Precision Marathon start as favourites in final leg of National Championship

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Precision Marathon, having Tehsin Gheewala, Hasan Askari, Khalid Mohiuddin, Mubashir Puri, Junaid Said and Farrukh Liaquat with Tariq Rasheed Khan being the non-playing captain, started as the favourites in the final leg of the National Championship 2012 which commenced at Lahore Gymkhana on March 23.

As in the past the National Championship is also serving as the trials to select the national team with the winners of the Lahore event to earn the right to represent Pakistan in the 2nd Mind Sports Championship, scheduled to be staged at Lille, France, in August.

Precision Marathon, a blend of youth and experience, are also the defending champions, having captured the national crown under the banner of Data Steel last year. The alteration in nomenclature was prompted by the change of their sponsors. They got off to a flying start by winning the Sindh leg of the National Championship.

Allana, former national champions and one of the most experienced outfits of the country, have withdrawn from the final leg at the eleventh hour, after having qualified from Sindh.

The star-studded Allana, featuring Abdul Rahman Allana, Khurshid Hadi, Kemal Shoaib, Tahir Masood, Imran Jaka and Javed Ahmed Miran, decided not to proceed to Lahore just a few days before the start of the event.

When approached for comments, Khurshid Hadi, a former President of the Pakistan Bridge Federation (PBF), stated that it was a consensus decision in the end not to take part in the final round due to a combination of factors.

Masud Mazhar, Honorary Treasurer of the PBF, confirmed from Lahore that the withdrawal from Allana had been received and the final leg of the National Championship will now be limited to seven teams instead of eight.

The seven participating teams will be engaged in a double round robin battle before the knockout stage starting with the semifinals. The league matches will continue for three days while the semifinals and the final to be played on the last two days.

Defending champions Precision Marathon, Chandna and Century Insurance are the teams from Sindh which will be contesting the final leg of the National Championship alongwith four upcountry teams, Pre-empters, JK IV, Sabers and Engineers.

Chandna, comprising of Shakeel Ahmed Chandna, Pervaiz Mirza, Ghulam Mohammed, Anwer Kizilbash, Navaid Anjum Zaidi and Azwer-ul-Haque, and Century Insurance, having Shaikh Abdul Muqeet, Syed Asghar Abbas, Abdul Khaliq, Ghufran Ashraf and Yawar Abbas, are the other contestants from Sindh.

Pre-emptors, containing Izzat Khalil, Air Cdre.Safdar Mahmood, Asad Iqbal, Jahangir Ahmed, Malik Ghias and Ahsan Qureshi, and JK IV, having Javed Khalid, Mirza Shauq Hussain, Saeed Akhtar and Masood Mazhar, are the two outfits to have qualified from Lahore.

Sabers, consisting of Niaz Hussain, Air Cdre Qanar Kayani, Abdul Hamid, Azra Raja and Chaudhary Ijaz Ahmed, and Engineers featuring Yasir Rahim, Mudassar Rahim, Qasim Rahim, Ali Ahmed, Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Imran, are the two qualifiers from the federal capital.

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Bangladesh run out of luck against Pakistan as usual

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

One thing about the final of the otherwise maligned Asia Cup 2012 is certain. That it was not a fixed match, something which could not be said with conviction and certainity about some of the earlier games.

The final between hosts Bangladesh and Pakistan was a routine affair having predictable result with the latter emerging triumphant with the skin of their teeth. It was not unusual to find Pakistan being helped by the fringe members of their team.

Will you believe it that wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was not being beinf played in the crunch games, turned out to be Pakistan’s topscorer? Equally awesome was the performance of fast bowler Aizaz Cheema, who wasn’t an automatic choice either.

But these are the norms in Pakistan cricket. Those least likely to do it in ordinary circumstances come up with something sensational to turn the tide decisively. They won the final by a couple of runs while defending a modest score of 236.

Bangladesh would have realized that defeating Pakistan, no matter how inexperienced or vulnerable they may look on paper, present the toghest challenge in the world. They may be good enough to overpower the World Cup finalists but they run out of steam in taking on the semifinalists.

It must not be often when Bangladesh control the game but fail to cross the line. But it happened two times and on both occasion Pakistan were their opponents. They had overtaken a much bigger total of 290 against the world champions but they crashed reaching a modest target of 237 in the final.

Whether they will curse that final over from Shahadat Hussain which went for 19 runs with the last pair in or they hold the others responsible for it, Bangladesh had reasons to feel deprived of their maiden title win.

At 170 for three, with Nasir Hossain and Shakib Al Hasan going great guns, Bangladesh appeared on course of a comfortable win. Only 67 more runs were needed in eight overs which looked a straighforward task for them considering the purple patch of their batsmen.

But as we have seen so many times in the past, Pakistan came back from nowhere to derail the home side which, only for the second time in the tournament, faltered from a position of strength.

It was being anticipated that they would not repeat their mistakes after having suffered a loss at the hands of Pakistan in their league fixture. But they proved everyone wrong by literally throwing the match away.

The kind of fortune Misbah-ul-Haq has been enjoying for the past few months it was going to be difficult to tame him but Bangladesh were expected to perform much better than they did in their first-ever appearance in a final.

Irrespective of the conditions in which they had registered thumping victories over India and Sri Lanka the momentum was with Bangladesh and they seemed to be having a balanced outfit to bring home their maiden title. They ran out of luck, more than out of steam, in the final.

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Cricket suffers yet another major jolt in Asia Cup 2012

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Cricket was once again disgraced out in the open during the Asia Cup 2012 when hosts Bangladesh marched into final after recording a comfortable victory over Sri Lanka in the last league fixture on March 20. The outcome was as much predictable as the body language and the efforts on the field of the two teams.

The equation was quite uncomplicated and straightforward. It was not rocket science. Bangladesh had to win and Sri Lanka had to lose in order to prevent defending champions India from reaching the final. A Bangladesh-Pakistan final was predicted before the start of the game and every thing went according to the plan. The Nature also didn’t come in the way.

Although India, who had emerged triumphant in the last edition of the Asia Cup before going on to win the World Cup less than a year ago, wouldn’t have mind exiting from the tournament because they accomplished everything else other than retaining the title.

India should be returning home satisfied having overpowered both their bitter rivals, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, besides having watched their record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkur fulfill his ambition of scoring 100th international ton.

The Indian cricket authorities won’t feel embarassed for the above reacons but the cricket fans over there must have felt disheartened if not cheated by the shady deals that appeared to have taken place that marred the Bangladesh-India game.

In the prevailing circumstances every match in the Asia Cup is suspected of being fixed but there are two matches in particular where the emotions of a large number of people seemed to have been played with. It became apparent on so many occasions during the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka encounter that an engieered result was on the cards.

Bangladesh have rewritten their cricket history by advancing to the final of the Asia Cup for the first time. That they have done it in dubious manner, apparently with the support of the outside forces, certainly takes gloss out of their most awesome accomplishment yet.

They may even win the Asia Cup for the first time, since the event was launched in 1984. They would enter the final against Pakistan as underdogs despite their unexpected triumphs over India and Sri Lanka, the finalists of the last World Cup.

The kind of cricket that’s being played in the tournament and knowing the unpredictability and vulnerability of the Pakistanis in crunch games it should come as no real surprise if Bangladesh lift the trophy on March 22.

Interestingly betting and match-fixing were in the stage of infancy when the inaugural Asia Cup was staged in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) more than quarter of a century ago. Sharjah had just been inducted as a venue for One-day Internationals.

28 years down the road the mechanics of cricket have changed. In the past only just an odd game or two in years were feared to have been manipulated. It has become the other way round now. There are very few games that seem to remain unaffected of the outside forces. Let’s see how long cricket can endure this pain.

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Sir Syed University win Unilympics 2012

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET) won the general championship trophy in the Unilympics 2012 organized recently by FAST National University of Computers and Emerging Sciences, at their Karachi campus.

SSUET emerged as the worthy winners of the All Star Trophy after winning the tournaments of table tennis and volleyball.

SSUET, having become one of the leading engineering universities of the country in a relatively short span of time, has been actively engaged in co-curricular activities and their athletes have been faring rather well in the various sporting events held from time to time.

A total of 15 educational institutions, representing universities and their affiliated colleges/high schools, from all over the metropolis took part in the two-day event in which competitions were held in basketball, table tennis, volleyball, throw ball and futsal.

‘It's not just Playing, It's Living the Sports’ was the slogan of the event, acclaimed as the biggest and the liveliest sporting extravaganza at the university level. It was organized by Sportics, the sports society of FAST NU.

The students of the FAST NU have been passionate about sports and their versatile society has built a platform to hold a competition featuring the top educational institutions of the metropolis. It made great sense to organize the Unilympics 2012 a few months before the Olympics 2012.

The preliminary round matches of all five disciplines of the Unilympics 2012 were held on the opening day with the semifinals and the finals taking place on the more exciting and absorbing last day of the event.

SSUET extended their supremacy in table tennis as the duo of Bilal Tariq and Taha Shibli, brought home the gold medal for the third year running. They remained undefeated in the competition.

SSUET made winning debut in volleyball with their outfit, comprising of Nooruddin Moeenuddin, Waqar Ali, Tehzeeb Sardar, Jamhoor Alam, Pervez Karim, Shamul Kamal, Shafiur ur Rehman, Muhammad Ismail and Tariq Amin, overpowering PAF City School 3-1 in the final.

Hosts FAST NU annexed the basketball title by outsmarting Fazayya Degree College, Malir, in the final while St Joseph Convent Girls High School claimed the throw ball trophy by defeating FAST NU in the final.

Fazayya Degree College, Malir dominated the futsal competition held on the lush green field. They secured gold medal by outwitting NED University of Engineering & Technology in the final.

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India unsure of a place in Asia Cup final despite another Kohli special

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Pakistan may win the Asia Cup and India may not still reach its final. That’s how the situation remained even after Virat Kohli’s spectacular 183 off 148 balls that helped the Indians reach the stiff target of 330 with 13 deliveries remaining.

The scenario is not much different to the one at Hobart, Australia, a little while ago. India had needed a massive win over Sri Lanka in their last league outing to stay afloat which they did achieve, mainly due to the heroics of Kohli.

Despite the sensational victory at Hobart India’s fate had depended on the outcome of the Australia-Sri Lanka. Not surprisingly the Sri Lankans prevailed over the hosts to send India home early.

Sri Lanka can spoil the party for the Indians once more, having done it so many times in the past. India will exit from the Asia Cup if Banglalesh defeats Sri Lanka in the last league fixture of the tournament. It’s not the question of claiming a bonus point. Bangladesh will walk into the final only if they win their last game.

India would have paid the price of what looked like having gifted the match to Bangladesh in the process of securing 100th international ton for Sachin Tendulkar, if they are denied a place in the final even after having overpowered Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

India’s successful run chase against Pakistan on March 18 underlined the growing confidence of their young guns and the uncertainty in the minds of the old guard. Now Tendulkar, with nearly every batting record under his belt, has to play second fiddle to Kohli.

The enigmatic left-hander Gautam Gambhir somehow got a hundred in the opening game but he flopped miserably in the following two matches. He has already lost the vice-captaincy and if he contunues to fare inconsistently he could well be thrown out of the team too.

The promising youngsters like Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina have sit on the sidelines for quite a while in order to accommodate the veterans but now the time has come to move forward and bring about a change in policy.

With Kohli having matured into a top-class batsman, the Indian selectors need to be brave in giving longer runs to the likes of Sharma and Raina to let them get the feel of playing in all sorts of circumstances.

The Indian batsmen may be vulnerable to the short balls on the bouncy or seaming tracks but they seem to be in total control when playing on the docile sub-coninental pitches where the ball barely rises and hardly ever moves, particularly with the majority of the games being day-nighters.

That’s how they chased down the target of 330 with remarkable ease against Pakistan at Dhaka under floodlights. That’s why their inability to score briskly in the previous game against Bangladesh looked strange and raised questions. Isn’t it incredible that they managed scores in the excess of 300 against stronger and more resourceful bowling attacks of Pakistan and Sri Lanka but failed to do so against the hosts.

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Match gifted to celebrate Tendulkar’s 100th ton?

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

How to classify the Asia Cup encounter between hosts Bangladesh and defending champions India at Dhaka on March 16, 2012? Was it the most memorable day for Indian cricket when Sachin Tendulkar completed the much awaited 100th international ton? Or was it the most shameful of days when succumbed to the minnows?

The majority of the people as well as the common sense say that a win-win situation was created by the stakeholders to let the Little Master reach the milestone which was haunting him for over a year.

Tendulkar did get the 100th hundred but at the cost of yet another match. Whether it was by design or by default the bottom line was that the team lost the game. As a newspaper highlighted in its report, it was his 25th century having come in a losing cause.

This is not to suggest that whenever he scores a hundred his team is going to be the second best on the day but there are valid reasons to prove the point that his centuries have not won matches for India.

Have a look at his last three centuries for example. The Indians were humiliated by Bangladesh at Dhaka when he scored his 100th century. India had lost to South Africa at Nagpur during the 2011 World Cup when Tendulkar amassed his 99th hundred. In the same competition India’s match against England at Bangalore was tied after he scored his 98th ton.

There are many people who believe that Tendulkar plays for himself rather than for the team. After all it can’t be mere coincidence that India rarely wins when he scores heavily. He has not been in the business of saving Test matches either for a very long time.

His records are unlikely to broken but it’s for the analysts and the statisticians to work out exactly if he has caused more damage to the team or has helped it. Wasn’t his latest century as forgettable as many of those that harmed the team’s interest?

It was an ordinary innings by his high standards. It was a patchy knock that cost his team immensely. He was not on top of the bowling at any stage and when he tried to make amends he was scalped.

It was the easiest of pitches to bat on and the outfield was very quick. The runs were there to be taking against a friendly bowling attack lacking fire or intensity. But it became much too obvious that the basic purpose of the proceedings to let Tendulkar get to his landmark.

Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, in mercurial touch, kept on providing the strike to Tendulkar rather than going after the bowling to post a big total. The master batsman was unable to dominate the Bangladesh bowlers and even his 100th run reflected nerves and uncertainty.

The low-key celebrations that followed had conveyed the message to many people that things were manipulated to ensure the 100th century. The refusal of the Indian batsmen to attempt quick runs in the death overs with wickets in hands dropped hints that the plan was not to set a daunting target for the home side. As was being anticipated in the knowledgeable circles Bangladesh did reach the target later in the evening.

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Tendulkar’s best chance to complete 100th international hundred

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Sachin Tendulkar would be hoping that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who probably loses more tosses than any other contemporary captain, calls correctly and opts to bat first in the Asia Cup tie against Bangladesh on March 16.

There’s also a distinct possibility that the Bangladesh skipper, Mushfiqur Rahim, decides to field first, after winning the toss, in anticipation of limiting the Indians and chasing down the target in quick time to improve the run-rate besides claiming the bonus point.

In the event of India batting first, Tendulkar will have greater chance of reaching the milestone that has eluded him for more than a year now. It looks ages now when he had posted his 99th international hundred against South Africa at Nagpur during the 2011 World Cup.

The form he was in during the World Cup his next hundred had looked just round the corner. It should have come during the course of the tournament that was being held in the sub-continent where the pitches were featherbeds. The bowlers were at the mercy of the batsmen and it seemed a matter of time for him to get to the most coveted of landmarks.

Who could have imagined that he would still be searching for that elusive century after having had 33 outings in the middle so far? Yes it’s a fact, not fiction, that the man who was scoring centuries at will previously would not be able to do it for so long.

More extraordinary is the fact that he has never looked out of touch in this century-less period. He has been on top of the bowling more often than not and every time he has gone past 50 there has been expectations of the milestone being reached during the next few hours.

He has scored runs but the centuries have dried, costing India many matches, particularly the Tests abroad. His inability to score hundreds derailed the team on the disastrous tours of England and Australia where his team lost all eight Test matches.

His failure to get his 100th hundred in a Test match seemed to have prompted the selectors to play him in the One-day Internationals in Australia recently where he was unable to get to the much talked about landmark despite getting enough chances.

It appears very clear that Tendulkar has gone to Bangladesh more in pursuit of his personal record rather than with the ambition of playing any significant role in letting his team defend the Asia Cup title.

He got out cheaply in the opening game against Sri Lanka where Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli complied centuries while confronting an inexperienced bowling attack on a batting-friendly pitch.

The game against Bangladesh on March 16 offers him another golden opportunity. If he misses out again then he may have to wait much longer. It is not to suggest that he doesn’t have the capability to score a century against Pakistan but the probability of doing it in such high-voltage match would be remote to say the least.

There would indeed be one more opening created for him if India do advance into the final but we all know that Tendulkar doesn’t have had the inclination to score a century in the final of a tournament.

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Precision Marathon off to a flyer in National Bridge

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Precision Marathon, featuring Tehsin Gheewala, Hasan Askari, Khalid Mohiuddin, Mubashir Puri, Junaid Said and Farrukh Liaquat, with Tariq Rasheed Khan being non-playing captain, emerged champions in the Sindh leg of the Bareeze National Bridge Championship 2012 held at Aslam Bridge Hall, housed in the National Stadium, Karachi.

Four teams from Sindh and two each from Punjab and Islamabad will participate in the final leg of the National Championship, also serving as trials to select the national team for the year, to be organized in Lahore later this month.

The famous Lahore Gymkhana Club will host final battle between the top eight bridge outfits of the country, to be held from March 23 to 27. The winners will earn the right to represent Pakistan in the 2nd Mind Sports Championship, scheduled to be staged at Lille, France, in August.

Precision Marathon, Chandna, Allana and Century Insurance are the four teams from Sindh to have qualified to play the final round of the National Championship while Pre-emtpors and J K IV have made it from Lahore. They will be joined by the top two teams of the Islamabad leg of the event to be held during the upcoming weekend.

Seven teams from Sindh contested the first leg of the championship after it was decided to limit the participation to those teams who are serious in competing in the final segment at Lahore.

Right from the outset it was anticipated that Precision Marathon, Allana, Solox were certain to qualify and for the fourth place it seemed open for Chandna, Century Homes or Tanvir, with Foxy being the dark horses.

The star-studded Precision stood firm throughout and remained unbeaten in the competition. It was a perfect team work which allowed them to dominate and they thoroughly deserved the top place with an aggregate of 134 Victory Points (VPs).

Chandna, having Shakeel Ahmed Chandna, Pervaiz Mirza, Navaid Anjum, M. Azwer-ul-Haque, Anwer Kizilbash and Ghulam Muhammed, scored 115 VPs and finished as the runners-up.

Allana, with the veterans like Abdul Rehman Allana, Kemal Shoaib, Khurshid Hadi, international pair of Javed Miran and Tahir Masood, alongwith Imran Jaka qualifed on third position with a score of 109 VPs.

Solox, who seemed certain to qualify, failed to live up to the expectations. They had the big names like Shahin Iqbal, Gulzar Ahmad Bilal, Mirza Ziaullah Baig and Hamid Mohiuddin.

Century Insurance, having. Asghar Abbas, Yawar Abbas, Shaikh Abdul Muqeet, Ghufran Ashraf, Abdul Khaliq and Wajahat Suri, combined perfectly to make the last four and qualify for the final round of the National Championship.

Century Insurance and Solox were tied with on points at the fourth position but the former made the nod by virtue of having beaten the latter in their clash.

In the Punjab leg of the championship, Pre-emptors comprising of Izzat Khalil, Air Cdre.Safdar Mahmood, Asad Iqbal, Jahangir Ahmed Malik Ghias and Ahsan Qureshi excelled in the double round robin matches to finishon top with 62 Victory Points (VPs). They defeated Tigers and Silver Star with a big margin 25-2 and 25-4 respectively before losing 12-18 to J K IV.

J.K. IV, featuring Javed Khalid, Mirza Shauq Hussain, Saeed Akhtar and Masood Mazhar, accumulated 48 VPs to take the runners-up slot. They played 15-15 draws against Silver Star and Tigers before toppling the eventual champions.

Tigers, having Moin Rauf, Rana Kamal, Suleman Bokhari, Sajjid Bokhari Hamza and Salman Ahmed, came third with 38 VP’s while Silver Star, consisting of Taqi Imam, Tanvir Ahmed, Sikander Butt, Imran Khan and Mian Tariq, stood fourth with 38 VP’s.

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