by Owais Ehsan on February 3, 2010
With Pakistan Cricket going through endless humiliations, starting from the Poor form of the team, Ipl Snub, Afridi’s antics at Perth - there is at least some positive News coming out. Rashid Latif & Karachi City Government have join hands to launch the most lucrative club tournament in Pakistan’s History. Latif has long been thinking of launching a city-based Twenty20 league but finally decided it was time to act when Pakistan’s leading cricketers were snubbed at an Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction in Mumbai last month.
The Karachi Champions League, a Twenty20 league, for the leading clubs of the city will begin next week with Rs 10 million (around USD 117,200) as the top prize for the winners. The tournament, a brainchild of Latif and the Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA) will feature a number of Karachi-based international players, as well as a host of domestic cricketers. Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Khalid Latif, Fawad Alam, Khurram Manzoor and Sarfraz Ahmed, among others, will be playing.
“It was an old idea of mine, one that I had been working on. I am a big follower of English football and I love the history of clubs over there, like Chelsea and Fulham. We have so many old clubs in Karachi and we need to revive that club culture once again here.” [click to continue...]
by Mansoor Ehsan on January 29, 2010
[CRICKET] Pakistan’s mainstream team is in all sort of troubles but Pakistan’s Under 19 (U-19) team has done some remarkable job in past two-three weeks. Hats off to kids who have reached final of Under 19 (U-19) World Cup with some unbelievable victories. They will be fighting tonight for the trophy against Australia. Can they heal the emotions of bruised cricketing nation who has almost stopped watching national team’s contests with Australia [National Team has saw white wash in test series and 4-0 in ODI]. [click to continue...]
by MJK on January 26, 2010
Pro-Pakistan earlier covered the IPL episode in which Indian RAW used its underworld contacts to lobby for keeping out the Pakistan players. Since then we have heard the Indian media sharing the facts with everyone. Even the Indian selectors shared the undue pressure put on them for not biding for Pakistani players. Shah Rukh Khan has joined the club and while speaking to NDTV, Shah Rukh Khan says he believes the Pakistani players should have been chosen. But, he went on to say that since there were issues between India and Pakistan, the IPL should have handled the issues better. Watch the video below and give us your comments [click to continue...]
by Mansoor Ehsan on January 23, 2010
[CRICKET] Australia is 1 up in a five match series against Pakistan. First match was all about Cameron whose century ensured it is all success at the end. Pakistan did well but the killer punch is still missing. Yousuf, Younus and Malik all need to be tidy and agile so middle order does not crumble in remaining matches. Mind you it was Afridi’s effort which took them past 250. Rana can be dropped in favor of Umar Gul as Rana was expensive in last game.
Boom Boom was all reverse in the previous match. He was super with the bat but poor with the ball - that is usually not a usual business in a typical day. Here is what cricinfo says about him in a preview article for 2nd ODI: [click to continue...]
by Mansoor Ehsan on January 21, 2010
[CRICKET] After a 3-0 defeat in test matches, team Pakistan is expecting ’some thing’ in upcoming ODIs after they received reinforcement in the form of Boom Boom Afridi and Younis Khan. It is a common feel here (in Pakistan) that we will give them tough time in ODIs. But i think it is pre-mature to say any thing about the ‘bubbly’ team. In recent past engagements, Pakistan fought well in UAE though they lost the series with 3-2. Pakistan also put a big heart at Champions Trophy when they almost grabbed victory. We all have been putting up these statements time and again that …yeah, we came close and gave tough time but the question is, is it enough that we came closer?? Why don’t we WIN altogether! Let’s hope for the best for ODIs. [click to continue...]
by Usman Zahid on January 20, 2010
On 19th January, 2010; Indian Premier League ridiculed the Pakistanis over the players bidding. In the most astonishing way the players of the Pakistani cricket team and also the reigning champions of T20 world cup were put down by the franchisees of the IPL.
The Pakistani players put forth for the bidding of Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal and Muhammad Amir mainly; but the shocking part of the bidding is that none of the franchisees even made an offer for the Pakistani players. Remember that during the Cricket Awards of the Year 2008′09 not a single Pakistani was awarded. [click to continue...]
by Mansoor Ehsan on January 19, 2010
Its all set for IPL 3.0 as auction for 66 players is going on live right now. However there will be only 12 lucky players which will be bought by franchisees also including those returning from rebel ICL. On the eve of auction, Chief organiser of IPL Sundar Raman said that auction will be high and there is little scope for more than 12 players. However, he said that anything could be happened at last moment.
The player should be paid the auction amount before the end of contract, he said. He further added every franchise owners will have prize money of USD 75,000 to buy a players from nine Test playing nations. Raman said that the players will have one year contract for both IPL and Champions League Twenty20 that will be till December 31, 2010. [click to continue...]
by Mansoor Ehsan on January 6, 2010
I can remember at least couple of instances about test matches where Pakistan lost their first 6 wickets at around 50-60 odd runs in the first innings but still came hard and won the test match. One of such memorable match was between Pakistan and India at Karachi in Jan-Feb 2006. Irfan Pathan did a hat-trick in first over while Pakistan were 0 for the loss of three wickets. First 10 overs proved as a nightmare for Pakistan in which they lost 6 wickets for mere 39 runs. Ultimately Pakistan fought back hard and won the match with splendid 341 runs. Star performers were Kamran Akmal (113 in 1st innings) and Asif who took 7 wickets in the match. This was an emphatic repeat of history when Pakistan while playing against India at Kolkata in 1999, lost their initial 6 wickets for just 26 runs but ultimately won the match by 12 runs!
While watching the test match between Pakistan and Australia at SCG I could sense such a drama when Aussies were 6 down for 51 in their first innings and at the end they pulled out a stunning 36-run victory leaving Pakistani spectators back in home grueling in anger. What Pakistan had been achieving in the past is opposite now. I will not go into details on what went wrong but I can only say that such matches are always a fresh breather for the BORING test cricket. Obviously being Pakistani, one feels low and sad at the performance put up by national team and PCB should do something serious about it…
As the match finished Facebook and Twitter statuses were updated from Pakistani spectators showing anger. How do you take on this defeat of Pakistan…we’re listening through comments :)
by Mansoor Ehsan on January 2, 2010
After a ‘poor performance’ at the first test Pakistan is NOT all set for the second match. The bad news is that Muhammed Aamer is out of the team because of groin injury and he may be replaced by Muhammed Sami as Umer Gul was also unfit for the first test. Openers are still struggling with lean middle order and we all know about Pakistan’s fielding! The good news is that Danish Kaneria is all fit and gearing up for Sydney Test.
Teams:
Pakistan: (probable) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Faisal Iqbal, 4 Mohammad Yousuf (capt), 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Mohammad Sami, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Mohammad Asif, 11 Danish Kaneria
Australia: (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Peter Siddle, 11 Doug Bollinger. [click to continue...]
