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

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

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 , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

. He stood in one Test match, 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 (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

teams from 1933 to 1947, including four matches in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy is a premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The teams representing regional and state cricket associations participate. BCCI ...

for Southern Punjab,

Northern India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

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

Sind Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind or Scinde) is a province 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 provin ...

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 ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

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 is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

and nearby

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

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

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

and

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

. His only Test as umpire was also the only Test ever held at the Pindi Club Ground in Rawalpindi, when

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

defeated

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

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" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

''.

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, (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 becam ...

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