Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan junior hockey team will be put through a training camp here at the Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium from April 27 to prepare for their tour to Poland in July this year. The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has called up 41 players to report on April 27 at the Allama Iqbal Hostel of the Pakistan Sports Board in Islamabad. The main emphasis during the camp will be on physical conditioning for tours abroad in near future for which negotiations are going on. A spokesman for the PHF said Tuesday that special effort was being made to groom juniors players. He added Olympians Kamran Ashraf and Qamar Ibrahim would supervise the training camp and the selected team would be sent to Poland to participate in a four-nation championship. “The PHF is in talks with the concerned authorities and hope the tour will go through,” he concluded.

Players called up for camp: Waqar Younis (Lahore), Rizwan Ali (Faisalabad), Rehan Butt (Gojra), Moin Shakeel (Lahore), Adeel Latif (Lahore), Junaid Manzoor (Bahawalpur), Shahzaib Khan (Wah Cantt), Ghazanfar Ali (Lahore), Afroz Hakeem (Peshawar), Umair Sattar (Faisalabad), Naveed Alam (Lahore), Adil Rao (Gojra), Amjad Ali (Bannu), Awais Arshad (Lahore), Rana Waheed (Sargodha), Ahmed Nadeem (Lahore), Mohammad llyas (Faisalabad), Waqar Ali (Gojra), Zakirullah, Mohammad Ibrahim, Zakirullah (Bannu), Waqas Ahmed, Salman Shaukat, Junaid Rasool (Gojra), Mohibullah (Bannu), Ali Raza (Gojra), Awais Rasheed (Lahore), Amjad Rehman (Peshawar), Murtaza Yaqoob (Lahore), Zulgarnain (Pir Mahal), Hammad Anjum (Sahiwal), Abuzar (Faisalabad), Umar Bilal (Bahawalpur), Roman Khan (Bannu), Akmal Hussain (Sheikhupura), Zain Ejaz (Sahiwal), Khairullah (Peshawar), Mohammad Anees (Gojra), M Abdullah (Gojra), Hasan (Gojra), Ahmed Faran (Gojra), Sher Mohammad Kakar (Quetta).

Pakistan, India 2019 World Cup match date confirmed

KARACHI: The marquee clash of the 2019 World Cup between Pakistan and India will take place on June 16 in Manchester, it has been confirmed. The match between the arch-rivals is considered to be the best during any tournament and the International Cricket Council (ICC) mostly pits them together in any tournament. Case in point is the 2017 Champions Trophy where both teams played their first group match against each other, which Pakistan lost to India. However, Pakistan came back strong after the opening loss to avenge their defeat at the grandest stage of them all – the final – where they came out victors courtesy Fakhar Zaman’s century and Pakistan bowlers unprecedented show with the ball. The match holds importance for other reasons as the two nations aren’t playing any bilateral cricket outside the ICC tournaments due to political tensions. The 2019 50-over World Cup in scheduled to take place in England and Wales, with 10 teams participating in it.

Fawad Alam joins Lancashire League after Pakistan snub

KARACHI: Pakistan’s left-handed batsman Fawad Alam has signed to play for the Clitheroe Cricket Club in the Lancashire League. The news is a positive development for Alam, who was once again overlooked during the selection of the Pakistan Test team for the tour of Ireland and England. The Men in Green, under the leadership of Sarfraz Ahmed, will play one Test against Ireland, which will start from May 11 in Dublin, and then two against England, which will begin from May 24 in London. The 32-year old has already represented Clitheroe Cricket Club in the previous edition, where he helped them in the trophy triumph. Alam’s snub from the national team brought chief selector Inzamamul Haq under severe criticism from all cricketing circles. Alam has scored more than 10,000 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 55.37, which includes 27 centuries and 57 half centuries. The Karachi-born left-hander has also represented the Men in Green in three Tests, 38 ODIs and 24 T20Is, where he collectively scored more than 1,500 runs with the help of two hundreds and six fifties.

Sammy to return to Pakistan for Zalmi Excellence Awards

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Super League (PSL) team Peshawar Zalmi captain Darren Sammy will be returning to Pakistan to attend the Zalmi Annual Excellence Awards. Peshawar Zalmi chairman Javed Afridi took to Twitter to make the announcement. The awards, which will take place on April 30 in Islamabad, will also feature the likes of former West Indies great Brian Lara and Sir Viv Richards alongside Sammy. Javed also tweeted that former Australian bowler Jeff Thomson, England captain Nasser Hussein and Graham Gooch will also be in attendance. A first of its kind, Zalmi will be hosting the awards in collaboration with PTV titled the Zalmi Lifetime Achievement Awards. Sammy is one of the most popular cricketers in Pakistan who frequently takes to social media to post about Pakistan, cricket and his time here in the country while representing Zalmi in the PSL. One of the most popular teams in PSL, Zalmi won the second edition of PSL while finishing as runners-up in the third edition of the tournament this year.

Wahab Riaz ruled out of 2018 Pakistan Cup

LAHORE: Pakistan pacer Wahab Riaz, who is set to undergo a nose surgery, has been ruled out of participating in the upcoming Pakistan Cup. Riaz’s nose had been causing him problems since a while and after consulting with the doctors, he has been advised to undergo the surgery which is expected to take place on April 28. After that the pacer has been advised at least two weeks of rest. Riaz wasn’t included in the Test squad for the Ireland-England tour and was set to play for Punjab in the Pakistan Cup. However, his surgery would rule him out of the entire domestic one-day tournament, which will conclude on May 6, 2018.

Published in Daily Times, April 25th 2018.