National Baseball Championship 2018 underway in Lahore

The 23rd Khawar Shah National Baseball Championship 2018 has got underway at Bahria Town,

Lahore, being staged under the auspices of the Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB).

A couple of more matches were held on the second day of the six-day event. Idris Haider Khawaja, Secretary General, Punjab Olympic Association, was the chief guest on the second day of championship.

According to the details made available by Shah Mazhar Ahmad, Secretary General, PFB, the chief guest upon his arrival was greeted by Syed Fakhar Ali Shah, President, PFB, before being introduced to the players.

The first match was played between FATA and KPK. It turned out to be a close encounter in which KPK edged out their opponents 9-8.

Mansoor, Hameed and Faisal scored a couple of runs each while Waseem, Abid and Asim contributed a run apiece for the winning side.

Irfan and Gohar kept FATA in the hunt by scoring two run each while Waheed, Nasim, Hazaratullah and Attaullah scored a run each. In the second match of the day, Punjab proved too good for KPK whipping them by a staggering margin of 12-0.


Ali Raza and Afraz played brilliantly for Punjab as they scored three runs each, Nasir score a couple

runs while Asif, Zeeshan, Zeeshan Rasheed and Bilal contributed a run each. Ali Raza also hit a home run.

On the third day of the competition, Pakistan Army was due to take on Pakistan Police while WAPDA will be up against Punjab in the second game to be held later in the afternoon.

The national championship has been dedicated to the late Syed Khawar Shah, a former President of the federation in recognition of his unforgettable services to the game.

Teams from Balochistan, KPK, Sindh, Punjab, FATA, Islamabad, Pakistan WAPDA, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Police and HEC are participating in the championship.

Army, WAPDA enter final of National Baseball Championship 2018

Pakistan Army and Pakistan WAPDA have qualified for the final of the 23rd Khawar Shah National Baseball Championship 2018, being held at Bahria Town, Lahore, under the auspices of the Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB).

The gold medal match will be taking place on March 10. Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Syed Arif Hassan, President, Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), will be the chief guest in the final and distribute medals among winners in the presentation ceremony.


The six-day event has been dedicated to the late Syed Khawar Shah, a former President of the
federation in recognition of his monumental services to the game of baseball.

Meanwhile Pakistan Police secured bronze medal by defeating Punjab 10-0 in the playoff for third position.

Atif, Yasir, Saleem Haider and Muzammil scored two runs each and Abdullah and Arfan contributed one run each for the winning side.

The Man of the Match award was clinched by Tariq Nadeem of Pakistan Police as he had pitched very well and did not allow the Punjab players to score any run against him.

Syed Fakhar Ali Shah, President, PFB, and Director, Bahria Sports, was the chief guest on the fourth Day of the championship. Muhammad Mohsin Khan, Senior Vice President, PFB, welcomed the chief guest who was introduced to the players.


Earlier, a couple of matches were held on the third day. In the first game Pakistan Army trounced

Pakistan Police 21-0.

Faqir Hussain scored four runs while Arsalan Jamshaid, Ubaidullah and Muhammad Rafi scored three runs each, Hidayatullah, Saqib Khan and Mazhar scored two runs each and Nazir and Waseem contributed one run each.

Pakistan WAPDA overcame Punjab 16-2 in the other match. For WAPDA Umair Bhatti score 4 runs, Zaheer topscored for WAPDA with three runs, Muhammad Waseem, Fazal-ur-Rehman and Zubair Nawaz scored two runs each and Sumair Zawar, Burhan Johar, Adnan Butt and Zakir Afridi contributed one run each. For Punjab, Usman and Usama score one run each. For WAPDA Umair Imdad Bhatti also hit a home run.

Army edge out WAPDA to win National Baseball Championship 2018

Pakistan Army edged out Pakistan WAPDA 8-6 in the final of the 23rd Khawar Shah National Baseball Championship 2018, held at Bahria Town, Lahore, under the auspices of the Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB), on March 10.

Pakistan Army, Pakistan WAPDA and Pakistan clinched gold, silver and bronze medals respectively in the six-day event dedicated to the late Syed Khawar Shah, a former President of the federation in recognition of his monumental services to the game of baseball.

The gold medal match consisted of nine innings. Saqib and Majeed scored two runs each for Army while Arsalan Jamshaid, Ubaidullah, Faqir Hussain and Nazir Ahmed contributed a run each. Arsalan Jamshaid, Faqir Hussain and Nazir Ahmed hit home runs for their team.

For WAPDA Fazal ur Rehman and Zakir Afridi scored a couple of runs each, Burhan Johar and Zubair Nawaz contributed one run each while Zakir Afridi hit two home runs for his team.

Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Syed Arif Hassan, President, Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), was the chief guest in the final. He distributed medals among winners in the presentation ceremony.

Shaukat Javed Chairman, PFB, Muhammad Khalid Mahmood, Secretary General, POA, Brig. Ghulam Jilani, Director, Army Sports, and Muhammad Jamil Ahmad Rana, Secretary General, Pakistan Tug of War Federation, were also present on the occasion.

Syed Fakhar Ali Shah, President, PFB, and Executive Director, Bahria Town Lahore, welcomed the chief guest and other dignitaries. Brig. Ghulam Jilani awarded bronze medals to the Pakistan Police Team, Shaukat Javed presented silver medals to Pakistan WAPDA team and Lt Gen Syed Arif Hassan gave away gold medals and the championship trophy to Pakistan Army baseball team.

Muhammad Usman, pitcher of Pakistan WAPDA, was adjudged Man of the Tournament award, named after Khawar Shah, and he received it from the chief guest.

Talking to the media, Lt. Gen Arif Hassan, President, POA, appreciated the performance of both teams and desired that the Pakistan baseball team earned laurels for Pakistan from abroad.

He reckoned that there was a marked improvement in the development of baseball in Pakistan under the supervision of new leadership.

Syed Fakhar Ali Shah, President, PFB, informed that they will hold national training camp of the Pakistan baseball team at the Pakistan Sports Complex, Islamabad, to prepare for participation in Asian Games 2018 to be staged in Indonesia.

Efforts to promote baseball in Sindh

The Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB), working for the promotion of baseball at grassroots level, has lately shown interest in development of sports in the province of Sindh.

Syed Fakhar Ali Shah, President, PFB, has recently undertaken a tour of Karachi for the purpose of promoting the game in Sindh.

He met with Vice Chancellors of different universities in Karachi to introduce Baseball game at university level. Prof Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, Vice Chancellor, NED University of Engineering and Technology, appreciated the efforts of the PFB for the promotion of baseball in Sindh.


He assured his full support to prepare his university baseball team for the participation in Inter-varsity
Baseball Championship.

He requested the PFB President to organize an exhibition match after Eid-ul-Fitr in Karachi to introduce baseball among students.

The PFB President offered to provide baseball equipment as well as a coach to the NED University.

Prof Dr Muhammad Afzal Haque, Vice Chancellor, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), was also appreciative of the efforts of Pakistan Federation Baseball for the promotion of baseball in Sindh.

He assured his full support to prepare his university baseball team for the participation in Inter-varsity Baseball Championship.

The PFB President volunteered to provide baseball equipment and a coach to the SSUET.

Syed Fakhar Ali Shah also met with Muhammad Altaf Tai, Chairman, Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD), Southern Region.

The ABAD official vowed to support and help in the promotion of baseball particularly its national and international events in Pakistan.

The PFB President also donated baseball equipment to the Sindh Baseball Association (SBA) to encourage them for working more proactively for the promotion of the game in the province.

President-elect Nadeem Omar set to take KCCA to higher level

The President-elect of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), Nadeem Omar, has already set the ball rolling by getting in touch with the concerned quarters for implementing his plans aimed at reviving the game in a big way.

He has been elected unopposed as the KCCA President as he enjoyed overwhelming electoral support prompting his predecessor and challenger Prof Ejaz Ahmed Farooqui to withdraw his candidature the other day.

The notification in this regard from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is being awaited and it may be delayed until polling for the slot of the KCCA Secretary is held in a few weeks.

Nadeem Omar, a veteran sports promoter and a cricket administrator, having founded and managed successful cricket teams like Omar Associates, Omar Cricket Club and Capricorn Discount Cards, besides Quetta Gladiators, has begun his journey of transforming the KCCA into a bigger entity than it was ever before.

The KCCA President-elect shared some of the exciting plans he has worked out to revolutionize the KCCA. He has already started making moves towards his strategic plan, covering nearly aspect of the game.

The development of a new structure of cricket for Karachi features prominently on his agenda as he plans to have the KCCA managed as professionally as any other modern cricket association anywhere in the world.

“First and foremost I have set the goal of reviving the KCCA Stadium in North Nazimabad. I plan to install floodlights at the ground besides improving the condition of the stadium. This would be the home of Karachi cricket,” he declared.

“Secondly I have already spoken to the PCB to let the KCCA gets its share of space at the National Stadium where I intend to build a library and museum of Karachi cricket apart from setting up the High Performance Centre with the KCCA Academy. There are vacant spaces within the compound of the National Stadium and the KCCA is interested in using it,” Nadeem Omar disclosed.

He has the plans for revitalizing the club cricket, with the help of its seven zones, on a war footing. He’s equally eager to launch proper cricket tournaments for schools, colleges and universities with the collaboration of the local education departments in order to engage a larger pool of students.

“I would be interested in exposing the youngsters to matches of longer duration from an early age so that they face no problems when graduating to first-class cricket. We will have annual tournaments of three-day matches as well as T20 events,” he added.

His plans include the development of news complexes containing a full-fledged cricket grounds where first-class matches could be played besides reviving the historic grounds like the Karachi Parsi Institute (KPI) where the legendary Hanif Muhammad played that epic knock of 499.

Nadeem Omar emphasized on quickly developing and uploading a state-of-the-art website of the KCCA, to be updated on a daily basis, which would have details about coaches, umpires, scorers, clubs, departments, grounds, rules, women’s tournaments besides other features of general interest.