SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Oct 7: One of the senior-most cricket umpires of the State and president of the Dhanbad Handball Association, S A Rahman, died here on Thursday after a prolonged illness.
Rahman (62), who passed out state panel umpiring examination in 1985, had conducted several matches of inter-district cricket tournaments and All India Inter-DVC cricket championship for several years till 2010.
“He had vast knowledge of umpiring and proved his mettle in big matches held in Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Patna, Hazaribagh, and other places of unified Bihar,” said Mukherji, a state panel umpire Jharkhand.
Besides establishing himself in the state, SA Rahman had also promoted young umpires and budding cricket talents of the state. He had helped Chandra Mohan, Aamir Hashmi, Sanjiv Kumar, Satya Prakash, SS Rao and other players who represented the state team in Ranji Trophy from unified Bihar and later on from the Jharkhand team.
“ He was a promoter of the young umpires and helped in learning umpiring. I had got opportunity to stand with him in several matches, he always guided me to overcome pressure in the field. His death is a major loss to Jharkhand cricket,” said former general secretary of Dhanbad cricket Association SA Rahman junior.
Jharkhand Olympic Association (JOA) working president SM Hashmi and Dhanbad Olympic Association’s (DOA) Ranjeet Kesri have also expressed shock over the death of Senior Rahman and said the state lost a senior cricket umpire and sports administrator. Dhanbad Cricket Association (DCA) president Manoj Kumar and general secretary Vinay Kumar Singh have also expressed shock over the death of Rahman.
Besides umpiring he was also an established cricket coach. He made his school team Indian School of learning (ISL) Jharia Dhanbad inter-school champion for the record 18 years. Rahman was also the founder and promoter of handball in Dhanbad. He had been president of the association for the last 20 years.
