Sultans upbeat to make a mark in PSL

Muhammad Asif Khan

KARACHI: The new entrant to the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Multan Sultans are fresh but upbeat to uproot the formidable outfits in the third edition of the competition.

In an informal interaction with journalists here on Friday, the Managing Director of Multan Sultans, Khizer Schon shared the idea behind acquiring the most expensive outfit in the Pakistan Super League.

“The passion for cricket in Multan is unmatched and this is one of the reasons of buying this name. We have recently witnessed the enthusiasm, when record number of people turned up to watch an exhibition game,” Schon said

“That was the biggest gathering in the history of the city”, Schon added

The MD said that the team is obviously new but had players to create impact from the onset.

“Under Wasim Akram, Sultans assembled a combination which can rattle any opposition. We are not here to just make our presence felt but to win the cup eventually”, Schon lightheartedly said

Highlighting their strategy for the region, Khizer Schon said it is a long-term roadmap which includes game development at every level.

“To begin with we will scout players from the area. Our focus will be on younger players to comprise junior outfits of Multan Sultans”, Schon said

“We also look forward to assembling women teams by holding events amongst local universities”, the MD said

In the end the Multan Sultans MD shared good news about their foreign players who, he said, are ready to tour Pakistan, if there team qualify for the final games.

@mak_asif

68pc journalists in Pakistan feel insecure online, says DRF report

Karachi – At least 68 per cent of journalists in the country have faced “online insecurity” in various ways including blackmail, hacking, threats, sexual harassment, data theft and stalking, read a report issued by Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) on Friday.

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Journalists who have faced digital insecurity.

The report titled “Digital (In)Security of Journalists in Pakistan” is based on a nationwide survey “on the state of security of journalists to shed light on the threats and concerns journalists face online”.

The survey was divided into two parts; the first part inquired journalists’ understanding of digital security. The second part was addressed to journalists who had experienced online threats or harassment — 68% of total respondents said they had faced online threats or harassment, hence proving that the majority is exposed to online insecurity.

https://e.infogr.am/how-common-is-online-harassment-in-journalism-1hnq41q93jze63z?src=embed

This report seeks to give recommendations to lawmakers with reference to the under-consideration Journalist Protection Bill.

“The first draft of the Bill did not include provisions for the digital security of journalists, thus the aim of this report is to advocate for lawmakers to also consider that journalists be protected online to keep censorship at bay, and to safeguard their mental health, quality of work, physical security of journalists and freedom of the press,” read a statement issued by the Digital Rights Foundation.

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The report also found a dire need for organisations to realise the nature of this threat and for them to conduct training for digital security and privacy.

Media partnership deal between Peshawar Zalmi and PTV signed

Islamabad – Champion of Pakistan Super LEague (PSL) franchise and the defending champions, Peshawer Zalmi, has signed an agreement of Media partnership with Pakistan’s largest and state owned Pakistan television network (PTV).

The MOU was signed at PTV headquarters located in Islamabad during the meeting of Peshawar Zalmi’s chairman, Javed Afridi and Secretary of Minister of Information, Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera. Peshawar Zalmi cricket matches will be broadcast on PTV Sports, PTV News, PTV World and PTV Home.

Javed Afridi also said and that we are very glad to be associated with Pakistan’s no. 1 and a cardinal television network.

Hockey – World XI won series against Pakistan in Lahore

Lahore: Pakistan hockey team on Sunday twice came from behind to hold World XI to a 3-3 draw in the second and final match of the series at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore.

Having battered their inexperienced hosts 5-1 in the opening game in Karachi, the formidable World XI continued where they had left off, creating a plethora of opportunities in the opening half, although some uncharacteristic profligacy in front of the goal kept them from taking an early lead.

 

Lahore: Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, handed over the trophy to the winning captain Weusthof.

The opening goal finally arrived in the 28th minute off the stick of Roderick Weusthof as Pakistan goalkeeper Adil Rao’s defence was breached for the first time in the game.

It didn’t take long for the visitors to double their lead, with Nahuel Salis being the goalscorer this time as his angular shot in the 36th minute sneaked past Rao.

Having conceded their second, the Greenshirts suddenly came alive, opening their account just a minute later, thanks to a successful penalty converted by Rizwan Ali.

Pakistan were back on level terms in the 42nd minute when Adeel Latif’s powerful hit took a deflection from the goalkeeper and sailed into the goal.

Both teams pushed hard to take the lead but it was World XI whose efforts bore fruit; Weusthof scored his second of the game in the 52nd minute.

But like before, the young Pakistan side responded again, with the equalising goal coming just two minutes from full-time. Having been thwarted in his first attempt at goal, Naveed Alam took a second shot and found the net this time.

Neither side was able to find another goal as the match ended 3-3 and the World XI side clinched the series 1-0.

Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, handed over the trophy to the winning captain Weusthof.

Hockey World XI Aims to Revive the National Sport of Pakistan

Karachi – Pakistan Hockey Federation has announced a World XI hockey team tour to Pakistan, comprising stars from hockey’s top nations. The two match series will be taken place in Karachi and Lahore on January 19 and 21 respectively. Globally recognized players from Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, China, New Zealand and Belgium will be touring Pakistan for a four day visit in a bid to revive international hockey in Pakistan.

Philip Meulenbroek

Hockey is our national sport but has seen little progress in the sport as a whole and has seen no matches in recent years. From the glory days where Hockey was the main sport of Pakistan and produced some of the most coveted names like Sohail Abbas, the Hockey World XI tour aims to revive Hockey in the country with league matches to follow up later. Pakistan Hockey Federation’s president Khalid Sajjad Khokhar said, “The foreign team, which is a blend of world’s renowned hockey players, will be arriving Karachi and will play its first match at Abdul Sattar Edhi Stadium on January 19. Karachi’s match will be played under lights and the match at Lahore will be a day affair.”

The foreign team includes Kylie , David Alegre, Juan Escarre, Santi Freixa of Spain, Agustin Burgallo, Diego Paz, Roc Oliva of Argentina, Hidde Turkstra, Philip Muelenbroek, Roderick Weusthof, Rob Reckers, Matthijs Brouwer, Rob Lathouwers, Floris Bovelander of Netherlands, Benjamin Wess, Christian Blunck, Justus Scharowsky of Germany, Phil Burrows, Kyle Pontifex of New Zealand, and Grant Shubert.

Grant Schubert

A special function will also be held in Karachi to honor foreign and home players with their induction in the Hall of Fame. Talking about the event Mr. Khokhar said, “The prime objective of induction of players in ‘hall of fame’ is to develop a new culture in Pakistan hockey and to give recognition to those foreign and home players, who excelled in the game at the highest level,” he said adding, “it will be a big step forward to motivate the youth to take up hockey as a sport and to revive the game in Pakistan.”

PHF is hopeful that with friendly matches like these and the arrival of hockey players from all around the world, it will help bring back international hockey to Pakistan. And most importantly will instill confidence and hope in our national hockey players which right now is the need of the hour.

4 Cricketers In Jammu And Kashmir Arrested For ‘Respecting’ Pakistan National Anthem

SRINAGAR: Four Kashmiri cricketers were arrested on Sunday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district for lining up as Pakistan’s national anthem was played before the start of a cricket match.

After a video went viral showing the players’ conduct in Arin village before the start of the match, police arrested the four.

Police said they were looking for the organisers of the match who arranged the shooting of the video.

In 2016 too, a video went viral showing local cricketers line up to “salute” Pakistan’s national anthem before the start of a match in Ganderbal district.

Police had arrested some of the boys then but they were let off after assurances from the parents.

India blind cricketers to play in UAE amid tensions with Pakistan

Dubai : The Indian blind cricket team left for the United Arab Emirates today to take part in the World Cup after failing to secure permission to play in neighbouring Pakistan.

The fifth edition of the tournament starts Sunday and ends on January 21, with Australia and the West Indies also to be based in UAE due to security concerns.

India had been due to play archrivals Pakistan, who they beat in the 2014 Blind Cricket World Cup final, in Faisalabad on Monday.

But instead Pakistan has arranged for India’s games to be played in Ajman and Sharjah in the UAE because of tense relations between the nuclear-armed countries.

The fifth edition of the tournament starts Sunday and ends on January 21, with Australia and the West Indies also to be based in UAE due to security concerns.

The Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) told AFP it had to make the last-minute schedule change because the Indian government did not respond to its request for permission to go to Pakistan.

“We are yet to receive any official communication from them. Till they write to us we are not allowed to go. So all our matches are shifted to Dubai (Ajman),” CABI president G K Mahantesh said.

“If we reach the final then it will be shifted from Lahore to Sharjah,” he said late Friday before leaving with the team.

Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) expressed disappointment over the Indian foreign ministry’s silence on the event.

India and Pakistan’s senior cricket teams have not played a bilateral series since 2013 because of the tense political climate.

However Pakistan’s blind cricket team travelled to India for last year’s inaugural Twenty20 World Cup that was won by the host nation.

India won the 50-over World Cup for the Blind in 2014 in Cape Town, beating Pakistan in the final.

AFP

Cricket – Pakistan to face Afghanistan to renew rivalry

Whangarei, New Zealand : Pakistan have been one of the better sides in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup over the years. They are the only ones to have won back-to-back titles, in 2004 and 2006, and have also finished runners-up on three other occasions. In the last edition, they lost to eventual champions the Windies in the quarterfinals.

Hassan Khan, who topped Pakistan’s batting charts with 293 runs in the Bangladesh event and made his first-class debut for Karachi Whites this season, will lead the squad in New Zealand, where the tournament is being held for the third time.

Pakistan could face a stiff challenge from Afghanistan after having lost to them in the final of the U19 Asia Cup. Munir Riaz, who took eight wickets in that tournament, and Shaheen Afridi are the team’s main bowlers.

But the player to watch in this group could be 16-year-old off-spinner Mujeeb Zadran, who not only grabbed five for 13 against Pakistan in that final, but also made a sensational entry into senior international cricket grabbing four for 24 against Ireland in Sharjah for a player of the match debut.

Before the Asia Cup, Afghanistan had remained unbeaten in the Asia Qualifiers to earn an entry into the U19 CWC. Afghanistan had also made an impression in the 2016 World Cup where they won the plate final. Leg-spinner Rashid Khan was one of the key members of that squad and is now one of the leading spinners of the world in ODIs and T20Is.

As for Sri Lanka, they will be led by ambidextrous spinner Kamindu Mendis. He was one of the players in focus at the 2016 U19 CWC, when Sri Lanka finished fourth after losing to Bangladesh by three wickets in the third-place play-off.

Like Mendis, Jehan Daniel was also a part of the team in Bangladesh. Sri Lanka did not qualify for the knockouts of the Asia Cup. Before that the team had travelled to Australia to play a bilateral series, which they lost 1-4. Also watched will be spinner Praveen Jayawickrama, the second-highest wicket-taker in the Asia Cup with 11 wickets.

Ireland made it after winning the European Qualifier. In a thrilling must-win game against Scotland, Ireland prevailed by five runs. Bundled out for 108, Ireland rallied around Joshua Little and Aaron Cawley, who picked up three wickets each, to dismiss Scotland for 103 in 34.5 overs.

Little was one of Ireland’s finds in the 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh, where Ireland beat Canada and Scotland, and put up a good fight against India and New Zealand. He has already represented Ireland in senior international cricket.

Cricket – Pakistan played well in 2017

Karachi – 2017 was, undoubtedly, a game changer for Pakistani cricket, both on and off the field, a year that will be remembered by cricket lovers for many years to come thanks to the new and great heights the country achieved.

The year saw international cricket, finally, returning to Pakistan and the Green Shirts winning the Test series in West Indies for the first time. It saw Younis Khan completing 10,000 Test runs and bidding goodbye to international cricket along with skipper Misbah-ul-Haq. And to top it all, the year saw Pakistan winning the ICC Champions Trophy under the resilient leadership of Sarfraz Ahmed.

 

The start of 2017 wasn’t on a high note for the team, as it lost the ODI series in Australia by 4-1. The defeat in Australia even put Pakistan on the verge of missing direct qualification for the World Cup 2019. But the boys didn’t lose hope.

Recovering from the initial defeat by India, the Men in Green made a remarkable comeback to defeat South Africa and Sri Lanka to qualify for the semi-final of the Champions Trophy, where they defeated hosts England to qualify for the final.

In the mega-final, it was once again Pakistan vs India. Pakistan defied all odds to outclass India in the final to lift the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time.

verall, Pakistan played 18 ODIs in 2017 and won 12 of them.

Young Babar Azam remained Pakistan’s leading scorer in the year by scoring 872 runs in 17 innings with the help of four hundreds and two fifties. Mohammad Hafeez was Pakistan’s second leading scorer with 555 runs, while Shoaib Malik finished third with 516 runs in 15 innings.

The team’s first T20I series in 2017 was a four-match series against West Indies, which the Green Shirts won by 3-1.

Pakistan then hosted a historical three-match T20I series at home, Independence Cup, against the World XI, which was led by South Africa captain Faf du Plessis. While the series was more than just a cricket encounter, it also kept Pakistan’s victorious run as the home side defeated the star-studded World XI by 2-1.

The Green Shirts continued their winning run in the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, clean sweeping 3-0. After beating the Lankans in the first two matches in UAE, Pakistan outclassed them in the third match as well, played at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

The match in Lahore was the first international game in Pakistan by a high-profile team since the attack on Sri Lankan team bus in 2009.Pakistan ended the year winning eight of ten T20Is it played in the duration.

Babar Azam, like in ODIs, was Pakistan’s most successful T20I batsman as well. He scored 352 runs in 10 innings, only five short of the overall top scorer West Indian Evin Lewis.

Flamboyant opener Ahmad Shahzad was Pakistan’s second-best and overall the third-best T20I batsman in 2017 with 304 runs off nine innings.

Among Pakistani bowlers, Shadab Khan bagged 14 wickets in 10 T20Is and Hasan Ali claimed 12 wickets in nine T20Is during the year, to remain Pakistan’s leading bowlers in the shortest format of professional cricket in the ending calendar year.

The series against West Indies was memorable. It was the last Test series by the experienced duo of Misbah and Younis Khan. During the first Test of the series, Younis Khan completed his 10,000 Test runs to become the first ever Pakistani batsman to reach the 10K runs club. Pakistan won the Kingston Test, West Indies won the Bridgetown Test.

The third Test at Roseau saw a great contest between the two teams with West Indies fighting hard to save the series. But towards the end of the match Yasir Shah managed to orchestrate a historic win for Pakistan, handing his country its first ever Test series win in West Indies.
Sarfraz Ahmed took the charge of the Test team after Misbah’s retirement. His first assignment as Test skipper didn’t go too well and Pakistan lost both the Tests in UAE, against Sri Lanka.

Yasir Shah remained Pakistan’s most successful bowler in Test cricket in 2017, with 43 wickets in six T sts. Mohammad Abbas took 23 wickets in five Tests to finish second.

Azhar Ali was Pakistan’s most successful batsman in 2017 with 504 runs in six Tests, while Sarfraz Ahmed scored 350 runs in 11 innings of six Tests.

While Pakistan remained world beaters throughout the year in limited overs format, the performance in the longer format, the Test cricket, remained a cause of worry for Pakistan cricket fans.

Another event for the fans to remember from 2017 was the historic Pakistan Super League (PSL) final in Lahore – the game that opened the doors for international cricket in the cricket-starved country. Peshawar Zalmi defeated Quetta Gladiators in the final, but most importantly, cricket defeated terrorism on that day.

(APP)

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PCB will decide if Pakistan will go to India or not for Asia Cup: Najam Sethi

Karachi: Asia Cup cricket tournament 2018 has been hit by one controversy after another, which has put the future of the tournament, which is scheduled to be hosted in India in September next year, in doubt.

Rumours started doing rounds that Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will opt out of hosting the tournament all together, stating the central Government’s cautious approach in the recent past to have Pakistani cricketers play in the country.

Pakistan Cricket Board has hit back saying that they can too exercise their ‘right’ to to pull out of the 2018 Asia Cup. Earlier in October, representatives from India and Bangladesh were absent from the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Lahore, after they had raised an issue to Pakistan hosting the Emerging Teams Asia Cup, which will be held in April 2018.

PCB chairman Najam Sethi said that Pakistan too is concerned about their Government’s approval to travel to India for the continental showpiece.

“I also raised the point that since the BCCI is still awaiting an approval from the government to hold the Asia Cup and wants the visa clearance of all the participating teams, the PCB will decide whether to go to India or not because we are also bound by our government’s clearance,” Sethi told media.

“The ACC Development Committee head and Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Thilanga Sumathipala tried to convince India and Bangladesh that they were also invited to attend the meeting [in Lahore] but they did not come. So the committee, with majority members’ votes, went on to make the decision in favour of Pakistan,” Sethi added.

In 2014, both BCCI and PCB had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which stated that the two countries would play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023.

According to the 2014 agreement, India was scheduled to play six series against Pakistan, four of them were going to be Pakistan’s home series.

While the BCCI has repeatedly snubbed Pakistan’s request for resumption of ties, the PCB wants its Indian counterpart to honour its commitment under the MoU signed, which is subjected to clearance from the Government of India.

Pakistan was expected to generate bulk of revenue in these eight years by hosting India, but since BCCI denied playing the series in wake of tensions between the two countries, the PCB suffered huge financial losses due to it.

Earlier this year, the BCCI had rejected the PCB’s demand for compensation for not honouring the MoU, saying that the MoU was not binding and also raised the issue of security problems in Pakistan.

In May, the PCB had sent a legal notice to its Indian counterpart for failing to honour the MoU.

“If Pakistan wins the case, India will have to give us the matches and for that purpose the Future Tours Programme (FTP) will be changed. And if we lose, the same FTP with some minor changes may go ahead,” Sethi said on Wednesday.

Earlier, the PCB had maintained that they would only approve the new FTP proposed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after the dispute with India over resumption of bilateral series is resolved.

The 14th edition of the Asia Cup will be held from September 15 to 30, 2018 in India.