Qamaruddin Butt (1914 – 8 June 1974) was a Pakistani

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

player, writer and

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

. He stood in one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

, Pakistan v New Zealand, in 1965.

Playing career

A batsman, leg-spin bowler and occasional wicket-keeper, Butt played seven first-class matches for various

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

teams from 1933 to 1947, including four matches in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

for

Southern Punjab South Punjab may refer to: *the southern part of the region of Punjab in South Asia *South Punjab (region), an historic region in the 8th–9th centuries; see Timeline of Pakistani history *two proposed provinces in this region in Pakistan: **Sara ...

Northern India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. His highest score was 59 for a one-off team called the North India Free Lancers against

Sind Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

in 1936-37. In the only match in which he kept wicket, a semi-final of the Ranji Trophy in 1935-36, he took five catches in a narrow loss for Northern India to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Umpiring career

Butt umpired 53 first-class matches between 1954 and 1973, including four

Quaid-e-Azam Trophy The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition in Pakistan. With few exceptions, it has been staged annually since it was first played during the 1953–54 season. Domestic cricket in Pakistan has undergone many reorganis ...

finals and several semi-finals. His first match as umpire was the inaugural final in 1953-54. From 1953-54 to 1959-60 he mostly umpired matches in the south of Pakistan in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

and nearby

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, but later most of his matches were in the north, in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

and

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

. His only Test as umpire was also the only Test ever held at the

Pindi Club Ground Pindi Club Ground, also known as the Army Sports Ground, is a multi-use stadium in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. It is used mostly for cricket matches. The stadium has the capacity to hold 15,000 people and hosted its first and only international Test ...

in Rawalpindi, when

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

defeated

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in March 1965.

Writing career

In parallel with his umpiring career, Butt was also a prolific chronicler of Pakistan’s Test cricket in the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on his own observations and the reports of others, and known for his colourful use of language, he wrote 10 books (in English) covering most of Pakistan's international cricket from 1954 to 1969: * ''Pakistan on Cricket Map: Fully Covering Pakistan's Cricket Tour of England 1954, Together with Complete Averages, Records and Action Photos'' (1955) * ''Cricket without Challenge'' (1955) (on the series Pakistan v India in 1954-55) * ''Pakistan Cricket on the March: Containing Complete Eye-Witness Accounts of the Tours of New Zealand, M.C.C. "A" and Australian Teams to Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 1956-57 and Averages of All the Previous Official Series'' (1957) * ''Cricket Wonders: Containing a Complete Account of Pakistan Team's Tour of the West Indies in 1958'' (1959) * ''Cricket Ups and Downs: Containing a Complete Eye-Witness Account of West Indies Tour of Pakistan in 1959'' (1960) * ''Cricket Cat and Mouse: Australians' Tour of Pakistan in 1959'' (1961) * ''Playing for a Draw: Covering Pakistan’s Tour of India 1960-61'' (1962) * ''Cricket Re-Born: Covering Commonwealth Cricket Team’s Tour in Pakistan, 1963'' (1964) * ''The Oval Memories: Eye-Witness Accounts of the Pakistan Cricket Team's Tour of England 1967'' (1968) * ''Sporting Wickets: Eye-Witness Accounts of Tours of M.C.C. and New Zealand to Pakistan 1969'' (1970) He also covered the 1967 Pakistan tour of England for ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

''.

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's ''Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he bec ...

described his writing as “colloquial, parochial and enthusiastic”.

Personal life

He died while cycling home from a cricket match in Rawalpindi. His sons Javed and ShoaibShoaib Butt
at CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 September 2015. had brief first-class careers in Pakistan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Qamaruddin umpired three of Shoaib’s matches.

References

External links