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Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka, Pindi Test No ball, no game, Day-4 calls off
Pakistan Vs Sri Lanka, Pindi Test
No ball, no game, Day-4 calls off
By Abdul Jabbar Faisal
RAWAPINDI (December 14, 2019):-ICC Test Championship fixture between hosts Pakistan and visitors Sri Lanka, unfortunately, Day-4 called off by the umpire without a solitary ball game at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi on Saturday.
The rain in the twin cities in Rawalpindi and Islamabad did not allow the ground men to remove even covers from the field. English umpires Richard Kettleborough and Micheal Gough deputed by International Cricket Council (ICC) announced after lunch on Saturday “No game today”
Day 1 - Sri Lanka 1st innings 202/5 (DM de Silva 38*, N Dickwella 11*, 68.1 ov)
Day 2 - Sri Lanka 1st innings 263/6 (DM de Silva 72*, MDK Perera 2*, 86.3 ov)
Day 3 - Sri Lanka 1st innings 282/6 (DM de Silva 87*, MDK Perera 6*, 91.5 ov)
Day 4 - no play
Asitha Fernando arrives Rawalpindi
Asitha Fernando reaches Rawalpindi
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD:-Sri Lankan pace bowler Asitha Fernando arrived in Rawalpindi (via Dubai) on Friday morning.
The right arm pace bowler is a replacement for another fast bowler Suranga Lakmal, who on the eve of the team departure had to be withdrawn after being down with the dengue. On his road route to the twin city from Islamabad to Rawalpindi, Asitha Fernando was accorded the tight security.
The second Test will commence in Karachi from 19th December. Players are quite satisfied with the security arrangements. When not at ground mostly they are asked to remain in the hotel. Without security clearance they are not supposed to go out. SLC's security expert Romesh Goonathilake has been traveling with the team.
In the meantime, Sri Lanka's first Test captain Bandulla Warnapura returned to Colombo (via Dubai) on Friday evening. He watched only the two-day rain affected game in Rawalpindi and was not at the ground on the 3rd day where even the sixth over if the day could not be completed. The 67-year-old Warnapura was a special guest of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
FOOTBALL - FIFA News 13 Dec, 2019
Bid for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD:-The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ bidding process, which has seen an unprecedented interest from member associations, has reached an important milestone, with the following four bids having been submitted by the deadline of 13 December 2019:
Joint submission by the Football Federation Australia and New Zealand Football
Submission by the Brazilian Football Association
Submission by the Colombian Football Association
Submission by the Japan Football Association
All of the bid books, along with their respective executive summaries, are available on FIFA.com.
FIFA will now implement an assessment process, including inspection visits to the member associations which are expected to take place across January and February 2020. Once finalised, the evaluation report will be published on FIFA.com and all eligible bids will be presented to the FIFA Council, which is set to select the host(s) of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 at its meeting in Addis Ababa in June 2020.
Following on from the astounding success of this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in France and the subsequent unanimous decision by the FIFA Council, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will be the first edition of the women’s showpiece to feature 32 teams.
“France 2019 was certainly a watershed moment for women’s football, and now it is FIFA’s responsibility to take concrete measures to keep fostering the game’s incredible growth. With the FIFA Women’s World Cup generating an unprecedented interest across member associations, we are ensuring that the process to select the hosts is seamless, objective, ethical and transparent. By the time the FIFA Council announces the hosts, there should be no doubt whatsoever as to why that choice was made,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
Isuru Udana wins hearts of his fans
Isuru Udana wins hearts of his fans
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD:-Sri Lankan all-rounder Isuru Udana has won the hearts of his fans. The 32-year-old Udana, now playing the Mzansi Super League (MSL) in South Africa for Paarl Rocks, had all the time in the world to run out the batsman of the opposite team but decided against it because the non-striker Marco Marais was directly hit by a shot from his team mate Heino Kuhn.
“Spirit of cricket Raise your hand for more moments like this! Always!” MSL tweeted from its official Twitter account. "I noticed that the non-striker was hurt badly and so I decided not to run him out", Udana, speaking exclusively to this Reporter, said.
Incidentally, Udana had replaced David Willey as Paarl Rocks' international marquee player for the second edition of the Mzansi Super League. Willey had been ruled out due to the need to manage his workload.
In 1964, England v Australia, Trent Bridge Test match, Australian wicket-keeper Wally Grout sportingly threw the ball aside and refused to run out Fred Titmus after he was accidentally knocked over by bowler Neil Hawke and left stranded.
Sadly, there have been one or two cases of the polar opposite in sportsmanship in recent years, Grant Elliott coming to mind as a victim.
FIH unveils new World Ranking system for 2020
FIH unveils new World Ranking system for 2020
SB Report
Lausanne, Switzerland:- Following 12 months of painstaking research, analysis and testing, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) is delighted to reveal details of the new FIH World Ranking system that will be employed from 1 January 2020.
The fresh approach – which has been approved by the FIH Executive Board – sees a switch from the existing tournament-based World Rankings to a more dynamic, match-based system, one which is designed to increase opportunities for all National Associations to gain rankings points and also provide a better reflection of current performance.
The outgoing FIH World Ranking system has served the sport since 2003, being originally devised to allocate teams into pools at tournaments. The old model operated well on various levels, ranking the top teams who participated in FIH and Continental events with a good level of accuracy whilst also allowing those nations to earn ranking points two to three times per year.
However, the numerous restrictions of the tournament-based system – including the limited opportunities for lower-ranked teams to earn points, the degree of subjectivity required to determine the relative strengths of the five continents in order to calculate continental ranking points, and the fact that over 60 percent of international hockey matches had no ranking points on offer – have provided an ever-strengthening case for a change of approach.
The new match-based World Ranking system involves an exchange of points between the two teams competing in each FIH-sanctioned match played. In short, the number of points exchanged depends on a trio of factors: the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match. As well as the aforementioned increased opportunities to earn points, the new model removes much of the subjectivity surrounding continental weighting by creating a system which is fair to all, whilst also encouraging the playing of international matches.
The decision to introduce a new World Ranking system comes at the end of a year-long trial period. Using every official international match played since the end of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, a working model of the new system was created, allowing for constant monitoring, assessment and adjustment throughout 2019. The results of the test phase indicated that the new system was more dynamic and immediately reflective of current form than the existing World Ranking system and was subsequently approved by the FIH Executive Board.
The introduction of the new system for calculating the FIH World Rankings will not affect the current placements – each nation will start 2020 in the same ranking position and with the same number of ranking points that they finished with in 2019.
Qatar T10 League Squad 2019
Qatar T10 League Squad 2019
Sports Desk
ISLAMABAD (December 14, 2019):-As many as six teams are contesting for the top honour of the Qatar T10 Cricket League.
Team Falcon Hunters Squad 2019
Hashim Amla (South Africa), Johnson Charles (West Indies), Salman Butt (Pakistan), Ammad Butt (Pakistan), Saad bin Zafar (Canada), Aqib Ali (Oman), Fayyaz Butt (Oman), Tom Abell (England) and Qatar Players (Iqbal Hussain Chaudhry, Mohammad Rizlan, Kamran Khan, Taimoor Sajjad, Murad Khan, Irshad Umer, Nawaf Pullangadam & Hussain Khan)
Team Flying Oryx Squad 2019
Andrew Fletcher (West Indies), Hussain Talat (Pakistan), Krishmar Santokie (West Indies), Kennar Lewis (West Indies), Aftab Alam (Afghanistan), Sompal Kami (Nepal), Abdul Shakoor (UAE), Amjad Gul (UAE), Hamandep Singh (Canada), Bilawal Iqbal (Pakistan) and Qatar Players (Noman Sarwar, Musawir Khan, Asif Raja, Imran Ashraf, Jassom Khan & Bilal Butt)
Team Pearl Gladiators Squad 2019
Muhammad Irfan (Pakistan), Mohammad Sami (Pakistan), Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka), Sharjeel Khan (Pakistan), Malinda Pushpakumara (Sri Lanka), Afsar Zazai (Afghanistan), Adil Khan (Afghanistan), Karim Sadiq (Afghanistan) and Qatar Players (Faisal Khan, Khurram Shehzad, Muhammad Nafees, Qalander Khan & Saqlain Arshad)
Team Heat Stormers Squad 2019
Manpreet Singh Gony (India), Mohammad Shahzad (Afghanistan), Naeem Islam (Bangladesh), Mohammad Irfan (Pakistan), Rohit Kumar Paudel (Nepal), Scott Edwards (Netherlands), Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe), Suffyan Mehmood (Oman) and Qatar Players (Owais Ahmed, Raja Amir, Andri Berenger, Dharmang Patel, Imraz Rafi, Talal Ahmed & Afsarullah Khan)
Team Swift Gallopers Squad 2019
Imran Nazir (Pakistan), Shafiqullah Shafaq (Afghanistan), Luke Wright (England), Danza Hyatt (West Indies), Ansh Tandon (UAE), Chirag Suri (UAE), Raninder Singh (India), Richmond Mutumbami (Zimbabwe) and Qatar Players (Zaheeruddeen, Inam Ul Haq, Sadiq NM, Zainu Dheen, Gayan Wimalshantha & Zahanzeb Ashad)
Team Desert Riders Squad 2019
Sohail Tanveer (Pakistan), Khurram Manzoor (Pakistan), Amjad Khan (UAE), Bhupinder Singh (Canada), CP Rizwan (UAE), Oshane Thomas (West Indies), Kithruwan (Sri Lanka), Shahadat Hossain (Bangladesh) and Qatar Players (Awais Malik, Muhammad Tanveer, Mujeeb Khan, Muhammad Ikram, Himanshu Rathod & Imal Malindu Liyanage)
Australia and England teams will visit Pakistan, Eshan Mani
Australia and England teams will visit Pakistan, Eshan Mani
By Marium Bibi
RAWALPINDI (December 12, 2019):-Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Eshan Mani hoped that Australia and England would visit Pakistan for a full cricket in next two years while Bangladesh would play two Test and three T20 matches in January and February 2010.
On Thursday, he was talking to sports journalists at the media center of Pindi Cricket Stadium and further added, “We are talking to Australia Cricket Board and England Cricket Board about their upcoming tours, which will be taken place at the different cricket venues of Pakistan. My stance is very simple and clear. We consider Pakistan is a safe country for the international cricket matches. If any board of any country denies, it should prove this thing that why they do not want to come here, why we should run behind anyone. Chief Executive has visited here, in Pakistan with a director and now he has gone back and also chief executive of Australian and Ireland board came to Pakistan for a visit, “he added.
“We will play a Test match with Bangladesh in the same city, very soon. Bangladeshi players will come to Pakistan for the series in January. There will be held 8 matches. It is our first step, there will be 6 venues and every team will have its own home. Peshawar will be one of these venues. According to the ICC Program, England will come to Pakistan in 2020\21 and Australia will come in 2022, “he said.
To a question, Mani said, “It is the responsibility of selectors to pick up good players and at the end of PCB, we observe the performance of selectors not the players. People misunderstood that only Misbah ul Haq selects the players, in fact PCB have 7 selectors, who are retired cricketers. Retired Test cricketers are with Misbah Ul Haq, who decides that which players should be selected. Other test selector’s responsibility was to look after the domestic cricket when the team was playing in Australia and their assessment was that Shanwari and Fawad should be selected for the match, “he maintained.
A question regarding the international cricket stadium Islamabad, head of the PCB said that it was the government responsibility to build venues not of board. “Pakistan is the only country where we are looking after 8 stadiums, so, should I spent money on stadium or cricket, because we do not have unlimited resources. Our responsibility is to work on cricket. We have a girl’s cricket section in Rawalpindi Stadium and Karachi academy is also dedicated to the girls. National cricket team matches are also expected here. Like, we are playing with England women team in Malaysia, if England team came first then their women has came here, but they wanted that first our men’s team should have come then they will come, which I can understand, “he concluded.
Yasir Shah to work at NCA
Yasir Shah to work at NCA
Our Sports Reporter
RAWALPINDI (December 12, 2019):-Pakistan wrist spinner Yasir Shah has been released from the Pakistan national men’s cricket team so that he can work with spin bowling consultant Mushtaq Ahmed at the National Cricket Academy.
Yasir will re-join the team in Karachi on 16 December, where the second Test will commence on 19 December. Mushtaq was appointed as spin bowling consultant last week. According to his contract, he will work 120 days in a year at the National Cricket Academy with the U16, U19 and other domestic bowlers. As and when required, he will work with the national team.
England Women beat Pakistan Women by 127 runs in ODI
England Women beat Pakistan Women by 127 runs in ODI
SB News
Kuala Lumpur (December 12, 2019):-England Women beat Pakistan Women by 127 runs to go 2-0 up in three-match ICC Women's Championship ODI series at Kuala Lumpur’s Kinrara Oval.
England, after electing to bat first, scored an imposing 327 for four thanks to Natalie Sciver, who scored an unbeaten century at a strike rate of 117.64, and Fran Wilson’s 49-ball 85 not out. The two crafted a blistering 146-run partnership in 14.1 overs – which also saw them accumulate 67 runs from last five overs.
Coming in to bat at number four, Sciver scored a brilliant 100 not out. The right-handed batter smashed 12 fours in 85 balls. From the other end, she was supported by Wilson, whose splendid 85 not out was studded with eight fours and three sixes.
Speaking about her second ODI half-century, Fran Wilson said: “We were kind of aiming for 300. We were taking things as they came in the process. We played with this approach to see where we can get rather than thinking about it too much.
“I am really happy with the way we have started out here. It is about setting your standards and pushing for them to see where you can go. We are very happy as a unit, but still we’ve got a lot of games to go.
Pakistan had put a dent earlier in the England innings by dismissing Danni Wyatt, one of the century-makers in the last match, in the second over. Heather Knight, the England captain, denied Pakistan bowlers further inroads, despite some disciplined bowling, with a measured half-century.
Over the course of her 86 from 100 balls, which included 14 fours, the England captain crafted a 61-run stand for the second-wicket with Tammy Beaumont (21 off 38) and an 84-run third-wicket partnership.
Nida Dar, with her off-spin, accounted for two England wickets at the cost of 67 runs from nine overs, while left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu returned one for 56 in 10 overs. Pakistan, in their chase, lost Sidra Amin (12 off 25) in the seventh over as right-arm medium-fast Kate Cross took a catch of her own bowling. But, Sidra’s opening partner Nahida Khan held one end as the right-hander scored 40 runs out of 43 balls, hitting four fours.
Nahida put up a 47-run stand for the second-wicket with Javeria Khan, who made 26 from 37, and added 40 runs for the third-wicket with her captain Bismah Maroof - who with 64 off 65 top-scored for Pakistan for the second time in as many matches.
Reflecting on her innings, Nahida Khan said: “Our plan was simple and it was to get as close as we can get to the target. We lacked a few solid partnerships in the top-order which hampered us from setting the pace required to chase a 300-plus score despite the wicket being suitable for batting.”
Bismah cracked nine fours to register her 14th half-century in ODI cricket. The Pakistan skipper failed to get support from the other end after Nahida’s dismissal as Pakistan were bowled out for 200 with 5.1 overs to spare. Anya Shrubsole, Sarah Glenn, Sophie Ecclestone and Knight equally shared eight wickets between them. For her exploits, first with bat and then with ball, Knight was awarded player of the match. The third and final ODI will be played on Saturday at Kinrara Oval.
Scores in brief:
England Women 327-4, 50 overs (Natalie Sciver 100 not out, Heather Knight 86, Fran Wilson 85 not out, Tammy Beaumont 21; Nida Dar 2-67)
Pakistan Women 200 all-out, 44.5 overs (Bismah Maroof 64, Nahida Khan 40, Javeria Khan 26; Anya Shurbsole 2-31, Heather Knight 2-33, Sarah Glenn 2-37, Sophie Ecclestone 2-39).
ICC Test Championship, Sri Lanka post 202 for 5 on board in Pindi Test
ICC Test Championship, Sri Lanka post 202 for 5 on board in Pindi Test
By Abdul Jabbar Faisal
RAWALPINDI (December 11, 2019):-Sri Lanka managed 202 runs on board in the ICC Test Championship fixture at Pindi Cricket Stadium, as light allowed only to bowl 68 overs instead of 90 over per day schedule.
On Wednesday, Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne decided to bat first after winning the coin competition, as the visitor opener put 96 important runs for first wicket stand. It was enough good start for the Sri Lankan guys, as they lost their first batsman Karunaratne, who scored 59 runs off 110 balls with the help of 9 boundaries. He was judged Leg Before Wicket (LBW) on the bowling Shaheen Afridi, third umpire Richard Illingworth from England also rejected his appeal.
After getting break through, Pakistan bowlers showed brilliant bowling tricks and get some quick wickets, as they were 127 for 4 at one time and tourist teams was in trouble. Oshada Fernanado 40 (81), Kusal Mendis 10 (47) and Denish Chandimal 2 (7) were dismissed by Naseem Shah, Usman and Mohammad Abbas respectively.
Anglo Methew and De Silve aggregated 50 (96) runs for 5th wicket, as Anglo was dismissed by Naseem Shah. Asad Shafiq took his catch at first slip. Naseem Shah got two wickets while Usman, Afridi and Mohammad Abbas sent each one batsman back to pavilion. At the end of the day, De Silva 38 (77) and Dickwilla 11 (13) were not out batsmen, when umpires decided to end the day-1 game after 68 overs. Sri Lankan will resume their remaining innings at 202 for 5 on Thursday.
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