instigated an attack with a baseball bat during a game a week later.

Hussain was fielding during the subsequent match when Akhtar and his brother, Gulfam Zaqar, ran onto the field and began hitting him. Hussain's teenage nephew, who tried to intervene, was also assaulted. Zaqar also pleaded guilty to the charge of grievous bodily harm and assault and is awaiting sentencing.

"The fact that you didn't wield the baseball bat serves you not a jot," the judge told Akhtar. "The fight that followed was a cowardly attack upon this man. Your brother attacked him with a baseball bat with such effect it caused him serious injuries."

During the hearing, Akhtar's solicitor had told the court that his client's life "revolves around his family, his work and the people at his local cricket club."