Hub Rally organizers eye Formula One Race Track

The organizers of the Hub Rally Cross are eyeing to develop their Max Dirt Arena into a Formula One Track in coming years.

It’s our dream and target to launch Formula One Racing in Pakistan, once the track is ready is prepared. It is indeed a gigantic task but we are looking forward to doing it realistically in not too distant future,” the chief organizer, Shujaat Sherwani, declared during a media briefing on January 24.

The briefing was arranged to unveil the details of the upcoming fifth edition of the Hub Rally which has grown in popularity and status over the years with the support of the print as well as the electronic media. Thrilling and exciting goes into action at Max Dirt Arena on January 30 with over 50 top racing drivers of the country in action.

Director Marketing Ahsan Sherwani, Head of Sales & Marketing Shad Ali Khan, Max Dirt Track Developer Asif Imam, Toyota Highway Motors team comprising of National Ladies Champion Tushna Patel, Ronnie, Patel, and Talha Mansoor were also present on the occasion.

Shujaat Sherwani informed having met the Formula One developing officials in Abu Dhabi to discuss the possibilities of a joint venture with them. “We got excellent land in Hub for the purpose on which we can achieve our objective,” he remarked.


Himself was a motor racing driver of repute of the past, Shujaat Sherwani reckoned that the Hub
Rally Cross is like T20 cricket, swift and exciting races ends in one-day as compared to Gwadar, Cholistan and Jhal Magsi Rallies which are over 100 or 200 KM long and spread over two to three days.

He said that invitation has been extended to about a dozen foreign consul general to watch the race as guest of honour, adding that an academy is being launched at Max Dirt Arena under the supervision of Pakistan’s star driver Ronnie Patel and Tushna Patel who would be extending training and coaching to emerging drivers to groom them for future.

Pakistan’s top racing driver and former Cholistan, Jhal Magsi Champion Ronnie Patel said he was impressed the way the Motor racing was coming up fast in Pakistan.

“With the passage of time we are developing rules and regulations which are vital for the development and promotion of motor racing in Pakistan,” the veteran driver stated.

He revealed that foreign drivers from Australia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Thailand were highly impressed with talent and conditions of the off-road racing tracks in Pakistan when they here for Cholistan and Jhal Magsi.

"We are looking forward to see foreign drivers in action next years with great improvement of security situation. Pakistan is lucky to have such natural racing tracks which are not available in other countries. With the consistent support and assistance of media, the motor racing has gained momentum and hoped journalists carry forward the mission with us,” he recognized.

He complimented the role of Shujaat Sherwani in promotion, development and patronizing motor sports in Pakistan.

Asif Imam announced that the event will be held in eight categories and in the premier category of Prepared Class "A" and "B" all the participants will have two rounds on 11-kilometer track.

Best times will be taken while deciding the winners in all categories as the Max Dirt Arena track was sandy and twisty to test of skills of the racing drivers. Kunwar Talha, one of the stock category drivers urged the media to further promote motor sports as he announced the winner of three Stock category races besides Prepared and Ladies event.

Asghar Valika delighted with emergence of new snooker talent

The father figure of Pakistan snooker and the Chairman of the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), Ali Asghar Valika, has welcomed the emergence of new snooker talent which augured well for the future of cue sports in the country.

“To me it’s heartening to witness the newcomers challenge those who have been around for some time. It reflects the depth of snooker talent in our country,” he observed in a chat at the Karachi Club Annexe on January 20.

“Both the recently held twin events in the federal capital, the National Junior Under-18 Championship 2018 followed by the National Junior Under-21 Championship 2018 have brought to light quite a few emerging youngsters who can be groomed for future,” Asghar Valika, who revived the sport during his two decade long stint as the PBSA President, reckoned.

“Muhammad Naseem Akhtar can very rightly be considered as the wonder kid of Pakistan snooker. He has already won the IBSF World Junior U-18 Championship last year. With more experience and coaching he can turn out to be an asset for the country in future,” he felt.



Asghar Valika, having also headed the Asian

Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS), also expressed his delight at the continuation of his policy to spread the sport by holding the national events in different parts of the country.

“In my time as the President it had been decided to hold the National Snooker Championships in the federal capital and the other provincial capitals. The present leadership of the PBSA has done a good job by sticking to the same policy and organizing the twin national junior events in Islamabad and allocating the National Masters to Lahore and the Nationals itself to Karachi,” he complimented.

“Over the years, as a direct result of our initiatives and policies, snooker has spread to every nook and corner of the country and today the youngsters from smaller towns and cities are also making their presence felt in a big way. Snooker has certainly come of age,” the PBSA Chairman believed.

Mahmood Lodhi invited for King Salman World Rapid , Blitz Chess

Pakistan’s first-ever Grand Master (GM) Mahmood Ahmed Khan Lodhi has been invited to feature in King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship being staged in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from December 24 to 31.

“I have received an invitation through Federation Internationale de Chess (FIDE). It’s a great honour for me as well as Pakistan for its being the global event. The FIDE Executive Director Nigel Freeman has sent me the invitation for this prestigious event,” he informed reporters upon arrival from Lahore en-route to Saudi capital on December 23.

Mahmood Lodhi had become the first-ever GM in 70-year history of Pakistan when he won the Asian Senior s Chess Championship in Auckland few months ago.

“The World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen will be the star attraction for the championship in which over 250 men players including world leading GMs, International Masters and FIDE Masters and host Saudi Arabian players will be taking part,” he disclosed.

“The week-long championship is expected to be a big success with the presence of so many stalwarts of the game. The host country is providing boarding and lodging facilities to all the participants,” he added.

It was revealed that a record sum of US $750,000 will be on offer in each of the Open events and US $250,000 will be the prize money for each of the women's event

The first two Rapid Championships (Open and Women) will be played from December 26 to 28 while the Blitz Championships (Open and Women) will follow on December 29 and 30.

The number of players participating in the World Championships is set at a maximum number of 250 players for the Open events and 150 players for the Women events.

VFCC proceed to KL with high hopes of winning Titan’s Cup

Vital Five Cricket Club (VFCC), having emerged as one of the leading clubs of Karachi in a rather short span of time, will be participating in the inaugural KL Titan’s Cup T20 Champions Trophy Cricket Tournament 2017 being staged in Malaysia.

A 21-member VFCC squad, comprising of 16 cricketers and five officials, will be flying out to Kuala Lumpur in the wee hours of December 22 to compete in the two-week long international event. 

Left-arm spinner Faheem Ahmed will be captaining VFCC with opening batsman Hassan Mahmood to be his deputy. Saad Alam and Ali Imran are the other openers in the squad while Rameez Raja and Akbar Babar are the specialist middle-order batsmen.

Shaharyar Ali Rizvi has been selected as the wicketkeeper batsman while Yasir Hussain, Ansar Mushtaq and Khurram Shahzad are the three all-rounders. Waqar Anwar, Hamza Ansari Ammar Khan and Huzaifi Hussain Alvi are the medium-pacers while Arsalan Hussain and Shaharyar Tanvir are the lead spinners.

Javed Raza Naqvi will be the chef de mission while Waqar Hussain will be the manager with Jalaluddin, Anwar-ul-Haq and Haris Khan to be the head coach, the batting coach and the bowling respectively.


The 12 participating teams in the KL Titan’s Cup T20 Champions Trophy Cricket Tournament have
been divided equally in two groups for the preliminary rounds.

VFCC has been placed in the Group B alongwith FRCC, Haji Baba CC, Pak Flag CC, TSCC and Eleven Star CC while the Group A comprises of Active CC, Islamabad Green CC, Moin Khan Academy, Spartans CC and Xchanging Warriors.

At the end of the league matches, the top four teams from both the groups will qualify for the knockout stage of the competition starting with quarter-finals.

Meanwhile VFCC hosted a dinner reception prior to the departure of the squad at the Karachi Gymkhana on December 19 in which Younis Khan, a former Pakistan captain and the leading scorer of runs and centuries for the country in Test cricket, was the chief guest. Prolific Test batsman

Asad Shafiq was also present in the ceremony, largely attended by the officials and members of the club alongwith the Kuala Lumpur bound squad.

Speaking briefly on the occasion Younis Khan didn’t mince words in stating that the promotion of club cricket merited greater attention than the development of academies.

He lauded the efforts of VFCC in promoting cricket from the grassroots level and then fast tracking the development of young cricketers by sending them abroad to compete in international events like the KL Titan’s Cup.

Javed Raza, Chairman, VFCC, shared the aims and objects of the club, expressing his satisfaction over its phenomenal growth from the outset which he attributed to team work and the blessings of the present and former superstars of the country.

“We envision creating a safe, enjoyable and productive environment in which club cricket could excel while our mission is to bring back professional club culture through structuring and by engaging into positive and competitive cricket. We are on course of achieving of achieving of becoming the top cricket club of Karachi,” he disclosed.

Jalaluddin, a former Test cricketer and Head Coach of VFCC, described the club as an offshoot of the Customs Cricket Academy (CCA) and both the institutions were working hand in hand to accomplish the mutual goal of grooming the young talent and preparing them for tougher battles.

He recalled the outfits of VFCC as well as the CCA have had excellent track record abroad, having won tournaments in India, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the recent past.

Khalil Masood, an ex-Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Patron in Chief of VFCC and CCA, complimented Jalaluddin and his team for having delivered consistently during the last couple of decades to raise the bar.

“Our concept of providing coaching, participation in competitions and welfare of youngsters has set an example to follow for others. Our team of coaches has done a commendable job over the years to attain their present status,” he acknowledged.

Changing face of Younis Khan the great

Pakistan’s former captain and arguably the greatest batsman to be produced by the country, Younis Khan, had a knack of being at the centre of quite a few controversies during the peak of an otherwise illustrious career.

He retired from international earlier this year, after having become the first Pakistani batsman to score 10,000 Test runs.

His tally of 34 Test centuries also remains the highest for the country and they may remain so for a very long time.

His Test record was nothing short of being incredible. He amassed as many as 10,099 runs at a highly impressive average of 52.02 in a career spanning no less than 118 Test matches.

These are truly outstanding numbers and even the all-time great batsmen would have been proud to own such a record.

Younis was seldom accorded the respect or the recognition he richly deserved. Obviously there was the ever-present element of politics in Pakistan cricket which played its due role in him not getting the status he was entitled for.

But another factor which contributed in him being in the news for wrong reasons was his temperament. For some strange reasons he was unable to handle the success which had come his way. He would have been better off having sought some professional advice in this matter but probably nobody was sincere enough to have guided him towards that point.

 
In fact there were a few occasions when his accomplishments were overshadowed by his inability to
conduct himself in a befitting manner with the most glaring example being the events following the ICC World T20 Championship 2009 which Pakistan had won under his leadership.

Instead of becoming a folk hero after such an emphatic victory which had allowed Pakistan to lay hands at an ICC trophy for the first time after 17 years, he was found guilty of messing it up with the media corps who was there to report the arrival of the victorious team under his command.

It's not to argue here who was right or wrong or if Younis was provoked by someone at the airport but the fact of the matter is that the triumphant skipper should have talked more about the glories in order to capitalize on the resounding victory instead of engaging into something which could have been avoided.

The mercurial right-handed batsman, whose temperament and technique were exemplary in the cricket field, would have been better off having shouldered arms or ducked instead of having a go at the volley of questions from the journalists present at the airport.

As it turned out, Younis was boycotted by the furious media community and the then Sindh Sports Minister, Dr Syed Mohammad Ali Shah, had to arrange a hurriedly called breakfast meeting at his residence on the Independence Day where the misunderstandings were cleared finally.

Younis, as his awesome Test record testifies, that he remained a champion batsman all along. He was a fantastic captain too. He was a courageous fellow who dared attacking the opponents in the field. Alas he was found wanting, only off the field.

Well Younis, after having quit international cricket, has started looking like a different man now. He has been expressing his thoughts in an articulate manner and he has spoken sense more often than not. We all know that he understands the finer points of the game so well. It was just a matter of time for him to get into the groove.

It's very heartening indeed to find a positive change in his attitude. His willingness to be a part of the social campaigns is winning him more friends now. An exceptionally gifted player like Younis has a lot to offer for the game. As he cares for the society and loves the game so passionately we should be seeing more of him in future.