Tendulkar quits ODIs at least

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

If statistics is the sole criterion to judge a batsman then Sachin Tendulkar has to be put on top of the tree in One-day Internationals in which he played 463 matches, aggregated 18,426 runs and compiled 49 centuries, all of them world records. 

Tendulkar’s retirement from ODIs, on the eve of the upcoming home series against arch-rivals Pakistan, has hardly come as a surprise. 

"I have decided to retire from the One Day format of the game. I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup winning Indian team. The preparatory process to defend the World Cup in 2015 should begin early and in right earnest. I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future. I am eternally grateful to all my well wishers for their unconditional support and love over the years," Tendulkar said in a statement just before the selectors got together on December 23 to pick the squad for the Pakistan series. 

The most interesting comment to this decision has come from Kris Srikkanth, a former chairman of the selection committee. 

"Actually I am surprised. If he is continuing with international cricket (Tests) then he should have continued with ODI also. We play almost 25 ODIs in a season. It is very important to keep playing international cricket,” Srikkanth was quoted as saying. 

His observations carry enormous weight and he has demonstrated the same kind of courage which displayed while hooking the likes of the fiery Imran Khan who looked unplayable to many of his illustrious colleagues during that series of 1982-83 in which the Indians were blown away in Pakistan.

 

Tendulkar had done very little of note for India in the recent past, having become a liability for the team. His repeated failures and the inability to come to terms with even the average bowlers had made it absolutely clear that his days in the international arena were numbered. He already has had an extended career. 

As Srikkanth has suggested between the lines it’s really shocking why he has chosen to carry on playing Test cricket when he has lost the capability to do justice with the two-down position. 

Virat Kohli is very much there to take up the responsibility of batting at number four and Tendulkar will only be blocking the way of the gifted young batsman, whose frequency of winning matches for India is higher than that of the great man. 

Tendulkar’s reluctance to hang his boots has not surprised those who have considered his batting selfish all along, caring very little for his team. 

He has been accused of playing for personal records rather than for the glories of the team. This is substantiated by his dismal performance in many of the crunch situations where his own contemporaries Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman rose to the occasion more often than not.

Dravid and Laxman, both Test specialists, have already quit the game although both of them looked in better form than Tendulkar during the last couple of years.

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Old wine in new bottle as Pakistan snooker body avoids going to polls

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA) has become an entity of the past by having it renamed as the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSF) through a constitutional amendment passed in the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held at Hotel Beach Luxury in Karachi on December 12.  

The change in title of body didn’t mean changing traditions as they continued getting its officials elected unopposed and the whole lot, which was ruling for the past four years, was given an extension of four more years in the 32nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) which followed the EGM. 

There were hopes of real elections taking place for the first time since the cue sports body was founded originally by the name of the Billiards Association of Pakistan (BAP) in 1958 but it didn’t happen following the unending meetings with the challengers withdrawing their names at the eleventh hour to pave the way for a walkover to the incumbent office-bearers. 

As a result of the compromise Alamgir Anwar Shaikh (President), Abdul Wahid Qadir (Senior Vice President) Jawed H. Karim (Vice President), Munawwar Hussain Shaikh (Honorary Secretary) and Amir Abbas Poonawala, (Honorary Treasurer) were re-elected to their respective posts while Abdul Khalil Bachani, Abbas Saifuddin Valika, Abdul Rashid Lehra, Dr Amin Delawalla, M Amin Bawany, Nisar Ali Bhagat and Shabbir Hussain Daruwala were elected as members of the Executive Committee. 

The sitting office-bearers of the newly created federation have accomplished their cherished dream of getting a term of four years now but it remains to be seen if they would be able to weather the storm that seems in the air.

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SSUET to keep Aligarh spirit alive by sports promotion in big way: Engr Z A Nizami

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET) has vowed to keep the Aligarhian spirit alive by continuing the policy of promoting sports in a big way. 

Engr Z A Nizami, Chancellor, SSUET, and President, Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA), renewed the pledge while talking to a group of sports journalists at the University campus in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on December 10. 

Ali Zafar Khan Afridi, Joint Secretary (Sports), AMUOBA, who had secured admission in the Aligarh University in the 1940s on the basis of his all-round excellence in swimming, was also present on the occasion. 

“The legendary Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who is credited to have played the pioneering role in enlightening the people of South Asia, laid great emphasis on education and sports. That’s why sports featured prominently in the list of priorities at the Aligarh University which he founded. The first-ever covered swimming pool of international standard in the entire region was built there,” Engr Nizami, who himself played tennis while studying at the famous Aligarh University, revealed. 

“The SSUET, founded by the AMUOBA in 1994, has been following the principles of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the university has carried forward the Aligarhian spirit of sports among its students. We are delighted to be the largest university of the country in the private sector with more 5,000 students enrolled,” the SSUET Chancellor observed. 

“Special consideration is given to the outstanding athletes at the time of admission where the sports certificates carry certain marks. The performance in sports also helps them in getting scholarships,” Engr Nizami, who also served as the Director General of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), added. 

“We have developed sporting facilities at the ground, owned by the Karachi Hockey Association, which is just opposite our campus. We encourage and support our students to actively take part in sports and quite a few of our teams have fared well in many competitions across the country,” he elaborated. 

“We have planned even bigger things for sports in future. We have decided in principle to build a sports complex in our new campus which is to be spread over 200 acres. Besides providing facilities for indoor games at the sports complex, we will also make an athletics field and a swimming pool,” he revealed. 

“At present we have space constraints here. Otherwise we would have developed more facilities than we actually have at the moment. Since sports remains in the list of our priorities we will make amends by building infrastructure projects that would serve the generations to come,” he announced. 

“We have passion and determination to play a lead role in motivating the students to engage in healthy activities like sports. We fully understand its importance and significance,” the SSUET Chancellor said. “Among the other initiatives to be launched in the near future are instituting ‘Athlete of the Year’ award at the SSUET,” Engr Nizami concluded.

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Asif brings world snooker crown to Pakistan after 18 years

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan have another world snooker champion after 18 years. It was the veteran Mohammad Yousuf who first accomplished the astonishing feat at Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994, and now it’s Mohammad Asif who has done it at Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2012. 

In the interim period, Saleh Mohammad, now having returned to Afghanistan from where he hailed, had come very close to claiming the trophy at Jiangmen, China, in 2003 but fell at the last hurdle. 

It remains to be seen if Asif’s title victory helps in the revival of the Pakistan snooker or not but the cueist from Faisalabad has done his job and deserves to be complimented at having delivered against the heaviest the odds. 

He showed great resilience during the IBSF World Snooker Championship 2012 and his performance in the final, against Gary Wilson of Great Britain, was truly outstanding. He remained unbeaten in the entire competition and didn’t falter even in the crunch situations. 

He did achieve his cherished goal but not before some terribly anxious moments. Wilson, unlike the others, was unwilling to be routed and he fought on to combat the awesome skills of Asif.

The best of 19-frame final, which lasted nearly eight hours, remained open till the end. It was anybody’s game after 16 frames with both the contestants having won and lost eight frames. 

It was down to the last few frames. Asif won the 17th frame comprehensively but Wilson still held a chance of neutralizing the lead. The momentum was with Asif and he made it count by wrapping up the issue in the 18th frame to win the marathon encounter 10-8 with the scores of 36-73, 72-11, 29-67, 3-72, 79-39, 70-43, 27-67, 41-88, 29-106, 78-47, 1-85, 111-1, 64-4. 

Asif’s journey to the final had been hassle-free. He hammered Alex Borg of Malta 7-1 in the semifinals after having Mer Alkojah of Syria 6-2 in the quarter-finals. He was equally ruthless in the pre-quarter-finals having whacked Wael Talaat of Egypt 5-2. In his earlier knockout games, he trounced Vinnie Calabrese of Australia in straight frames after having blasted Yaser Elsherbiny of Egypt 4-1. 

Asif remained undefeated in the league matches, becoming Group H champion after overpowering Shachar Ruberg (Israel), Fabian Louison (Canada), Nadir Khan Sultani (Afghanistan) andAhmed Benraïssi (France). 

He did get an advantage by having topped the group at the end of the league matches which put him among the top four in the reseeding and avoided potentially explosive duels from the dangerous cueists of China and Thailand.

It’s for the second year running when the World Amateur Snooker Championship has been won by an Asian cueist.

Last year it was Hossein Vafaei Ayouri, the teenaged sensation from Iran, who grabbed the trophy at Bangalore, India.  

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Ponting already had an extended international career

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
 (Pakistan News & Features Services)

Ricky Ponting’s decision to quit, finally, should not have come as a surprise. The former Australian captain made the announcement on November 29 with the third and final Test against South Africa, having started at the WACA in Perth on November 30. 

The journey which had begun at the same ground in December 1995 is now coming to a close at the same ground after 17 years. By the Australian standards it has been too long a career. 

Ponting’s illustrious contemporaries like the Waugh twins, Steve and Mark, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Mathew Hayden, had left the scene at a time when they still looked good for a few more seasons if not more. 

The case of Ponting was different, however. He was allowed an extended career despite undergoing a lean patch for considerable length of time.

The Australian cricket authorities had never been so lenient in the past but they seemed to have let the former captain stay on because there were not too many consistent batsmen around who could be his worthy replacement. 

Ponting’s form had declined quite a few seasons ago. He was not the same flamboyant self who used to dictate terms against the bowlers. 

He had lost his ability to dominate the bowling but he was hanging on. He looked a shadow on his own self during the last few years of his career. 

Gone were the days he pulled and cut the fast bowlers whenever they pitched short. Neither did he appear assured enough while driving the ball when the bowlers dared attacking him with full-pitched stuff. 

An odd innings or two not withstanding, he was at sea against the quality bowlers in the recent past. He couldn’t reproduce his top form even after handing over the captaincy to Michael Clarke. 

Ponting was given numerous chances, despite his ordinary performances, but he couldn’t make them count. His most recent failures against South Africa very clearly reflected that he was encountering problems of all kinds in the middle. 

He has made the right decision to hang his boots. Not that he was blocking the entry of any talented youngster but more because he was finding it increasingly difficult to put runs against his name. 

With the retirement of Ponting there will be greater pressure on skipper Clarke and Michael Hussey to continue their awesome form. They remain the only two reliable batsmen in the Australian line-up which used to have far too many in the past. 

The Australians have been producing fast bowlers who have pace and swing but their cupboard of quality batsmen has gone bare. That’s one reason they may find it difficult to be the top side of the world. 

They ruled the world, under Ponting, for a number of years because they were blessed with an extraordinarily gifted side. They had world-class batsmen from number one to seven which made their bowling even more lethal. 

It’s a different ball game now. The Australian speedsters do have the firepower to rout any side but their own batsmen don’t have the capability to score heavily in all conditions.

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Text of Ponting’s retirement speech

Pakistan News & Features Services

 “As you probably seem like you're all very aware now, a few hours ago I let the team know of my decision to make this Test match my last. It's a decision I thought long and hard about, put in long consideration about the decision, at the end of the day it was based on my results and my output really in this series so far.”

“It hasn't been what I expect of myself and it certainly hadn't been to the level that I feel is required for batsmen and players in the Australian team. As I've said all along, I'll continue to play this game as long as I felt that I could contribute to wins, play well enough to help the team win games, and over the last couple of weeks I think that my level of performance hasn't been good enough to do that.” 

“My passion and love for the game hasn't changed one bit, right through the last 12-18 months when things probably haven't been as I would've liked them or pictured them. I'll continue this season to play out the rest of the summer, and I'm looking forward to a full season of the Big Bash with the Hobart Hurricanes.” 

“But I think it's really important today, I could sit here all day and reflect on my career and talk about the great teams I've played in, the great players I've played with and against, but I honestly believe that's for another time, there's other days and times for that at the end of this game, at the end of my career that we can all get together and talk about those moments.” 

“As far as I'm concerned, my immediate focus now and the team's immediate focus is what we're presented with tomorrow. That's an unbelievable opportunity. We're going into what I believe is almost like a grand final.” 

“I've prepared well this week, and as I said to the boys this morning, I'm hungrier than ever and want this win probably more than any other game I've ever played in, so I'll do whatever I can this week to contribute to a great team performance.” 

“If that happens to lead to a win for the team and we get back to the top of the tree and No. 1 in the world then there's no better time for me to finish anyway. This week we've got a big job ahead, and especially me, I've got to lift my level of play from where it was last week to where it is this week. I've got a good feeling I can do that, and as I said there's no better stage than in a finals type game, a big game, to try to do that this week.” 

“Ironically, this is where it all started for me, I think 17 years ago, this is where it all started, and that's where it's going to finish.”

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HEC, PUSB initiate measures for sports promotion at grassroots level

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
(Pakistan News and Features Services)

The 15th meeting of the Pakistan Universities Sports Board (PUSB) was held recently in Islamabad under the auspices of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) approved measures for the promotion of sports at the grassroots level. 

The meeting presided over by Dr Javaid Laghari, Chairperson PUSB/HEC, was attended by several vice chancellors of public and private sector universities. 

During the meeting, it was apprised that as an outcome of incentives and steps undertaken by the HEC for promotion of sport activities at university level, the university athletes have displayed considerable improvement in their performance at national and international level. 

It was also noted that the PUSB, having emerged as one of the largest sports setups in the county, has made its presence felt in a big way by organizing as many as 54 Inter-Varsities Championships in nearly all the major sports of the country during the last year thus actively promoting sports activities as nursery of national players. 

The meeting, also attended by Prof Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Advisor HRD, HEC, and Yahya Khan, Director General Sports, HEC, approved the inclusion of new disciplines of archery and Ju-jitsu in the Inter-Varsities Championships. 

The committee approved the suggestion that all the important national and international games would be included as part of Inter-Varsities Games. 

The house recommended that the Director Sports of the universities be sent abroad for training for broadening their vision and enhancing their capacity for better and effective administration of sport activities. 

 The PUSB/HEC committee also looked into the possibilities of introducing the Best Director Sports award at the provincial and federal level in the near future in order to encourage the performance of sports officers. 

The committee approved HEC Inter-Varsities all round trophy and cash prizes for the session 2011-12 with Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad to be awarded a special prize for organizing eight Inter-Varsities sports events. 

The meeting approved the rules for seeding, draws and systems of tournaments for the upcoming university sport events.

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Asif crashes in Dubai snooker final

By Syed Khalid Mahmood  
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan’s premier cueist Mohammad Asif fell at the last hurdle of the 2012 Dubai International Open Snooker Tournament as he was overpowered by the 20-year-old Noppon Saengkham of Thailand in the final at the Dubai Snooker Club on November 10. 

The 27-year-old Asif appeared on course of bringing home their first cue sports title in 12 years but he couldn’t come to terms with the brilliance of the Thailand youngster who won the best of nine-frame final 5-2 with the scores of 61-10, 49-60, 60-40, 69-9, 31-63, 74-27, 64-46. 

Having performed exceptionally well in the semifinals, Asif held the psychological advantage going into the final but after having snatched two of the five frames he ran out of the steam in the decisive phase to lose the duel. 

Asif had produced stunning performance in the semifinals less than 24 hours ago as he whacked the dangerous Andy Lee of Hong Kong in straight frames. 

Saengkha, however, played superior game in the final and there was not much Pakistan's top cueist could have done to prevent the inevitable.

His defeat in the final meant Pakistan will have to wait longer for another cue sports title. After Mohammad Yousuf’s victory in the World Championship in 1994 and the Asian Championship in 1998 and Shaukat Ali’s gold medal in the individual event of the Asian Games in 1998, it was Mohammad Shafiq who clinched a regional title in 2000. 

Pakistan’s second participant, Asjad Iqbal, had crashed in the quarter-finals after having performed impressively in the league matches. He was knocked over by Lee whom Asif overwhelmed in the semifinal.

Saengkham, having outwitted Karam Fatima of Syria 5-3 in the semifinal, continued his brilliant form in the final to earn another title for Thailand, having emerged as the most powerful cue sports nation of Asia. 

The top 32 cueists of Asia belonging to 11 countries entered the competition. As many an as 16 of them were eliminated after the first round of league matches with the top 16 battling it out in another league round. 

Eight cueists were left in the arena for the knockout games and the line-up featured two qualifiers each from Pakistan, Thailand and Syria and one each from Hong Kong and hosts UAE.

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