Has Rohit Sharma come of age finally?

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Rohit Sharma, who couldn’t score a century in his first 42 One-day Internationals, has suddenly scored a couple in as many games in the ongoing three-nation series in Zimbabwe.

Sharma happens to be one of the so many enterprising young Indian batsmen to have come to the fore in the recent past but like the majority of the newcomers he has not been able to provide the comfort to the selectors to consider him a complete package.

Sharma’s talent as an explosive batsman has been beyond doubt but his application and shot selection has left a lot to be desired. He has been one of those young guys who have struggled to do justice to their talents.

He has played a few magnificent knocks under pressure in international cricket. But he has lacked the consistency to capture the imagination of the team management. He has possessed the skills as well as the temperament but he needed to put runs on the board on a regular basis to cement his place in the star-studded Indian batting line-up.

With the ‘seniors’ having been rested for the Zimbabwe series there’s an opportunity for the young guns like him, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina to prove the point that they have graduated to the next level.

Sharma appears to have grabbed the golden chance with both hands, having scored centuries in the first two outings against different oppositions. His century in the opening game against India had gone in vain but the one against Sri Lanka a couple of days later was a worthy match-winning effort.

He must sustain this form in the rest of the tournament to dispel the impression of him being just another flashy batsman. He has to convert those half centuries into centuries and make them count in order to retain his slot when the likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni return to the folds.

Sharma is also a brilliant fieldsman, besides being a more than useful off-spin bowler. Most importantly he has the nerves to come to terms with the pressure-cooker situations that make him a most sought after all-round cricketer. He has been in and out of the Indian limited-overs side without playing Test cricket yet despite achieving the rare feat of scoring two hundreds in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy final.

He had first hit the headlines in 2006 during the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. He made his ODI debut in 2007 but it were his heroics in the inaugural World Twenty20in South Africa later the same year which got him recognized as a special talent. He was one of the architects of India’s title win. Sharma continued to impress and his couple of dashing knocks helped India win the CB Series in Australia in early 2008.

Then came the slump as he struggled for runs in his first two first-class seasons for Mumbai but he performed exceptionally well in the shortest version of the game while playing for the Deccan Chargers, who bought him over for US$750,000, during the Indian Premier League (IPL).

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Prof Ejaz Farooqui desires to take Karachi cricket to next level

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The elections of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) are generally regarded as an exercise of legitimizing old wines into new bottles. But there’s a big difference this time round.

While there was not much to comment on the election of Prof Siraj-ul-Islam Bokhari as the President or the re-election of Mehdi Hasan as Treasurer but the news making the headline was the election of Prof Ejaz Ahmed Farooqui as Secretary.

Prof Ejaz Farooqui is one man, known for bringing about a change. His presence in the central leadership could lead a turnaround in the fortunes of the KCCA. He has been blessed with so many outstanding qualities that make him counted as one of the leading personalities of the country.

He has a huge responsibility now on his shoulders and not surprisingly he is as confident as ever, displaying enormous self-belief that should serve as an inspiration to his teammates in the KCCA. He has pledged to take the Karachi cricket to another level by strategizing the goals. Not many people would disagree that he does have the capability of doing it.

Having who blanked his rival Shah Riazuddin 21-0 for the post of the Secretary in the KCCA elections held on May 22, Prof Ejaz Farooqui agreed that a lot was needed to be done to promote cricket from the grassroots level in the city.

“Yes there are lot of new challenges to be met but being a firm believer of making the most of the available resources I don’t foresee problems in accomplishing the goals and promoting cricket in every nook and corner of our metropolis,” he observed in an interview after having been elected as the KCCA Secretary.

“The Zone II experience would obviously come handy. I was elected the zonal chairman during the previous KCCA elections in 2006. With the untiring support of our team we were able to rewrite the history of the zone by organizing 25 accredited tournaments in which more than 650 matches were held. From Karimabad to Surjani Town, Khuda Ki Basti and Taisar Town we succeeded in engaging our cricketers throughout the year,” Prof Farooqui remarked.

“I have gained first-hand experience of the problems being faced at the club level by interacting with the cricketers as well as the organizers on a regularly basis and we were able to overcome many of the obstacles if not all during my three and half year tenure as the zonal chairman,” he pointed out.

He agreed that he may have not have as smooth sailing being the KCCA Secretary as he had while being the KCCA Zone II Chairman.

“Yes the challenges are going to be different but the basics remain the same. If one has the will power to take on the problems and tackle them accordingly no problem could be considered too big. I will take on board all the stake-holders to take the Karachi cricket to another level,” the KCCA Secretary concluded.

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Ahmed Mustafa receives ICC award

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The nominations of the winners of the awards had been announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) last year but it took the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) around six months to hand it over to the recipients.

In fact the delay was so frustrating for the award winners that quite a few of them had started to wonder if they would receive it in their lifetime. At least one winner of the ICC award, Gul Hameed Bhatti, expired in the interim period.

While it was a nice idea of the ICC to have thought of recognizing the volunteers across the world, having given their sweat and blood for the cause of the game rather selflessly, but the implementation of the strategy left a lot to be desired particularly in Pakistan.

The ICC probably had no other option than to seek the recommendations from the PCB but more regrettably they didn’t have any mechanism in place to verify the credentials of the nominees.

The list of award winners contains majority of the names who didn’t deserve it at all to say the least. The genuine volunteers or the silent soldiers were purposely ignored to accommodate people having access to the Chairman of the PCB, Ijaz Butt, infamous for doing things according to his whims and wishes in total disregard to merit.

There were just a few exceptions and the person, in the opinion of many, who deserved it more than anyone else was none other than Ahmed Mustafa, a former first-class cricketer, having immortalized himself by setting up an academy where coaching of the highest class is being provided free of cost for close to quarter of a century now.

Ahmed Mustafa, whose health has deteriorated for the past few years, defied the instructions of the physicians to collect the award personally from the officials of the PCB in a ceremony held at the National Stadium, Karachi.

He was presented the award by the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the PCB, Wasim Bari, with a member of the Board’s Governing Body, Wazir Ali Khoja, also present on the stage.

It was a just reward for Ahmed Mustafa who has spent all his life in grooming the talented youngsters once his own dream of donning the national colour was shattered by a tragic road accident when he was at the peak of his career.

He could not fulfill his ambition of playing Test cricket but he has gone on to make more significant contribution to the game than any Test cricketer by having established a famed academy by the name of Cricket Coaching Centre (CCC).

Azam Khan, Faisal Iqbal and Owais Shah are three Test cricketers having been discovered and trained by the CCC. They were in their early teens when taken to Ahmed Mustafa by their parents.

Quite a few cricket academies have mushroomed over the last few years but it was Ahmed Mustafa who pioneered the idea. Most significantly he has never charged a single penny from his trainees. In fact he has also been instrumental in arranging kits for them besides taking care of the practice balls all along. He has given his life to cricket in the truest sense of the word.

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Cricket comes alive in USA

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

I have read with interest the observations of the legendary Australian captain, Ian Chappell, who was in Florida to do television commentary on the back-to-back Twenty20 Internationals between New Zealand and Sri Lanka over the weekend.

More than his comments on television that primarily focused on the low-scoring games between the two evenly matched outfits it were the remarks in his write-up published on the eve of the event that caught my imagination.

I incline to agree with Chappell, acclaimed as one of the most inspirational leaders of all time, that cricket in USA could flourish in a big way to the extent of becoming a viable business proposition only if the local population was into it.

“If cricket is to become a viable sport in the USA, eventually the officials have to attract some genuine American fans. This is why the experiment this time, unlike those attempted in the past, is critical; the only way cricket is going to attract American fans in reasonable numbers is via the Twenty20 version of the game,” the former Australian captain reckoned.

“Twenty20 is the correct vehicle to promote the game and if they come up with the right formula, combining business and cricket administration in a franchise, they might just find a niche market,” he added.

He has recalled that the past efforts could not pay dividends as they all featured longer matches mentioning that even the presence of Don Bradman could not ignite the passion for cricket when Australia toured USA and Canada in 1932.

“The game failed to capture the imagination of the Yanks. There was a publicity shot involving Bradman and Babe Ruth, then a huge star with the Yankees, and the inevitable comparisons were made between the two kings of their sport but nothing came of it other than a nice memento for Bradman's mantelpiece,” Chappell wrote.

“There were also publicity shots taken at a film studio in Hollywood, but the British actors like Aubrey C Smith and Boris Karloff who figured in it were already cricket fans. I remember seeing photos from the tour of stars like Jeanette McDonald and Jean Harlow,” he observed adding that the photos were on his grandfather Vic Richardson's mantelpiece, who was the captain of the team.

Just as Chappell had anticipated the crowd at Lauderhill, where the twin Twenty20 contests between New Zealand and Sri Lanka took place, remained vocal and cheerful although the low-scoring fixtures were not the ideal advertisements for a game aiming to penetrate into the big market region.

Not surprisingly the turnout of the American cricket fans wasn’t on the high side but there are possibilities of attracting them if international matches continue to be staged there with integrated efforts to boost the game locally.

Cricket has certainly come alive in USA with the historic T20 series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka that was drawn with both sides winning and losing a match each. The low bounce of the pitch wasn’t to the liking of the big hitters in two sides but that’s part and parcel of the game and such surfaces are not uncommon in Test playing nations either.

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Red Letter day in USA cricket

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

22 May 2010 will go down in history of cricket in the United States of America (USA) as a Red Letter day with the successful hosting of the first-ever ‘officially accredited’ game featuring two full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), New Zealand and Sri Lanka, in Florida.

It could well open the floodgates in that part of the world with both cricket as well as USA needing each other very dearly now. The growing popularity of Twenty20 Internationals has made cricket a more marketable product than ever before. This shortest version of the game, offering greater entertainment value to the paying public, has the potential to make inroads in territories that couldn’t be won over earlier.

Theoretically cricket has remained a minority sport in the USA in the truest sense of the word. It’s not one the games yet which the majority of the natives of the USA desire to play or even watch for that matter. Cricket has had its roots there for a very long time with the immigrants from the South Asia and the Caribbean fuelling their passion with the activities restricted mostly to weekends.

The globalization of cricket with focus on off-shore venues makes the USA as one of the most attractive locations. The brand of T20 cricket seems to have the potential to make waves leading to a distinct change in the sporting culture of people.

Baseball is considered to be the game of the masses in the USA. The T20 cricket matches have quite a few things in common with baseball and it could sell there as well. After all the sports enthusiasts are also eager for innovation and change. If they discover cricket anywhere close to baseball it would turn Lockerbie's 'Destination USA' dream into reality much more quickly than imagined.

The Chief Executive of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), Don Lockerbie, has a vision to turn it around. The ball has already been set into motion with back to back Twenty20 Internationals between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill, Florida, over the weekend.

Neither the USACA nor Lockerbie should lose heart from the fact that not many tickets were sold even though New Zealand and Sri Lanka were the semi-finalists of the recently concluded ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies.

Yes things can change dramatically overnight only if the Indians could be roped in by the USACA to play any other side. That’s one team that has the reputation of attracting large crowds in every corner of the world and there’s no reason why they won’t be flocking in large numbers to watch in action their national team play in the USA.

The development of cricket in the USA could be fast-tracked if the functionaries of their cricket body succeed in negotiating a deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in particular. Then they could turn to the teams like Pakistan, Australia and South Africa whose cricketers have the potential to attract huge number of spectators.

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Sindh Govt, PCB join hands to train cricket coaches

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The five-month camp for the cricket coaches, being organized by the sports department of the Government of Sindh with the collaboration of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as a part of the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Programme (BBSYDP), got underway at the Regional Cricket Academy Ground, Karachi, on May 17.

Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Secretary, Sports & Youth Affairs to Government of Sindh, presided over the opening ceremony held at the National Stadium during which he presented kits and resource material to the participating 20 coaches, including four ladies, selected from all over the province.

Syed Shahid Ali (Khairpur), Abdul Rahman (Sanghar), Shakir Ali (Sanghar), Ashdaq Ahmed (Naushero Feroze), Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh (Sukkur), Pervez Nabi Memon (Sukkur), Amjad Anjum Memon (Dadu), Abdul Waheed (Larkana), Faiz Aslam Khan (Karachi), Zaheer Imran (Karachi), Mohammad Farhan Saeed (Karachi), Talia Shamglib (Karachi), Saba Hasan (Karachi), Maimoona Dad (Karachi), Hasan Muzammail (Hyderabad), Mohammad Azhar (Hyderabad), Nabi Mohammad (Mirpurkhas), Mohammad Abid (Mirpurkhas), Shirin Naz (Karachi) and Ashok Kumar (Umar Kot) are the participants of the five-month camp.

“The Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Programme (BBSYDP) has been launched according to the wishes of Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, to pay tribute to the two-times elected Prime Minister of Pakistan,” Shoaib Siddiqui remarked in his speech on the occasion.

“The Youth Development programme has been named after her and the Government of Sindh has approved Rs 13 million for the project in which 150 youngsters will be trained in nine different sectors. Besides sports the training will also be provided to the youth in the fields of banking, insurance and taxation,” he disclosed.

“These courses will not only enlighten the trainees but will also be greatly helpful in raising their skills that could open the doors for career jobs. The youth holds the future,” Shoaib Siddiqui reckoned.

Saleem Siddiqui, Deputy Secretary Youth Affairs to the Government of Sindh, revealed that the trainees will be paid a monthly stipend of Rs 6,000 with a further monthly allowance of Rs 3,000 to be paid to the outstation coaches.

The PCB, he added, would be compensated for organizing the initial Level-1 course for the participants under the supervision of Haroon Rasheed, Ali Zia and Shahid Asalm. The PCB has also been assigned to monitor and assess the participants throughout the five-month period during which the coaches will be assigned different tasks to polish their skills.

The Sports and Youth affairs department of the Government of Sindh had placed newspaper advertisements inviting applications from the prospective coaches. The applicants appeared in a written test before a series of interviews on the basis of which 20 were selected for the camp training.

“It’s very heartening to note indeed that the applications were received from every nook and corner of the province. After carrying out the due process, with the assistance of technical hands, the candidates from Larkana, Dadu, Sukkur, Naushero Feroze, Sanghar, Khairpur, Umar Kot, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad and Karachi have been selected for the training course,” Saleem Siddiqui observed.

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Sulaiman upstages masters to win international title

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The last few days have witnessed the Pakistanis making it big in the sporting events. The cricket team, quite remarkably, made its way to the semifinals of the ICC Twenty20 even after having lost three matches on a trot. Then Mohammad Sajjad stormed into the final of the Asian Snooker Championship against the heaviest of odds

Scrabble may not be as popular sport as even snooker but it’s quite gladdening to watch Pakistan’s Mohammad Sulaiman going all the way to win the 3rd Malta International Scrabble Open (MISO), organized by the Malta Scrabble Club.

The event, staged at the Suncrest Hotel in Qawra from May 14 to 16, was sponsored by Intercomp (Dell Computers), Vascas Jewellers, Scotts Supermarket, ProPrint, Alliance Cruises, Tilefish and Seiko UK Ltd.

It attracted one hundred participants, 60 percent of them hailing from a total of 14 foreign nations including Pakistan. Among the illustrious participants were former world champion Nigel Richards, from New Zealand, arguably the world’s strongest scrabble player, and top British players, the Englishman Craig Beevers and Helen Gipson of Scotland.

Sulaiman earned laurels for himself and the country by winning the prestigious tournament after having exhibited great skill in fighting vigorously against some of the game’s top players including former world champions.

The officials of the Mind Sports Association of Pakistan (MSAP), who been complementing the Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) in promoting the game, were thrilled with the title winning performance of Sulaiman.

“Sulaiman has rewritten history by becoming the first Pakistani to win an international scrabble tournament. He won the contest out of nearly one hundred players that included participants from the native English speaking nations. It’s a magnificent performance by all means,” Tariq Rasheed Khan, Director, MSAP, observed.

“Nothing succeeds like success. I am confident that this terrific accomplishment of Sulaiman will go a long way in inspiring the scrabble players of our country who would now be looking forward to emulate him,” Tariq Rasheed, himself an outstanding player of bridge, chess and scrabble, reckoned.

Sulaiman outwitted Beevers 469-392 in the final round to emerge victorious in the tournament. Beevers finished second while Nigel Richards (New Zealand), Even Cohen (Israel) and Jared Robinson (England) shared the next three positions.

Sulaiman has had vast international experience of playing scrabble. He started playing the game in 1990 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he was stationed from 1986 to 1996. He won the Sri Lanka National Championship in 1994 against some of the top players there.He was also instrumental in bringing a team of Sri Lankan scrabble players, under his captaincy, to Karachi.

He moved to Pakistan in 1999 and after several years of absence from the game he rejoined and exhibited his indomitable fighting spirit, terrific memory of unusual words and unmatched stamina and skill.

He was the oldest contestant of World Scrabble Championship 2008 where he survived the marathon sessions of most competitive scrabble games for three days. He has also participated in Oman and Bahrain international tournaments and gave a creditable performance, winning laurels and prizes.

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England finally clinch a world title

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

England have finally pocketed a trophy. It was in the fitness of things, probably, that they accomplished their mission by taming arch-rivals Australia, having spoiled their party on numerous occasions in the past.

Yes it were the Australians having been instrumental in denying glories for England in every format of the game. For a change it were England, led by the inspirational Paul Collingwood, who emerged triumphant in Barbados on May 16 to be crowned as the new World Twenty20 champions.

Looks like yesterday when Australia’s Garry Gilmour had come up with the all-round performance of his lifetime to deny England a win in the semifinals of the inaugural World Cup in 1975.

Since then England, despite possessing the arsenal to rule the world, somehow had been crashing in crucial games to be robbed of the title. They stormed into the final of the World Cup in 1979, 1987 and 1992 where they lost to the West Indies, Australia and Pakistan respectively.

England could not run away with the ICC Champions Trophy or the World Twenty20 until May 16, 2010 when Collignwood’s men did not choke in the final and they proved too hot to handle even for the mighty Australia, the only unbeaten outfit in the competition.

Collingwood, the man having played the key role, alongwith coach Andy Flower, in having galvanized England into a formidable limited-overs unit, was there in the middle to hit the winning runs with a six and two fours that brought the much-awaited maiden world cricket title for his country to be proudly displayed at Lord’s.

"This is a very special moment. This is right up there, with the best, the guys deserve everything they've got today. We've won a World Cup, and you can never take that away from us. We thoroughly deserve the victory, because the way we've played throughout the tournament has been consistent and also we have been taking the game to the opposition,” Collingwood remarked.

"We have had a lot of belief, and the guys have thought very well for themselves and made the right decisions. In the end, we've turned up on a big occasion like this and we've performed. I'm absolutely delighted with the guys. We knew it was a monkey on our back. We knew what it meant, and that is why I am so pleased that these last two performances in such pressurized situations were absolutely spot on," the victorious England captain reckoned.

"You can see from the way the guys have gone out from the first ball, believing in themselves, taking it to the opposition and playing a brand of cricket that is unlike England in the past. I think a lot of credit goes to every single player in the dressing room, to have the confidence to go out there and really give it their best shots and have no regrets. I think we have done that throughout the tournament and it has certainly paid off," Collingwood added.

"We are going to savour the moment and enjoy it, because we deserve to. But good teams kick on, and that's exactly what we'll get drilled into the guys. We have got a lot more potential as well - that's the scary part about it. We can go even further. But this is what we came here to achieve, and we've done it. The next step is to savour the moment, celebrate as a team - and then we'll come across the next hurdle," he observed before rushing to join his teammates for the celebrations.

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