Umpires in cricket, more often than not, aim for having an elongated career playing the game, but that is not the case with Allahudien Paleker, who had his vision clear right from the start. Palekar recently made his debut as a Test match umpire in the Johannesburg Test between India and South Africa.
Taking cue from South African veteran umpire, Marais Erasmus, Allahudien Paleker started his umpiring career as soon as his cricket playing career ended. "He (Erasmus) adviced me to begin my umpiring career as soon as possible," Palekar told ABP Live.
Allahudien Paleker comes from a family of five Umpires including his father, uncle and two cousins. His another cousin - Bakhtiyar Paleker - played international cricket for United Arab Emirates (UAE). Allahudien himself started his career as a wicket-keeper batsman. He has played for the domestic South African side, Titans till 2006. Here he was teammates with AB De Villiers, Dale Steyn, among others.
"Umpiring is something I always wanted to do, I always knew, as it runs in the family," he said.
Paleker is someone who takes his job very seriously. A bad decision keeps haunting him for several days. "Umpiring is a task that requires concentration. Mentally, you need to be present all the time. Once I had given Ben Stokes out, it was a wrong decision which I kept on thinking about for several days."
When asked about the relevance of umpires in the distant future with technology improving every single day, he replied saying that Umpires not only give the decision, but they also manage the match. "Just yesterday, (referring to Johannesburg Test), there were some feisty confrontations between the players and we needed to intervene. As Umpires, we are assessing playing conditions, managing the match, and not just giving decisions," Paleker said.
"Technology is excellent, and it is helping the umpires, but robots cannot be Umpires, you need a human to be out there," he said.
A few years back, in 2015, Paleker was in India, as part of umpire-exchange programme between two boards, and umpired in Ranji Trophy games in Mumbai and Chennai, but his memories of India are more vivid from a trip from the year 2000 when he had visited Shiv, his ancestral village in Khed taluka of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.
"I visited my village for five weeks for a marriage. I enjoyed my time there and even played for my village's team during a local cricket tournament. We played cricket on huge fields with long green grass on the outside. There was volleyball on one end of the field and cricket on the other. I really have fond memories of playing cricket back in 2000," he said.
Bakhtiyar Paleker, Allahudien's cousin also has memories of meeting him during his trip. Bakhtiyar also played for UAE and he was a well-known name in the local circuit from 1996 to the early 2000s. Thus, it is safe to say that the Palekers have it in them to play cricket and to do everything that is cricket.
Allahudien Paleker remembers his family very fondly. “What (mannerisms) Billy Bowden would do, my uncle used to do such stuff years before that!" Paleker had said in an interview to Indian Express. “He would say, you didn’t move quickly, you were too slow in getting into position, very critical,” Paleker added.
With his debut done, Paleker also received wishes from Pakistan Umpire Aleem Dar.
Paleker is only 44 and has many years ahead of him as a Test match umpire. Allahudien Paleker became South Africa's 57th Test umpire when he makes his debut in the 2nd Betway Test.