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Enamul Haque Moni, popularly known as Moni, is a former Bangladeshi cricketer and umpire. He was the first Bangladesh’s Test-match cricketer to umpire in international cricket. Moni was a quickfire tailender and economic spinner in his competitive cricket career. He was considered to be a brilliant umpire. However, his career saw many controversies regarding bad decisions.
Background
Moni was born on 27 February 1966 at Comilla in Chittagong division of Bangladesh. He was a slow left-arm orthodox and left handed batsman in his career as a player. He played 34 First class and 64 List-A matches, making 1033 and 624 runs and claiming 129 and 49 wickets respectively.
He made his ODI debut against New Zealand at Sharjah on 28 April 1990 and Test debut against Zimbabwe at Harare on 26 April 2001. In his short international career, he represented Bangladesh in 29 ODIs and 10 Tests. He amassed 236 runs and 19 wickets in Tests and scored 180 runs and took 18 wickets in his ODI career.
Umpiring career
Moni made his ODI debut as an umpire in a match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe played at Bogra on 3 December 2006. He soon established himself as a patient and explicit decision taker.
He made his T20 debut in the same month as ODI in a match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at Khulna.
The only Test in which he umpired was played on 26 January 2012 in a match between New Zealand and Zimbabwe played at Napier.
He umpired in 43 home matches and 11 neutral matches in ODI. He also officiated in the 2009 ODI World Cup qualifier matches and 2016 T20 World Cup qualifier as a field and TV umpire. He stood in the finals of the Tri-nation tournament between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2009. He was the TV umpire in the finals of India Bangladesh T20 series on 6 March 2016.
Stats
He umpired in 54 ODI, 1 Test and 14 T20 matches in a career that spanned over a decade.
Controversy
Moni had been in headlines in Bangladesh England ODI series in 2010 when he gave the benefit of doubt to Kevin Peterson against Shakib Al Hasan. He was again in controversy in the India Bangladesh ODI series in 2015. As the prominent Indian team lost to Bangladesh due to various bad decisions.
Retirement
Moni retired from the umpiring career in 2016 in a T20 match of Asia Cup played between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Dhaka. His last assignment in ODI was in a match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at Dhaka on 9 November 2015.
