Day: January 10, 2022

England all-rounder, Moeen Ali has lauded the impact of former Pakistan spinner, Saqlain Mushtaq, on his career and termed him the best coach he has ever worked with. Moeen said that it was outstanding to work with Saqlain in the England national team and said that Saqlain’s vision of coaching was brilliant.

Saqlain worked with England national team on multiple occasions and it was during his tenure that England’s spin bowlers, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, rose to prominence. The 45-year old worked wonders as England started to rely heavily on the spin department particularly in limited-overs cricket.

Moeen appreciated the positive impact Saqlain had on his career and said that he resonated with the coaching style brought forward by Saqlain. Moeen added that Saqlain’s way of coaching is very different from normal coaches and his philosophy really opened new doors for him.

“He would tell me something like an English coach to tell me like arm up to pull down cracker. He would tell me in a different way. I just prefer that type of coaching,” Moeen stated.

Saqlain recently stepped down from his role as the interim head coach of the Pakistan national team. Under his coaching, Pakistan qualified for their first T20 World Cup semi-final since 2012, whitewashed Bangladesh in Tests and T20Is in Bangladesh, and whitewashed West Indies in T20Is.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Former Australian leg-spinner, Shane Warne and former England captain, Michael Vaughan believe that Australia’s tour of Pakistan should go ahead as it will play a major role in the promotion of the game.

Warne and Vaughan are of the view that the onus lies on top international cricket teams to tour Pakistan and it is the responsibility of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to promote the game by ensuring that the tour goes ahead.

The duo talked about the upcoming tour on Fox Cricket after the conclusion of the fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England. Warne said that the upcoming tour is extremely important and added that top international teams such as Australia, England, New Zealand, and India should frequently tour Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka as it will be beneficial for cricket.

“The excitement, then the money comes in from the revenue of TV rights. It’s really important for teams to go there,” Warne added.

Warne said that he is hopeful that the security situation in Pakistan will remain the same and Australia will tour the country. He added that it is sad to see that Pakistani players have been unable to play Test cricket at home and experienced players have not been able to play cricket in front of their families and home crowds.

Vaughan also presented his point of view on the situation and also regretted England’s decision to call off their tour last year.

“England pulled out of a Pakistan trip. I think they were going for a week to play 3 T20Is. It was pulled about 4 or 5 days before they were meant to go and it’s not just a great look for the game,” Vaughan stated.

Vaughan added that Australia’s upcoming tour is a great opportunity to reintegrate Pakistan as a host nation and said that Australia needs to do everything in their power to tour the country as it will be great for cricket.

Australia is scheduled to tour Pakistan to play a three-match Test series, three-match ODI series, and one T20I in March and April. The tour is set to commence from 3 March with the first Test match, scheduled to be played at National Stadium Karachi. This will be Australia’s first tour of the country since 1998.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The trials of different games have started in all nine divisions of the province on the directions of Director General Sports Punjab, Javed Chohan, for the selection of various divisional male and female teams for participation in the 73rd Punjab Games scheduled to be held at different venues of Nishtar Park Sports Complex from January 24-27, 2022.

Director General Sports Punjab, Javed Chohan, in a statement on Monday said male and female players from all divisions are being chosen purely on merit for Punjab Games because there is no room for anti-merit tactics in our setup. “Sports Board Punjab is providing sufficient playing opportunities to all talented male and female players belonging to all games,” he said.

He said that all the participating players are expected to excel in the upcoming 73rd Punjab Games in which competitions of 27 games will be held including seven games for women players.

The trials of wushu (kung-fu) players were held at Nishtar Park Sports Complex Gymnasium Hall on Monday. As many as 40 players participated in the trials. The trials process was monitored by Malik Iftikhar, Ambreen Malik, M Imran, Sajid Ali, Samreen Altaf, and M Rohail.

The male and female trials of Lahore Division Cycling players were conducted at Cycling Velodrome, Nishtar Park Sports Complex on Monday. As many as 58 boys and 51 girl cyclists participated in the cycling trials.

The baseball trials of Lahore players were held at Bahria Town Stadium. As many as 18 players have been selected out of 39 participants. The baseball trials for Multan players took place at Muslim School Nishtar Road, Sahiwal players at Depalpur Stadium, Bahawalpur players at Dring Stadium, Faisalabad players at Borhan Wala Ground near Jinnah Park, and those for Sargodha players were held at Technology College PAF Road.

The trials of kabaddi, athletics, pentathlon, and cycling were held in the Multan division.

The trials of Rawalpindi players will be held at DPS School Shamasabad on January 11 (Tuesday), Gujranwala players at Jinnah Stadium on January 12 (Wednesday), and DG Khan players at Cricket Stadium DG Khan on the same day.

The trials of taekwondo, karate, kickboxing players were held in the Rawalpindi division on Monday while the trials of archery, baseball will be held on January 11.

Source: Pro Pakistani