Ron Fergie’s eternal affair with a game called cricket

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

One of the most fascinating aspects of cricket is the association of lovely characters with it. Unlike quite a few other sports, it’s not restricted to the athletes. There are many flavours of cricket and its so many characters immortalizing the sport.

The 85-year-old Ron Fergie, now living in Australia’s capital, Canberra, is one of the most adorable characters to be associated with the gentleman’s game. His fairy tale could be a source of motivation to many individuals. His example of courage and fortitude should inspire people.

He was unable to walk because of a disease in his hip joint from the age of seven to 10 but only a couple of years later he had captained his school cricket and football teams and he went on to play first grade cricket in Perth, Western Australia.

At the age of 25, after his left leg was severed early in the cricket season, he played out the same season wearing an artificial leg. In fact, reportedly, he kept playing and enjoying club cricket until he was 72!

Having missed key cricket years while serving overseas, he was dropped from North Perth’s strong first-grade side, which included five then current or past West Australian State players.

On November 5, 1949, in his next match in a second-grade game at Perth Oval, he had responded with a century and again dreamed of playing for Australia. He was in high spirits as he left the oval on his motor bike, but at the first intersection a drunk driver hit him at speed. Fergie landed in the middle of the floor of a shop 60 feet away from the impact, his leg so badly mangled that it was amputated that night.

Perth Oval was in sight from the hospital balcony and on the following Saturday, the second day of the match, his team lined up on the oval at afternoon tea time to wave to him, while he waved back with a bed sheet. Perhaps they were saluting a career cut off in its prime, but before that season was over, he was playing again!

The leg, however, did not heal properly and he had to undergo a second amputation at the end of that season. At first he played with a wooden leg, hinged from a thigh strap and hanging from an over-the-shoulder harness.

The artificial leg restricted him to fielding in slips at first, but he adapted well to wicket-keeping and batted with a runner. He was sufficiently agile that not much of the fast bowling got through him, even on one occasion when a very quick bowler did his block and sprayed 17 successive no-balls past the batsman.
The versatile character that he was, Fergie went on to play first grade, as an opening batsman and wicket-keeper, with several Canberra clubs and was still playing first grade into his 40s.

Because of several overseas assignments he was not able to play continuously. He lectured in economic statistics in Tokyo for two years in the 1970s, followed by four years as National Statistician for the newly-emerging nation of Papua New Guinea where he played in the same team as his son Bob.

He played two seasons in Wellington, New Zealand, and some social cricket in Japan and Jamaica. In Japan, women were posted around the boundary to toss the balls back.

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South Africa complete whitewash without being in total control

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Well it’s quite incredible how the fortunes of the West Indies cricket have changed. The team that was known and feared for inflicting whitewash rather ‘blackwash’ to its opponents now finds itself at the receiving end.

In the days when Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards were at the helm of the affairs, with the battery of fast bowlers doing the demolition act, it was rare to find teams being spared of a whitewash while confronting the West Indies.

But that era has now become history and Chris Gayle leads a team that cannot be expected to escape punishment when coming across the fancied outfits like Australia and South Africa. They may get away with it against the formidable Indians but they are extremely unlikely to come good against any other strong team.

To rub salt to the injury the West Indians have now been blanked in the five-match series of the One-day Internationals (ODIs) at home. Obviously the result would have bitterly disappointed the home fans but it wasn’t entirely surprising when judging by the body language of the combatants.

The South Africans were fortunate in the sense that they had to face an opposition devoid of spirit and the will power that used to be their forte in the past. It was more a case of the West Indies committing suicide rather than the South Africans playing extraordinary cricket to generate this kind of result.

Graeme Smith’s men, wounded by yet another early exit in an ICC event, managed to complete a clean sweep against the West Indies despite not having been in total control during the series. They scampered home by just one wicket in the fifth and final game in Trinidad after having shown the same kind of nerves that didn’t allow them to proceed beyond the Super Eights at the World Twenty20.

"It's terrific to have achieved this result, and bounce back from the failure at the Twenty20 World Cup. It was an important time for us as a group of people, and it was important for us to regain the faith of a lot of the public back home. I think a lot of the fans back home in South Africa support us through thick and thin, so it is nice to give them all something about which to feel good," Smith acknowledged.

"The last few games have been too close for comfort. We have chased on some pretty flat pitches, and West Indies have controlled the games at different times, and we have lost wickets at crucial times. But we have held our nerve. Winning is a habit, and when you get into tight games, and you are used to winning, you are able to limp over the line," he added.

"We seem to be in a bad habit of losing, and when it comes down to these tight situations in matches, we do not know how to handle ourselves. It's been tough losing this much. The good thing is we have a few days off to put this behind us, and hopefully, we can get a fresh start in the Test series," Gayle remarked rather in hope rather than expectation.

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Sportsmasala.com launch Tissot FIFA World Cup Predictor Game

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The football fever has started gripping the world and sportsmasala.com, the pioneering sports portal in Pakistan, has recently launched a prediction game on FIFA World Cup Football Tournament 2010 which will run in tandem with the mega event.

The game, sponsored by Tissot, a renowned Swiss watch company, could be played on www.sportsmasala.com and the registration is free with prizes to the tune of Rs 200,000 on offer. The World Cup game is spread over two competitions with the first one asking for predictions of interesting statistics and the second one relates to the results of the matches and the performance of the participants.

It’s titled Tissot FIFA World Cup 2010 Predictor Game and can be played on www.sportsmasala.com. It is indeed a must visit site for all football fans who can follow the latest Cup news via a live RSS feed, keep up-to-date with group standings, interesting facts and above all win handsome prizes, including the stylish Tissot watches. The registration for the game is free and open to all with a valid email account being the sole requirement.

The launching ceremony of the event was held on May 29 in which Salahuddin, a cricket celebrity, was the guest of honour. On this occasion he distributed cash prizes among the winners of the Tissot EPL Predictor game on the same website, which was based on the 2009-2010 English Premier League season.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tissot Watches Pakistan, Pakistan, Rumman Ahmad, in his welcome address had briefed the audience about the salient features of Tissot FIFA World Cup 2010 Predictor Game while also throwing light on the Tissot EPL Predictor game.

The Tissot EPL Predictor game, it may be recalled, had offered awarded weekly, monthly and overall prizes which included cash prizes, watches and other gifts from Tissot, as well as audio equipment from Bose.

The Tissot FIFA World Cup 2010 Predictor Game comprises of two competitions. The first one asks for predictions of interesting tournament statistics such as the total number of goals scored, fastest goal and who will score the first goal as each question will be awarded points and the winner will be the person with the highest points tally.

The second competition relates to matches and participants have to predict the scoreline in every match. However, they don't have to be totally correct to earn points. While an accurate prediction earns full points, one can also make semi-accurate predictions such as the correct number of total goals, the winner of the match. to earn partial points and stay in the game.

Tissot has been associated with the football for over a decade by having Michael Owen, the English and Manchester United striker as their Brand Ambassador. Judging by the ever-increasing popularity of football in the country, they have backed this venture enabling Pakistanis to get an interactive experience of this premier football showcase.

The sports partnerships have always been an integral part of the Swiss watchmakers they have been involved in timing world class sporting events for decades. Partnering with active athletes like Michael Owen also underlines the dynamic nature of the brand.

Tissot, the ‘Innovators by Tradition’, has been pioneering craftsmanship and innovation since its foundation in 1853. It’s a member of the Swatch Group, the world’s largest watch producer and distributor. For over 154 years the company has had its home in the Swiss watch making town of Le Locle in the Jura Mountains but now also has a presence in over 150 countries. www.tissot.ch provides more information about the company.

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MSAP Collegiate Programme launched at Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan School

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

There’s more gladdening news for the mind sports enthusiasts of Karachi in particular. The Mind Sports Association of Pakisan (MSAP), having joined hands with the Aga Khan Youth Sports Board for Pakistan (AKYSBP), have launched their Collegiate Programme at the Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan School located in Karimabad.

Tariq Rasheed Khan, Director, MSAP, who is spearheading the Collegiate Programme, was delighted with the participation of over five hundred students in the inaugural session at the Aga Khan School on May 28.

“It augurs very well for the future of mind sports. If the students’ community could be motivated into it in such big way we are quite confident of accomplishing our cherished objectives sooner than later,” he observed.

Tariq Rasheed, himself led the seven-member MSAP delegation at the Aga Khan School in Karimabad, was accompanied by the famous chess International Master, Mahmood Lodhi, having won the national title on the highest number of occasions, besides Azhar Javed, Emad Mirza, Javed Shamim, Mohammad Umair Kausar and Islahuddin.

“The management of the Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan School extended great help in spreading the message as they distributed the registration forms among the students for submission at a later stage. The Principal of school desired starting mind sports activities at the campus three days a week,” Tariq Rasheed, who is also the President of the Pakistan Bridge Federation (PBF), remarked.

“The AKYSBP have also expressed the desire to have the MSAP Collegiate Programme launched at their campuses Lahore and Islamabad,” he disclosed.

The MSAP has already started conducting weekly classes for the enthusiasts of chess and scrabble at the Aga Khan Gymkhana after having reached an agreement with the AKYSBP.

The MSAP and AKYSBP had to start the classes following the enthusiasm generated in the two-day event conducted to train and coach boys and girls in the games of chess and scrabble. The training and coaching progrommaes were spread over two successive days over the weekend.

The total of students in various age groups participating in the opening session was 41 with 26 of them registering in chess and 15 in scrabble. Quite a few talented and promising players were short listed for further training and coaching by the experts under the auspices of the MSAP.

It was announced that the talented players from this programme will be selected to get further training with the scrabble players to be invited to play in the regular events of the Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) held at Hotel Beach Luxury while the chess playing students will get the opportunity of unfolding talents at the Russian Cultural Centre.

The MSAP, founded a couple of years ago, has taken upon the responsibility of spreading bridge, chess and scrabble, classified as mind sports, in the educational institutions. They launched their collegiate programme in bridge, chess and scrabble here at Institute of Business Management (IoBM) last year. They had also organized the first-ever National Mind Sports Games in Karachi in August 2008.

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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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