Category: Sports

Former captain of Pakistan cricket team Shahid Afridi has appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari to take control of cricket matters otherwise the issues would get worse more than before.

While giving an interview Afridi said that he has played with many experienced players and wish to play in future but compromise on self-respect is not acceptable. On asking about conflict with PCB, Shahid said that it is a scheme against him for a long time but there is always a limit to everything. He said that he has never violated the code of conduct in any of his international tours infact there were rumours to replace him. In an interview he requested to President Asif Ali Zardari to look over the sports issues especially cricket as it is getting worse day by day.

The all-rounder said that the entire nation prays for him whenever he is in the field. He said that he can return to the team if everyone remains concerned with one’s own work.

 

 

Half-centuries by Younis Khan and Umar Akmal led Pakistan to a five-wicket victory in the second one-day international against Ireland on Monday, sealing the tourists’ 2-0 series win. Pakistan chased down a target of 239 with eight balls to spare, with late hitting by Younis (64) and Akmal (60 not out) helping the team over the line after a slow start to its reply.

A superb knock of 109 from 107 balls by opener Paul Stirling had given Ireland a decent total to defend, two days after the home side was skittled out for 96 in the first one-dayer between the teams which Pakistan won by seven wickets. Spinner Saeed Ajmal posted Pakistan’s best bowling figures of 4-35 in Stormont.

Former skipper Pakistan cricket team Shahid Khan Afridi has announced retirement from international cricket here late on Monday. Afridi told that he could no longer perform for a cricket board that did not respect its senior players. “I have decided to retire from international cricket because I am not in a mental frame of mind to continue playing under this board,” the 31-year-old said.

The hard-hitting batsman and leg-spin bowler told that there were “disgraceful” people in the board who could not tolerate outspoken people like him. “I can’t work with such people. To me self-respect is more important than anything else and this board has no respect for me,” he said. He added more that during his spell as one-day captain he was not consulted over squad selection and did not know until the last minute if he would be retained as skipper.

“There was no respect shown to me although I picked up a ragged and scandal-hit team and built it up into a fighting unit. We reached the 50-over World Cup semi-finals (this year) and the reward they gave me was the sack,” he said. “They sacked me without telling me. No one bothered to even speak to me. “There is a particular lobby of people … who don’t want me in the team perhaps because I don’t fit into their scheme of things. They have poisoned the chairman  against me.”

Novak Djokovic produced an unforgettable performance, with the racket and the microphone, to wipe the smile off Richard Gasquet’s face while Roger Federer continued his Bois de Boulogne stroll to reach the French Open quarter-finals on Sunday. World number two Djokovic extended his unbeaten run to 41 matches in 2011 as the Serb smothered dejected 13th seed Gasquet, who ran out of ideas during a 6-4 6-4 6-2 tennis lesson. Djokovic will next face Italian Fabio Fognini, who came out on top in a four-hour-22-minute, five-set battle with Spain’s Albert Montanes..

Federer, a 16-times grand slam champion, appeared to be floating through air in a 6-3 6-2 7-5 dismissal of fellow Swiss Wawrinka as he produced some delectable shots to draw “oohs” and “aahs” from the packed crowd.

But barely anyone noticed women’s third seed Vera Zvonareva make an early exit. Zvonareva had to play in front of rows and rows of empty seats on Court Philippe Chatrier as she was knocked out by fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 2-6 6-2 in a forgettable fourth-round contest. The 14th seeded Pavlyuchenkova, at 19 the youngest woman left in the draw, reached her first grand slam quarter-final after winning a topsy-turvy match filled with unforced errors and lost opportunities.

Jonathan Trott ground his way to a painstaking, chanceless double century as the rain-affected first test between England and Sri Lanka headed for a draw on Sunday. Trott was finally bowled for 203 five overs from the close, his second test double hundred, in an England total of 491 for five at the end of the fourth day.

After rain had delayed the start of play by 210 minutes, England lead Sri Lanka by 91 runs with Ian Bell on 98 not out. Alastair Cook was dismissed for 133 early in the day’s play and Bell then shared a stand of 160 with his Warwickshire colleague Trott. Kevin Pietersen (3) succumbed to left-arm spin for the 19th time in tests in just over three years.

Security officials hurried Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq away from reporters and back to the squad’s hotel after his side beat Ireland in the first of two one-day internationals. But this was one occasion when his team’s actions spoke louder than words. Pakistan’s emphatic seven-wicket victory at Stormont on Saturday could have been a tricky assignment in alien conditions.

The World Cup semifinalists left the sub-continent for the West Indies where they wrapped up the five-match one-day series there with victories in the first three matches. And in less than two days since arriving in temperatures 20 degrees lower than they left behind in the Caribbean, Pakistan adjusted to a cold and blustery day to skittle Ireland out for just 96. Junaid Khan, left-arm pace man changed the course of the game with three wickets in four overs on his way to four for 12 in five.

Junaid didn’t manage that there was no way back for Ireland from 66 for six and the introduction of off-spinner Saeed Ajmal hurried the innings to its conclusion, his three wickets coming in just 10 deliveries. Ireland captain William Porterfield, while admitting Pakistan bowled well, was more concerned by his side’s lack of resilience.

“It was difficult for the batsmen with the ball seaming around but we didn’t acquit ourselves as well as we should have and there were too many poor shots and not enough application at the crease. We folded too easily and didn’t put any partnerships together.

M Hafeez brought up his 12th ODI 50 from 83 balls with seven fours and a six but was dismissed next ball, the second of three wickets for Australia-born Alex Cusack, Ireland’s only successful bowler. Those wickets allowed Misbah, in his first match as Pakistan’s one-day captain and celebrating his 37th birthday, to hit the winning runs.

Pakistan ‘A’ outlasted a much improved Afghanistan team to win the third and final one-day cricket match by four wickets on Sunday, for a 3-0 whitewash of the tourists. Noor Ali (51) guided Afghanistan to an imposing 274-9 in their 50 overs before Sarfraz Ahmed and Saad Nasim hit half-centuries to help the hosts overcome the visitors after 278-6 in 48.1 overs.

Sunday’s victory completed a rout that saw Pakistan win the first match in Islamabad by five wickets and the second at Rawalpindi by 150 runs. Afghanistan were the first international team to tour Pakistan since March 2009. Ahmed put two match-winning partnerships of 63 for the sixth wicket with Sohail Tanvir (31) to lift Pakistan ‘A’ from a precarious 120-5 before seeing them off through an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 95 with Nasim.

Ahmed hit three boundaries during his 73-ball 53 not out and was ably supported by Nasim who hit seven boundaries during his 43-ball 50 not out. For Afghanistan, Ali was the pick of the batsmen, holding one end intact during his sedate 72-ball innings which had six boundaries. And Karim Sadiq had a fiery 26-ball 42 not out studded with seven boundaries.
For Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah took 3-29. The Pakistan Cricket Board hope their successful hosting of Afghanistan will send positive signals to top teams who have refused to tour here.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has loomed the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) for hosting its home series in the United Arab Emirates. Amid Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) declined to tour Pakistan in October due to nastiest security conditions, PCB is now looking towards neutral venues to Xenia the series.

The Chief Executive Officer of ECB Dilawar Mani, while talking to a Pakistani newspaper said: “I can confirm that the PCB has once again contacted us for the business plan to host their series we will reply in the next two weeks.”

It was smooth-sailing for Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna as they launched their French Open doubles campaign at Roland Garros with a first-round win over Andreas Seppi and Simone Vagnozzi on Thursday.

Pakistan’s Qureshi and India’s Bopanna beat the Italians with a 6-3, 6-2 score-line on the fifth day of the grand slam in match that lasted 57 minutes. The IndoPak Express contested in several clay-court ATP Masters tournaments before reaching Paris, in a bid to avoid disappointment on the tricky surface, following their second-round exit in last year’s French Open.

Pakistan is set to play a two-match one-day series against Ireland with Misbah-ul-Haq their fifth limited overs captain in three years. Misbah was handed the captaincy last week following the sacking of Shahid Afridi, who, it was announced on Tuesday, is not travelling to Ireland due to his father’s illness.

The weather could hardly be more different to that in the Caribbean the Pakistanis left barely 24 hours earlier before they arrived in Belfast here on Thursday amid cool, breezy conditions. Meanwhile, the Stormont ground, the venue for both matches, on Saturday and Monday, was too wet Thursday to allow Ireland to train.

If Pakistan can adapt to the drop in temperatures and not think too longingly of home after more than a month away, they should have enough all-round strength to see off the leading Associate nation. But anything less than a fully committed performance could see them struggling.

Since Ireland knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup, they have gone from strength to strength, defeating England at this year’s edition. And even one victory against Pakistan will consolidate their 10th place ranking in the ODI table, just four places behind the tourists.