Former ICC elite panel umpire and Pakistan First Class cricketer Asad Rauf passed away in Lahore due to cardiac arrest on late Wednesday at the age of 66.
According to details, his family has confirmed that Asad died due to cardiac arrest soon after he returned from his shop in Lahore on Wednesday night.
Rauf was a former National Bank Of Pakistan (NBP) and Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) first-class player and played 71 first class and 40 List A matches, electronic channels reported.
His career as an umpire really started in 1998 when he made his first-class debut, and in 2000 he stood in his first ODI. He was elevated to the ODI panel in 2004 and officiated in his first Test the following year.
In April 2006 he was appointed to the ICC Elite Panel.
Rauf had officiated 170 international matches while being a top umpire with the ICC. He stood as an umpire in 49 Tests, 90 One Day Internationals and 23 Twenty20 Internationals.
But his career came to an abrupt halt in 2013 when he was named as a “wanted accused” by Mumbai police in their investigation into the IPL spot-fixing scandal, where Rauf had been umpiring. Rauf left India before the end of that IPL season and but was withdrawn from the Champions Trophy that was followed by the ICC and later that year would be dropped from the ICC’s elite panel, though the ICC insisted it wasn’t because his name had come up in the investigations.
Rauf protested his innocence throughout and said he would be happy to cooperate with the ACSU. In 2016, the BCCI banned Rauf for five years on four charges of corruption and misconduct.
Rauf had a substantial first-class career as a middle-order batter before he turned to umpiring, appearing for National Bank and Railways, averaging 28.76 from 71 first-class matches.
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