Current Final

Tag: PCB

  • ‘Gone nuts’: Asad Siddiqui lashes out at ICC for snubbing Babar Azam

    ‘Gone nuts’: Asad Siddiqui lashes out at ICC for snubbing Babar Azam

    Actor Asad Siddiqui has lashed out at International Cricket Council (ICC) for not naming the captain of Pakistan Cricket team Babar Azam, as the player of the tournament.

    David Warner was named as the ‘Player of the Tournament’.

    The Zebaish star used his social media to express his anger, “How can you not give the player of the tournament award to Babar Azam, ICC has gone nuts man.”

    Babar’s campaign ended at the hands of Australia at the semi-final stage, but he sealed a historic 10-wicket win against India.

    He added three more fifties, meaning he sits tied with Matthew Hayden and Virat Kohli for the most half-centuries in T20 World Cup, while only Kohli and Tillakaratne Dilshan have scored more runs at a single edition.

    However, Babar Azam was named the skipper of ICC’s Team of the Tournament for the mega event. 

  • Well done, Boys in Green!

    Well done, Boys in Green!

    Today, the final of the T20 World Cup is being played between Australia and New Zealand. We wish that instead of Australia, Pakistan would have been facing NZ in the final but we lost a close contest to Australia in the semi-final on Thursday. It was extremely disappointing and truly heartbreaking but if truth be told, Pakistan’s overall performance in the tournament made us proud. 

    Pakistan cricket team was the only unbeaten team in the group matches. Nobody could have predicted this performance. Every match had a different Player of the Match, which means the Pakistan team did not just rely on one or two players but performed well as a team. Look at how well Rizwan played against Australia despite being admitted in the hospital prior to the semi-final. This is called team spirit. And we broke one jinx — beating India in a World Cup. We still have to break this other jinx of beating Australia in a knockoff game. Breaking two jinxes in one World Cup was perhaps a lot. But break we will!

    We made some mistakes in the semi-final. We should have made a few more runs and bowled better. Our fielding could have been better too. But everyone learns from their mistakes and this young team will learn too. But let’s not forget that arguably, Australia has probably one of the best sporting cultures in the world and also world-class facilities. In a recent transmission, Wasim Akram revealed that our gymming facilities are decades old and hardly any new machines have been added to the gym at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Training equipment should be the latest and world-class but unfortunately, we don’t have such facilities here. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) must pay attention to these issues as well.

    Babar Azam is a brilliant captain and the unity in the team and their faith in the captain is something that is very good to see in Pakistan cricket, where mostly we have seen a lot of politics behind the scenes against the sitting captain in the past. This team is different. This team stands behind its players. Hassan Ali was not thrown under the bus. The response by Pakistan Twitter in his support is also something these boys will remember. They made us happy in uncertain times. They gave us hope when things looked gloomy. 

    We love you, Team Pakistan. There are plenty more World Cups to come and we will win for sure!

  • Wasim Akram disappointed with facilities provided by National Cricket Academy

    Wasim Akram disappointed with facilities provided by National Cricket Academy

    Pakistan’s former captain Wasim Akram, talking about the standards of National Cricket Academy (NCA) and its gyms, has said that he is disappointed with the facilities provided to our athletes.

    Akram, while talking to host Fakhr-e-Alam on A sports, said: “I was invited by a club in Australia, it was a football club and I saw their gym and swimming pool inside the ground where they practice. It was out of this world and the gyms in NCA Lahore, which is operational from when I used to play, has just been renovated and only a few dumbbells have been added and that too one-one set each. When you buy dumbbells, you buy two or three sets of each pair because when the team comes to practice, more people can use them instead of waiting for the other guy to finish. So, we still have the old machines installed since 2001 and look at how much we earn from cricket.”

    Pakistan national cricketer Wahab Riaz also said the place was just renovated recently and said that one or two new machines have been installed and agreeing with Akram, he said that since 2001, only one pair of dumbbells are available in the gyms provided to the players.

    The host then asked Wahab if you compare the gym of NCA with any private gym, what kind of difference do they see?

    Former captain Misbah-ul-Haq dived in and said that he would rather gym at his house than doing it there.

    Wasim Akram added: “So many chairmen came but no one thought about this issue.”

    Have a look:

  • England to play two additional T20Is during their tour to Pakistan in 2022

    England to play two additional T20Is during their tour to Pakistan in 2022

    England will play two additional Twenty20s during their tour to Pakistan next year, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chief Executive Tom Harrison announced on Tuesday.

    Pakistani cricket fans were infuriated by ECB’s decision to unilaterally cancel their joint men’s and women’s trip to Pakistan, which had been planned for October, with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja saying that his nation had been “used then binned” as part of a “West versus rest” mentality.

    That visit would have been England’s first since 2005 and came against the backdrop of New Zealand’s prior withdrawal from Pakistan, citing a specific and credible security threat.

    Harrison travelled this week in an apparently successful bid to repair relations, agreeing to extend what had been a five-match T20 series to a bumper seven-match rubber next September and October.

    England will also return for a three-Test series starting in November, after the T20 World Cup in Australia.

    Announcing the deal, Harrison said: “Myself and ECB’s senior director Martin Darlow visited Lahore to talk face to face with the PCB around some of the things that have happened over the past few weeks, leading to the cancellation of our tour in October.

    “We also wanted to discuss the future as the two boards have a historic relationship and want to move the agenda towards a forward-looking one as opposed to one looking back.

    “This is just to reaffirm our commitment to Pakistan cricket to getting England teams, men’s and women’s teams, eventually playing in Pakistan at home.

    “I don’t think there’s a cricketer in England who doesn’t want to test their abilities against the huge talent this country has and in the conditions they know best.”

    It was announced earlier this week that Australia would tour Pakistan for the first time since 1998 when they visit the country in March and April 2022 for three Tests, three ODIs and a T20 international.

    “The ECB have shown their large heartedness to be here for which I am thankful to Tom and Martin. It means a lot to us,” said Ramiz Raja.

  • ECB chief Tom Harrison flies to Pakistan in bid to repair relations between England cricket and PCB

    ECB chief Tom Harrison flies to Pakistan in bid to repair relations between England cricket and PCB

    England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison will meet with Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, as well as Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja, in a bid to repair relations with Pakistan in the wake of last month’s cancelled T20I tour.

    Read More – New Zealand cancels Pak series due to ‘security concerns’ despite PM Khan’s call to NZ PM

    Officials at the PCB were enraged when England pulled out of the two-match tour at short notice a few weeks ago.

    Now Harrison has flown in to assure Ramiz, the new chairman of the PCB, that England remain committed to their Test tour of the country at the end of 2022. England have not toured Pakistan since late 2005.

    He is also set to meet with PM Khan, Pakistan’s greatest allrounder and World Cup-winning captain, prior to his move into politics, who also serves as patron-in-chief of the PCB.

    Speaking in the wake of the cancelled T20I tour, which followed hot on the heels of New Zealand’s abandonment of their own tour on the morning of their opening ODI in Rawalpindi, Ramiz hit out at what he called cricket’s “western bloc”, and said that the PCB would be making contingency plans to protect their home itinerary in the event of another England pull-out next year.

    Reportedly, Harrison’s trip is only expected to last a couple of days. He is due in the UAE later in the week as the ICC hold their first in-person chief executives’ meeting since the start of the pandemic.

    The news came after Cricket Australia announced its plans for a three-Test, three-ODI and one T20I tour in March-April 2022. If it goes ahead as planned, it will be their first tour of the country since 1998.

  • Australian Cricket team to tour Pakistan in March-April 2022

    Australian Cricket team to tour Pakistan in March-April 2022

    The Australian cricket team will be visiting Pakistan next year in March and April for three Test matches, Three ODIs and one T20I, announced the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday.

    Read More – New Zealand cancels Pak series due to ‘security concerns’ despite PM Khan’s call to NZ PM

    According to the details, the first Test match of the series will start on March 3 in Karachi. The second Test will be played in Rawalpindi from March 12 to 16 and the third in Lahore from March 21 to 25.

    Meanwhile, all four white-ball matches of the series will be played in Lahore. These matches will be played from March 29 to April 5.

    Read More – ‘Decision of England board is cowardly, was made out of fear of the players and India’: British author

    Earlier, the PCB Twitter account had tweeted that they will be making a big announcement shortly.

    Australia has not played in Pakistan since 1998.

    However, team Pakistan is set to face Australia in the semi-finals of ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 on (Thursday) November 11.

  • PCB announces schedule of West Indies tour of Pakistan

    PCB announces schedule of West Indies tour of Pakistan

    The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced the schedule of the upcoming West Indies tour of Pakistan.

    As per the schedule, the Windies will arrive in Karachi on December 9 to play three T20Is and an equal number of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League matches in Pakistan.

    The series will kickstart from December 13 and will last till December 22, as per the cricket board.

    The December ODIs will form part of Pakistan’s fourth series in the Super League, which will see the top seven sides and the event host India qualify directly for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 with the remaining two sides progressing from the qualifying event.

    “After missing out on home internationals in September and October, the West Indies tour will formally kick-off of an exciting and entertaining season of men’s international cricket in Pakistan with HBL Pakistan Super League 2022 and Australia’s first full series to follow,” said PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja.

    “The West Indies have always remained one of Pakistan cricket fans’ favourite sides. I am hopeful that the NCOC will support this series by allowing maximum crowds so that the fans can watch live in action their favourite players and back both the sides,” he added.

    Schedule:

    Dec 9 – West Indies arrival in Karachi

    Dec 13 – 1st T20I, Karachi

    Dec 14 – 2nd T20I, Karachi

    Dec 16 – 3rd T20I, Karachi

    Dec 18 – 1st ODI, Karachi

    Dec 20 – 2nd ODI, Karachi

    Dec 22 – 3rd ODI, Karachi

    Dec 23 – Departure

  • ‘Treat injured woman cricketer with Babar’s India match fee’: says Babar’s father

    ‘Treat injured woman cricketer with Babar’s India match fee’: says Babar’s father

    Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam’s father, Azam Siddique, has asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to treat woman cricketer Bisma Amjad through the captain’s match fee, which he had received in the T20 World Cup fixture against India.

    “I request PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja to immediately make arrangements for national cricketer Bisma Amjad’s treatment,” Siddique said in an Instagram post.

    Following her treatment, the board officials, according to Geo News, had rejected to pay for her medical bills after which the woman cricketer began to weep. At this, someone offered to pay for her expenses.

    Later, after the cricket board was severely pummeled on social media, the PCB issued a statement, saying that Bisma Amjad suffered a concussion during a women’s training camp at the Sindh regional academy.

    “The PCB, as a responsible organisation is continuing to look after her wellbeing as well as treatment expenses,” it added.

    Azam’s father was referring to the October 24 match in which Pakistan had beaten India by 10 wickets during the ongoing T20 World Cup.

    Meanwhile, in a video statement, Amjad also confirmed that she had suffered a head injury during a practice session, following which the PCB officials had taken her to a private hospital.

    “I am feeling better after PCB had me treated at a private hospital,” she added.

  • Pakistan cricket fights back…hard

    Pakistanis are on a high these days after Pakistan cricket team’s three consecutive wins at the T20 World Cup. Pakistan is on the top in their group with three out of three wins against India, New Zealand and Afghanistan. We still have to play the remaining two matches against Namibia and Scotland next week (November 2 and 7) before the semi-finals.

    Pakistan cricket team broke its jinx by beating India for the first time in a World Cup match. And what a win it was! We restricted the India side to just 151 runs and we chased the score without losing a single wicket. The second match against New Zealand was even more special as this had come after the team pulled out of its tour to Pakistan last month.

    In September, cricket fans across Pakistan were heartbroken after New Zealand’s disappointing decision to abandon the Pakistan series over “security threats” just minutes before the first One-Day International (ODI) match was about to begin in Rawalpindi. Following New Zealand’s unilateral decision, England also decided to cancel their men’s and women’s teams’ tour to Pakistan in October. New Zealand was to play in Pakistan after almost 18 years while England’s men have not played an international match in Pakistan since 2005 and their women’s team were to visit the country for the first time.

    It was not just the cricket fans who were disappointed; apart from the huge financial loss to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) because of these cancellations, it must have affected the Pakistan cricket team as well. After the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009, Pakistan has had to play their ‘home series’ away from home for many years. Cricket came back to Pakistan due to the efforts of Najam Sethi and others at the PCB.

    We Pakistanis criticise our team a lot when they don’t perform well but we need to understand what our players have been through for more than a decade now. They have been away from their families for months on end due to home series in the UAE; they have had to rebuild the team after the 2010 spot-fixing scandal; Pakistanis are kept out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to political reasons; and they have had to face discrimination in cricket because of India’s influence at the International Cricket Council (ICC) – Pakistan does not get enough bilateral series and enough international matches to compete with other teams. Under such difficult circumstances, our team has won the ICC Champions Trophy, ruled the Test rankings, made the Pakistan Super League (PSL) a huge international success and much more. We are proud of our Men in Green. They have cheered us up in the most depressing of times. Pakistan Zindabad.

  • ‘ICC a politicised body, we need to reduce our dependence on it’: Ramiz Raja

    ‘ICC a politicised body, we need to reduce our dependence on it’: Ramiz Raja

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja has disclosed that 50 per cent of the board’s budget is based around the funds it gets from the International Cricket Council (ICC) whose “revenues are generated mainly from India”.

    Appearing before the Senate Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial affairs on Thursday in Islamabad, Ramiz said it was time for PCB to reduce its dependence on funding from the ICC and start tapping the local market.

    “ICC is a politicised body divided between the Asian and Western blocs and 90 per cent of its revenues are generated from India,” the PCB Chairman said.

    Ramiz said the ICC had become more of an event management company and PCB would have to make its voice heard if it does not want a repeat of the cancellation of confirmed series by New Zealand and England.

    What New Zealand did was unacceptable because till now they have not shared any information with us on what led them to abandon the series in Pakistan. But they are now trying to reschedule the series, he said.

    Ramiz hinted of some good news regarding the postponed New Zealand series in a week’s time.

    He indicated that the New Zealand cricket board was working on a new schedule to tour Pakistan.

    Read More – Ramiz Raja ‘erroneously’ tweets about ECB chairman’s resignation, deletes later

    Senator Raza Rabbani suggested that Pakistan should now not play against New Zealand and refuse any series but Ramiz pointed out that this would not be possible as Pakistan was part of the international cricket community.

    The good thing is that they are working on something, which means they want to amend things with us, he said.

    The New Zealand cricket team had arrived in Pakistan on September 11 for the first time in 18 years to play three ODIs and five Twenty20 Internationals but left on September 19 without playing any match after their government and security agencies advised them to return home citing “security concerns”.

    Ramiz, in a candid briefing to the senators, also made it clear that he would unveil his plans for Pakistan cricket and the board in a week or 10-days’ time while in four weeks’ time he would have his team ready.

    Read More – New Zealand cricket chief open to rescheduling of abandoned Pakistan series

    “To me, it is simple if the national team cannot do well and win matches, it means that everyone in the board from the tea man to the top official have failed in their duties,” he said.