Category: Sports

Pakistan’s oldest cup competition National Challenge Cup which has been ongoing since 1979, will commence on May 1 at the Jinnah Stadium, this will be the 30th edition of the competition.

National Challenge Cup will begin its competition from the group stage once again, even though last year in January the competition completed its group stage.

However, to ensure at least three games for all football clubs and departments in the competition the group stage will be held again in the training ground of Jinnah Stadium while the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will take place within the stadium itself.

A total of 16 teams will participate in the competition with four teams in each group and the top two teams will progress to the quarterfinals from each group.

PFF NC announced earlier this month that the National Challenge Cup will be held from May 1 to May 12, to ensure the resumption of the competition they invited all the clubs and departments to play in the tournament.

All football departments of P
akistan wanted NC to alter the dates so that their players could get the time to set a proper training camp. In the wake of this, all the departments requested NC to delay the competition by at least 15 days.

The delay of 15 months in the National Challenge Cup is a poignant reminder of the state of football affairs in Pakistan and why the whole domestic football structure needs a complete revamp after the PFF elections.

Source: Pro Pakistani

English cricket grounds are interested in hosting a potential Test series between India and Pakistan , as Lord’s, the Oval and Edgbaston are keen to host the speculated matches, according to reports.

Last week, India captain, Rohit Sharma, said it would be ‘awesome’ to play against Pakistan in a Test series overseas, declaring ‘I would love to’ play fixtures against the neighbors.

The last Test series between the two countries occurred in 2007, while currently the Indian government does not sanction bilateral fixtures against Pakistan. The only encounters the two face are in global or regional tournaments, such as World Cups and Asia Cup.

According to an interview given to foreign media, Warwickshire’s Chief Executive, Stuart Cain, believes that hosting the two nations would be an achievement for cricket at Edgbaston.

‘We’d be hugely supportive of the proposal,’ he said. ‘It would be fantastic for the region and the many Pakistan and India fans who live in the West Midlands.’

Next year, Lord’s will host
the World Test Championship final. The last neutral Test match it hosted was Pakistan’s Test against Australia in 2010. The Utilita Bowl and the Kia Oval hosted the 2021 and 2023 World Test Championship finals, neither of which involved England. Last year’s World Test Championship final, between India against Australia, was virtually sold-out.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The third One-Day International of three-match series between Pakistan Women and West Indies Women will be played in Karachi today.

The match will start at 03:30 in the afternoon.

West Indies have a decisive lead of 2-0 in the series, after winning the first two matches.

The ODI series will be followed by five T20 internationals between the two sides, with first T20 to be played on Friday at Karachi.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Hockey’s prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah Cup is scheduled for next month where Pakistan will play five matches in the group stage of the tournament.

This will be the 30th edition of the event which takes place annually in Malaysia, the hosts won the competition for the first time in 2022 and will defend their title this year.

The tournament will comprise six teams where the likes of New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, and hosts Malaysia will lock horns to win the coveted title.

Pakistan will face the hosts Malaysia in the opening game of the tournament on May 4, following this game they face a daunting task against South Korea on May 5 and Japan on May 7.

Canada and New Zealand will also participate in the tournament, they will face Pakistan on May 8 and May 10 respectively. The Kiwis are the only team in the tournament that will appear in the Paris Olympics 2024.

The top two teams will play in the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament while the third and fourth-placed teams will compet
e for the third place.

Meanwhile, the bottom two teams will fight for fifth place which means that all the teams will get their prize money irrespective of where they finish in the tournament.

Pakistan has won the Azlan Shah Cup three times in their history in 1999, 2000 and 2003, however their best performance in the last 20 years came in 2011 when they finished runners against Australia following a 3-2 defeat in extra time.

Match Date

Pakistan vs Malaysia May 4

Pakistan vs South Korea May 5

Pakistan vs Japan May 7

Pakistan vs Canada May 8

Pakistan vs New Zealand May 10

Source: Pro Pakistani

An employee of the Commerce Ministry has been arrested for selling complimentary tickets for the Pakistan Vs New Zealand clash at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

According to the police, the accused, Zulfiqar Ahmed was selling the tickets during the match and was arrested from outside the kidney center near the stadium. A case has been registered against the employee of the Commerce Ministry on the complaint of Deputy Director FIA Atif Qayyum.

Reportedly, the details of the registered case against the ministry’s employee suggest that the accused was selling complimentary tickets for one thousand rupees per person. The accused confessed that he obtained the tickets from the Commerce Ministry’s office by misusing his position in the ministry and was not authorized to sell the tickets.

Last year in April, three people were arrested who were installed in the black marketing of tickets during New Zealand’s tour to Pakistan for the ODI series.

The accused were selling fake tickets during the ODI series during an o
peration raid by the Rawalpindi Police who took timely action to stop black-marketing and selling of tickets.

Pakistan lost their third T20I against the Kiwis by 7 wickets at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, the five-match series has now been tied at 1-1 and a nail-biting finish to the series is expected in Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Pakistan cricket team’s all-rounder, Shadab Khan, is second on the list of highest strike-rate by a Pakistani batter in T20I cricket, with a minimum of 500 runs scored.

Shadab has batted in 44 T20I innings where he has scored 610 runs at an average of 19.67 and a strike rate of 140.87, only second to star all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

Afridi was in a league of his own as he played with an aggressive mindset in an era where batting progressively wasn’t rewarded in the Green Shirts squad.

Of the list’s top five performers, the majority are active cricketers while Afridi (retired) and Imran Nazir has not played international cricket for a while. Asif Ali and Fakhar Zaman are third and fourth respectively on the list of the highest strike rates for Pakistani cricketers.

Batter Innings Runs Average Strike Rate

Shahid Afridi 90 1405 18.01 150.75

Shadab Khan 44 610 19.67 140.87

Imran Nazir 24 500 21.73 135.13

Asif Ali 51 577 15.18 133.87

Fakhar Zaman 74 1559 21.95 130.56

Shadab gave an interview after the co
nclusion of the third T20I between Pakistan and New Zealand where he expressed his opinion about his batting number preference.

‘I batted at 3 and 4 in the PSL, where I feel comfortable. However, I’m okay with being a floater,’ as Shadab captained his franchise, Islamabad United, to victory in Pakistan Super League, Season 9.

Shadab was one of the leading run-scorers batting in the upper-order in the PSL 9, but his national team batting number isn’t as flashy.

The flamboyant all-rounder explained, ‘My approach is to score quick runs whenever I get the chance. In T20s scoring consistently isn’t hard, but delivering impactful performances is the real challenge.’

Source: Pro Pakistani

Famous Indian film actor, Salman Khan, was seen attending the Karate Combat 45 event where Pakistani mixed martial artists faced Indian fighters and won by a margin of 2-1.

Pakistani team captain, Shahzaib Rind, knocked out his Indian opponent, Rana Singh, in the first round and won his bout comprehensively. He received appreciation from Salman post-fight as he celebrated his victory.

The Indian A-lister commented: ‘Har jagah 20-20 second may knock out kar daitay ho yaar (you knock opponents out in 20 seconds everywhere)’, as he congratulated the fighter.

Earlier, Shahzaib had slapped the Indian captain in a pre-match press conference that was held in the build-up to the Karate Combat 45 event in Dubai.

The two men started trash-talking while igniting the India-Pakistan rivalry, things soon took a turn for the worse as Rana Singh abused Shahzaib Rind and made some extremely obscene remarks toward him.

Shahzaib and Singh indulged in a physical scuffle during the faceoffs and had to be separated by the se
curity officials in the press conference.

Karate Combat, in itself, hosts frequent events in new markets that are headlined by local fighters. Michael DePietro and Robert Bryan were the founders of the company, with its head office based in New York, that started the events and has been hosting the promotions in several countries worldwide.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam surpassed Aaron Finch’s record for most runs as captain in T20I cricket during his 37-run innings against New Zealand in the third T20 match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

The batting maestro went on to break another record in his illustrious career even though Pakistan lost against the Kiwis by 7 wickets.

Aaron Finch scored 2236 runs in 76 innings for Australia while Babar Azam has now surpassed him with 2,246 runs in just 67 innings, eclipsing the record of the former Aussie skipper by 10 runs.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson also accumulated 2,125 runs in 71 innings and sits in third place among the most prolific captains with the bat in the shortest format of the game.

Rohit Sharma also makes the list in the Top 5 as he scored 1648 runs in 54 innings while India’s run-machine Virat Kohli has made 1570 runs in his 46 outings as the skipper of India.

Following the result of the third match Babar Azam received a lot of scrutiny and criticism due to his strike rate of
127.59 in the match where he scored 37 runs off 29 deliveries that resulted in Pakistan scoring a total of 178-4 on a pitch that required a total of above 200.

Most runs as captain in T20s:

Player Runs Innings

Babar Azam 2246 67

Aaron Finch 2236 76

Kane Williamson 2125 71

Rohit Sharma 1648 54

Virat Kohli 1570 46

Source: Pro Pakistani