KARACHI  -  Former Pakistan Test spinner, Akram Raza has retired from umpiring, accusing some officials in the Cricket Board (PCB) of mistreating him and trying to destroy his promising career as a match official.
"I have decided to retire from umpiring because some officials in the Board particularly the Director of Cricket Operations (Zakir Khan) have been non co-operative and tried to create hurdles for me," Raza said.
Raza, 48, was reinstated to the PCB umpiring panel in September last year after he was suspended for one year for his alleged involvement in an illegal betting racket. After yearlong proceedings in a Lahore court Raza was finally cleared of the charges and named in the PCB panel of umpires for the 2012-2013 first-class season. The former spinner, who played nine Tests and 49 ODIs, was among six persons arrested from a office plaza in Lahore in October, 2011 in charges of carrying out an illegal betting racket, but Raza had all along claimed that he had gone there to meet a friend when the police conducted the raid.
"I am hugely disappointed that the PCB didn't send my name to the International Cricket Council for the elite panel of umpires," Raza said. "I am disappointed because in my three-year-old umpiring career I got top marks and was ranked among the top three umpires of the country. Once the court cleared me of any wrong doing I deserved to be recommended for the ICC job but some PCB officials were adamant on not sending my name," he said.