Rotary recognition brings smiles

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

It was quite a big day for me on August 21 as I was presented a Certificate of Excellence by two of the leading Rotary personalities of the country, Aziz Memon and Syed Shahab Balkhi. It was deemed as a great honour for our Rotary Club of Karachi Airport as well.

Obviously every award as a significance of its own but the Rotary recognition is something that’s dearer to the heart because of the noble causes being pursued by this leading international voluntary organization of which I have been a member for the past six years now.

There was even greater pleasure to have received the award from a man called Aziz Memon, who has been one of my role models for the last many years. He was not only responsible for motivating me to join Rotary in 2004 but he has remained an inspiration all along with his deeds and words.

Different people have different reasons to know Aziz Memon because he has been blessed with such a versatile personality and for whom the sun never sets. He starts his day at office before 9 each morning and trust me he has the same energy level when we meet him late at night in various ceremonies.

His time management, besides quite a few other outstanding qualities, is truly incredible and I am sure we need to learn from him. He has set very high standards for himself but most importantly he meets the challenge with a smile.

Aziz Memon had rewritten the Rotary history when he was District Governor in 2007-2008. Now Shahab Balkhi has also taken over the reigns at a historic time, having become the first Governor of the newly founded District 3271, covering Sindh and Balochistan.

The visit of Aziz Memon and Shahab Balkhi to Rangoonwala Community Centre, where Rotary Club of Airports convenes its weekly meetings on Saturdays, on August 21 was a Red Letter Day in the history of our club.

The Club President, Anwar Jabeen Qureshi, was both happy and relieved. So was the Club Secretary, Shah Mohammad Anwar. Both these gentlemen had worked extremely hard to put the acts together in making the necessary arrangements for the visit of the two dignitaries at a rather short notice.

The other members of the club present on the occasion were Abdul Hamid, Mohammad Nazakat Ali, Shamim Khan, Wasim Yousuf, Sameer Baig and Mahmood Nawaz.

Besides the award presentation by Aziz Memon, there was a full board meeting chaired by Shahab Balkhi as it was also the Governor’s Official Visit to the club.

The Governor, who was generous enough to recognize our project of Mobile Library & Resource Centre in his speech in the installation ceremony on July 10, had a lively interactive session and he was thoroughly impressed by the efforts being made by the club.

He agreed that once the pilot project of Mobile Library & Resource Centre became ready our club will be in much better position to seek partner corporate organizations to spread it further.

He was informed that our club will be actively participating in community service by providing equipments to needy schools and colleges, donating books to educational institutions and public libraries, donating sewing machines to needy women, donating equipments to charity hospitals, holding free eye camps and medical clinic and holding career development seminars for youth.

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England fans should get ready for another Ashes whitewash

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

If Andrew Strauss and his team have the capacity to lose a Test match to the Ijaz Butt XI playing under the banner of Pakistan then I am afraid no force on earth might be able to save them from whitewash in the upcoming Ashes battle in Australia.

England could only be saved by rains or floods or any other natural calamity Down Under during those Test match days. The manner in which England got outplayed at The Oval there’s very little chance of them coming to terms to the Australian brand of cricket in the Ashes series due to start in just a few months time.

Even in the absence of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist, having retired after whitewashing England four seasons ago, Australia’s mental toughness remains second to none and they have faltered rarely even with their depleted outfits.

Yes Ricky Ponting’s team had also suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Pakistan earlier this summer in England but the Aussies have played that kind of untidy cricket once in many years.

Australia’s fast bowling was at the lowest ebb in the two-Test series against Pakistan that pushed Ponting to the corner and he had to look to the part-timers for wickets in conditions conducive to seam movement.

It was amazing to watch the trio of Doug Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus having forgotten the elementary lessons and not being able to put the ball in the right areas against batsmen who were themselves shy of attacking them.

If Ponting had to throw the ball to the likes of Shane Watson, Steve Smith and Marcus North for wickets on the Headingley pitch against the inexperienced Pakistan side it reflected total chaos in his arsenal.

I can’t recollect the Australian fast bowlers bowl as poorly as they did in the Headingley Test where they should have made up for the shortcomings and failures of their own batsmen.

Australia can’t be expected to falter again and that too in their own den where the conditions would be entirely different. The bounce of the pitches will test the England batsmen who have now been struggling to put their acts together in the home series against Pakistan.

Ponting appears fully determined not to let England escape and his recent statement of pursuing another whitewash now makes greater sense following the debacle of the hosts at The Oval.

England are currently in possession of the Ashes which they had regained at home last summer with Strauss having led the hosts to the famous victory.

Now the victorious skipper of 2009 should get ready for facing the music in 2010-11. The story might not be dissimilar to one after 2005 when England had clinched the Ashes after 18 long years.

Ponting’s fierce determination and the recent loss of confidence of Strauss could be a major factor in pushing England to the wall once more.

The England fans traveling in large numbers to Australia for witnessing the Ashes battle will have be patient as their endurance level would severely tested.

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Lackluster England gift victory to Ijaz Butt XI

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

England, leading 2-0, had to play extremely poorly to self-destruct themselves in third Test at The Oval to keep the series alive. They performed below par to lose the game by a margin of four wickets in the end.

The margin was not the issue. England were not expected to allow Pakistan, in all sorts of problems, to come close. In fact it was being anticipated that the series would be closed without any fuss before the fourth and final Test.

Isn’t it remarkable that the team forced to make wholesale changes emerged victorious against an unchanged confident outfit that had fared consistently as a well-knit unit for past few months.

There was so much chaos surrounding the selection and composition of the Pakistan team that was being branded as the Ijaz Butt XI at home following the ouster of the deserving players having performed exceptionally well in the national tournaments.

There were protests, demonstrations and press conferences in Karachi over the omission of the talented cricketers of the city on the eve of the third Test and the chairman of the national selection committee, Mohsin Hasan Khan, also hailing from Karachi, had literally gone underground.

Yet this Ijaz Butt XI managed to win the third Test against all odds. Call it the Blessings of Ramazan or the Will of God the impossible was made possible once more.

It’s astonishing how the England batsmen collapsed against debutant Wahab Riaz, who had captured just a handful of wickets in first-class cricket at home earlier in the season and his selection was being debated.

England were generous in presenting a debut gift to Wahab Riaz in the shape of a five-wicket haul in his first-ever innings in Test cricket. It’s a kind of feat that many of the greatest bowlers of all time failed to achieve.

Unlike Australia who had collapsed to a meager total on the first day of the Headingley Test, after Ricky Ponting had opted to bat first after winning the toss in overcast conditions, England did recover following not too sensible move of Andrew Strauss to do the same at The Oval.

Strauss could have been better off inserting the vulnerable Pakistan batsmen on the first morning when the pitch offered greater life to the fast bowlers. I don’t know why the England captain chose to bat when he had a decent pace attack in the shape of James Anderson, Chris Broad and Steven Finn to attack the opposition visibly short of confidence.

Strauss was guilty of putting his own batsmen under pressure and not surprisingly they couldn’t come good. It was the eighth wicket partnership between Matt Prior and Broad that saved them from humiliation.

Strauss, not looking the leader in command, committed another fatal blunder by dropping a sitter at first slip off lastman Mohammad Asif when Pakistan were just a few runs ahead. That was the easiest of chances that the England captain missed. In the context of the match it was the costliest miss.

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Century or no century Sehwag reigns supreme

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Virender Sehwag, the most explosive of all present day opening batsmen, was deprived of an ODI hundred in controversial circumstances and he had to contend with an unbeaten 99 instead as he guided India to a much needed victory over Sri Lanka at Dambulla in the ongoing Tri-nation series for the Micromax Cup 2010, also featuring New Zealand.

Although he made 99 off just 101 balls the innings looked a bit out of character from the blade of a man who doesn’t normally allow the bowlers to settle down. It was one of those days when he was in a mood to bat with a calculated approach fully realizing the gravity of the situation.

His partnership with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had taken India out of danger in the must-win game, after yet another horrible top-order collapse, and he took the charge when the target had come well within the reach.

Sehwag’s belated onslaught opened the window for another century from the belligerent opener besides earning the vital bonus point for the team. Once in full try no bowler in the world can contain him and he was in complete control once more while assaulting the Sri Lankans.

Dhoni, not surprisingly, was also very keen to let his partner reach the landmark and it was just a matter of one more run for Sehwag with India still needing five for victory when off-spinner Suraj Randhiv began in what was certain to be the last over of the game.

Sehwag was not happy when four byes were conceded at the start of the over but he still had a chance to do it. After failing to pierce the field on the next couple of deliveries he took the aerial route and cleared the fence.

But that was a no-ball which meant that India had actually completed the win without the last stroke from Sehwag. Although it was a six but he was credited with nothing, as per laws, leaving him stranded on 99.

Randiv had overstepped by at least a foot when the scores were level to leave causing some resentment in the Indian camp. Sehwag, during the post-match presentation ceremony, couldn’t hide his emotions and he charged that the tall off-spinner had deliberately no-balled to deny him a hundred.

Sehwag, however, was happy that India collected the win and bonus point irrespective of the fact that he completed his century or not.

"The ball was doing something in first 10 overs so I batted cautiously and tried to build partnerships, and after that I played my shots. I was not worried about runs, I knew if I batted 30-40 overs, then match will get over in 40 overs, I just tried to not play the rash shot," he explained why he took so much time to open his shoulders.

"We discussed in the meeting that someone has to play 30-40 overs, especially someone from the top order. I was just trying to play as long as I can, I was just waiting for some loose deliveries to hit for four," he added.

Dhoni very rightly was full of praise for Sehwag for having taken the responsibility once more when the chips were down.

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Ponting talking of another Ashes whitewash

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The Ashes 2010-11 is still quite a few months away but the war of words has commenced with the Australian skipper, Ricky Ponting, not ruling out the possibilities of his side establishing total supremacy over their traditional rivals. It will be interesting to watch how the England camp reacts to such claims.

The England supporters would not forget that the Australians, wounded by the Ashes loss in 2005, had hit back so decisively 18 months later to regain it in style.

Will the history repeat itself? England had snatched the Ashes last summer and now the Australians are itching to take it back when the battle resumes later this year at the Gabba in Brisbane.

"It's absolutely possible. There's no reason why not. It's all in our hands. It's how well we play and how well we take charge of different situations. We've learnt from a lot of the mistakes that we've made. There's no doubt we made some mistakes in the last Ashes series in England that probably at the end of the day cost us the series,” Ponting was quoted as saying in Melbourne.

"We know now that we're a more experienced and probably a better team now than we were then. We put that together plus we're playing in our conditions, we hope to win this series and win it well. Batting collapses probably were the reason we lost the series last time around and our inability to bowl them out on the last day in Cardiff. I have got confidence in the squad of players that we've got that they are going to be good enough to win an Ashes series," he added.

"James Anderson and Stuart Broad and those guys have really stepped up. They are coming together well as a team. We have to make sure at the end of the Indian tour that we have got everything in place to make sure that we are ultra-competitive against them,” Ponting reckoned.

"England have certainly bowled well and they have had great conditions to bowl in as well, the English. We'll have a different set of conditions and a different ball when they come out here and I'm sure our guys will equip themselves really well. We know where we have to bowl to all of their batsmen. They have got no one there who's going to surprise us at all," the Australian skipper thought.

I think it will be a tall order for Australia to whitewash England again even though the ball will not be swinging as much as it does in the Mother country and the hosts will be boosted by the return of Brad Haddin, Peter Siddle and Nathan Hauritz.

Australia would obviously enter the upcoming Ashes series as the favourites mainly because of the home advantage but they can’t be expected to prevail over the current England side in every Test,

Unlike the 2006-07 Ashes series, Australia’s bowlers haven’t enjoy the phenomenal success of late and on the contrary the Englishmen have given a better account of themselves during the last few seasons.

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Razzaq stars in Hampshire’s thrilling T20 triumph

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Discarded Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq turned out to be Hampshire’s hero in the thrilling win over Somerset in the final of the Friends Provident T20 Championship at Rose Bowl on August 14.

Former South African batsman Neil McKenzie was the calming influence in the big chase, compiling a solid half century, but Razzaq’s all-round excellence was probably more significant in the outcome of the match in which the scores were tied and Hampshire were declared the winners for having lost fewer wickets.

Cricket is very much a team game and the contribution of every player counts to the success but the adjudicators have to take into account the most influential performance while declaring a Man of the Match. To cut the long story short, Razzaq deserved the award which was handed over to McKenzie.

What a thrilling climax it turned out to be and the result of the 151 matches depended entirely to the last ball. Hampshire needed a couple of runs with Dan Christian, batting with a runner, to win the game and just a single was needed for a tie that would have secured the title for them.

Christian had pulled his hamstring on the previous ball while coming back for a second run and Jimmy Adams arrived as his runner for the last ball for which Marcus Trescothick brought all but one of his fielders close to pitch to prevent the single.

Christian missed the last ball and there was a huge appeal for lbw which was turned down. It looked very close to the naked but the replays confirmed that it was just sliding down leg side and it was yet another great umpiring decision.

The leg bye was stolen in dramatic circumstances with Christian also running the length of pitch with his runner. I think there was an opportunity for Somerset to run him out but their fielders also choked under pressure.

There was a little pause before the Hampshire cricketers ran into the field to celebrate their win. The 39-year-old former England all-rounder, Dominic Cork, at last, had a big trophy in his kitty.

Cork himself played a pivotal role in limiting the Somerset total as his final over was a class act and it reflected what difference experience can make. Something around 15 or 20 runs were expected to be taken when he came on to bowl the last over of the innings with the West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard in full cry.

Pollard, who had blasted the other bowlers in his little cameo, was undone by a bouncer from Cork and landed in hospital a few moments later. Cork then produced a few more unplayable deliveries to restrict Somerset to 173 in 20 overs.

Pollard’s injury not only denied Somerset of a few crucial runs but they were also robbed of his quota of overs that meant additional burden on Trescothick who had to fill the vacuum with part-timers.

India’s left-arm spinner Murali Kartik was the trump card for the Somerset skipper but the dampness in the ground kept the ball wet and it became next to impossible to turn the ball. Kartik still bowled very accurately, not giving away any boundary in his first three overs.

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KCCA vows to fight until dismissal of Ijaz Butt

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

In a rare show of strength the movers and shakers of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) vowed to take the fight to the camp of Ijaz Butt who was accused of having destructed the Pakistan cricket.

The trio of Prof Siraj-ul-Islam Bokhari (President), Prof Ejaz Ahmed Farooqui (Honorary Secretary) and Khalil Ahmed Nainitalwala (Vice President), backed by the zonal office-bearers, came out openly to criticize the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in the harshest possible manner during a media briefing at the Karachi Press Club before joining the protesting young cricketers of the city in which a couple of cricket bats were burnt.

Although it was a warm first afternoon of the Holy month of Ramazan on August 12 the intensity of the protestors was rather high and the youngsters as well as the veterans present on the occasion chanted noisy slogans against Ijaz Butt and they demanded his immediate sacking to prevent further chaos.

The KCCA Vice President, Khalil Ahmed Nainitalwala, was in a furious mood as he had come prepared in the media briefing, substantiating his claims with facts and figures while raising the voice for the cricketers of city who have been victimized by Ijaz Butt and party for the past couple of years.

“I have no hesitation in calling it the Ijaz Butt Cricket Board instead of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Similarly we have been witnessing Ijaz Butt XI and not the national team of Pakistan playing against the various teams,” he declared.

“Isn’t it a tragedy that the team, being selected on the basis of nepotism, is getting hammered and the deserving cricketers are not being provided a chance to perform? Ijaz Butt’s blue-eyed boys are in the team despite failing repeatedly while the experienced campaigners like Danish Kaneria are sent home after just one failure. Why these double standards,” he questioned.

“It’s a shame that Ijaz Butt has crossed all limits of decency. Merit seems to be a piece of paper to him. He is just not bothered to look beyond his own circle of friends. He is not perturbed with the disgusting performance of the team that was touched rocked bottom of late,” Khalil Nainitalwala highlighted.

“What a pity that the Pakistan team these days is struggling to get 100 runs in an innings? It’s mainly because the talented and deserving boys of Karachi have been ignored even after their consistent performance in the national tournaments,” he added.

“Our batsmen Asad Shafiq, Khurram Manzoor and Khalid Latif performed much better than Azhar Ali and Umar Amin who have been taken to England where they have failed miserably so far. Similarly our bowlers Tabish Khan and Anwar Ali fared better than Wahab Riaz who was selected. Our fast bowler Tanvir Ahmed, who was the leading wicket-taker in the last season, has not been played in a single game yet in England which is very sad indeed,” Khalil Nainitalwala reckoned.

“We were waiting for the better sense to prevail that’s why we didn’t register our protest openly in the past. But the stage has come where we have to raise voice for our cricketers and since we have now come out in the open we will not sit back until Ijaz Butt is dismissed,” he replied when asked about the future course of action if status quo prevailed.

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KCCA comes out in open to expose Ijaz Butt’s bias

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

I think that the officials of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) have finally realized that enough is enough and they need to come out in the open to fight for the rights of their cricketers who have been brutally treated by Ijaz Butt and his cronies.

After having condemned the biased attitude of the national selectors in their Executive Council meeting the other day, the KCCA high command, shocked and disappointed, has now decided to hold a press conference on August 12.

Prof Ejaz Ahmed Farooqui, Honorary Secretary, KCCA, has announced that the briefing will be held at the Karachi Press Club at 3 pm.

Khalil Ahmed Nainitalwala, Vice President, KCCA, will be apprising the media and the general public of the injustices to the Association and their players by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which has actually been a one-man show for about two years now.

The KCCA officials, on a few occasions, had taken on the PCB in the past as well but their stance had generally been soft and lacked the conviction. It might be a different story to relate this time round.

There is enormous pressure from the various quarters on the office-bearers of the KCCA to bat for the victimized cricketers of the metropolis who must be feeling let down by the double standards of the national selection committee headed by Mohsin Hasan Khan.

Interestingly Mohsin, one of the most stylish opening batsmen to have played for Pakistan, himself belongs to Karachi but he looks absolutely helpless at the moment.

The best course of action for Mohsin would be to follow the examples of his predecessors Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim, both of whom could only last a few months before expressing their inability to come to terms with a man called Ijaz Butt.

It would be interesting to find out if the KCCA officials still resort to diplomacy or they demonstrate the courage to call a spade a spade. I think they should display greater self-belief while safeguarding the interests of their cricketers.

The Executive Council of the KCCA has placed on record its condemnation for the biased attitude of the PCB selection committee for having totally ignored the promising lot of Karachi cricketers like Sarfaraz Ahmed, Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif, Faisal Iqbal and Asad Shafiq.

The Council was of the opinion that the PCB selectors had deliberately failed to consider the performances of the Karachi cricketers in the national tournaments.

They urged about the PCB authorities to review their failings and accord justice to the talented cricketers of Karachi, who despite being the national champions, feel the agony of getting deprived when it came to playing for Pakistan.

They insisted that merit alone should be the basis of the selection and Pakistan’s prestige should be the prime consideration which can only be achieved through selections based on merit and fair chance to play for all Associations.

Well the KCCA high command must be aware of the fact that there’s no such thing as the PCB authorities any more because no one else other than Ijaz Butt has any authority in running the Board.

The KCCA should be direct in their approach and they should be talking plain truth instead of wrapping it inside some dual-meaning words.

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