An interesting thing happened during the Fortune Cup one-day series of Pakistan and West Indies in Abu Dhabi.  After completing his century, Younis Khan in a rare celebration, took his gloves off, took a note out of his pocket, and showed it to the cameras.

It read: “Moti, I miss you“.

I missed this show live but later when I saw the picture blogged, I pity him from his wife’s wrath (If she is who he meant the note for).  Though Gulf News thinks Moti is the former fielding coach.

Humor in Field, innit?

I am sure many of ATP readers will be surprised to see this photograph in which former President Musharraf is saluting his most vocal critic Imran Khan.

Before you jump onto conclusions, let me tell you that this photograph is said to be taken during a fund raising event doe the Shaukat Khannum Memorial Hospital sometime in 2000-01. It was the time when Imran Khan’s PTI supported Musharraf and he was a reportedly hot favorite candidate for Prime Ministership.

Do you think the photograph is real? Imran Khan actually mentioned this one in many of his speeches in US recently. Watch the part of his speech after 4 minutes and 50 seconds in a video here. And if it is, what does it tell us about Gen. Musharraf. Or about Imran Khan.

KARACHI: The hearing of dope-tainted pacer Mohammad Asif has been delayed following the Mumbai rampage that left at least 101 people dead.Mohammed Asif was scheduled to leave for India today to appear before the Indian Premier League Drug Inquiry Tribunal on November 29.Asif had failed a dope test conducted during the inaugural IPL in which he played for Delhi Daredevils.

His `B` sample, tested in Switzerland, also came positive but the traces of the banned substance differed in the two tests leading to Asif challenging the validity of the process adopted to conduct the tests in the IPL.If the tribunal finds Asif guilty he could face a minimum two-year ban and more action from his home board. He is presently suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board for flunking the dope test.

Asif, who will later on be accompanied by his lawyer Shahid Karim, said he was confident of being cleared by the tribunal.

Click here to read more…

In the photo above, a small boy is seen feeding a colony of pigeons near the Sindh Secretariat, Karachi.

Photo is taken on October 4, 2008 and is courtesy of Syed Abbas Mehdi.

When I first saw the photo, the sheer number of pigeons reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie called The Birds. Photo to the right is a scene from the movie ‘Birds’.

KARACHI, Senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf has been recalled to the Pakistan squad for their one-day series against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi later this month.Yousuf, who was not considered for a Twenty20 four-nation tournament in Toronto last month, has been included in a 15-man squad for the one dayers on Nov. 12, 14 and 16.

The squad also includes fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, whose exclusion from the side last month led to the resignation of chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed. Selectors have also recalled Nasir Jamshed after the opener recovered from a bout of malaria.

Khalid Latif, Anwar Ali and Sohail Khan, who all made the trip to Toronto, were left out of the squad.

SQUAD: Shoaib Malik (Capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Fawad Alam, Abdur Rauf, Saeed Ajmal.

03/11/08  LAHORE :Lahore High Court Bar Association in protest of November 3, 2007 action by former president Pervez Musharraf will take out a protest rally in Lahore during the day. The Association will hold a General House Meeting prior to this event. The lawyers in order to halt court proceedings have announced to put locks on all the higher and lower courts during their protest.

These pictures from the Associated Press need no commentary. They demand our attention. Our empathy. And, wherever we can, our action.

ICC could look again at result of forfeited Oval Test SYDNEY, ICC president David Morgan said Wednesday the result of the controversial 2006 Oval Test between England and Pakistan could be reconsidered after pressure from Marylebone Cricket Club.The result of the forfeited Test match was changed from an England win to a draw by the International Cricket Council in July but the MCC said on Sunday the move contravened the laws of cricket and set a very dangerous precedent.

Morgan, in Sydney ahead of next year’s women’s World Cup, said the ICC might look again at the decision, which was made before he became president.The MCC World Cricket Committee is a very responsible group, he was quoted as saying by media.

It is made up of some of the world’s top cricketers and chaired by (former England captain) Tony Lewis and I would be very interested in hearing what has been reported.I’ll be very interested to actually read their minutes and I’m sure they will make that available and it’s something we (the ICC) will have to consider very carefully.It was a decision that was made by the ICC and it’s a decision that I was not happy with.He added: I was president-elect and I didn’t believe it was appropriate to change the result of the England-Pakistan match.The first and only forfeit in the history of Test cricket took place in August 2006 when Australian umpire Darrell Hair and his West Indian colleague Billy Doctrove penalised Pakistan five penalty runs for alleged ball-tampering.

Click here to read more…

The scene below is from June 01, 2008 where people are seen pushing a broken down bus near S.M. College, Karachi. The photo is a very good representative of our society in literal as well as philosophical way.

Let me tell you why I think so..

(1) Literal in a sense that such scenes are very common in Pakistan where passengers of a bus are also asked to push it when the engine dies down.

(2) Philosophical in a sense that note the dua (prayers) written on the bus as ‘allah nigehban’ (May God Protect You) and ‘allah mehrban’ (May God be Benevolent to you). But unlike our symbolic and ritualistic society these brave men are not waiting for some divine help to appear. They are taking matters in their own hands and should I say..‘himmat-e-mardaaN, madad-e-khuda’ (God helps those who show courage).

I’ve read somewhere that while the war of independence in 1857 was getting crushed by the British, the ladies in old city Delhi were heard saying:

‘khuda karay faraNgioN ki topouN mein keeRay paReN” (May God put pests in the guns of colonial powers). Of course such prayers were not going to be heard. In the end Delhi lost its power seat for the next 90 years.

Allama Iqbal has also said:

    Khuda ne aaj tak us qaum ki haalat naheeN badli
    na ho jis ko khyal aap apni haalat ke badalnay ka

Fourth edition of National Twenty20 Cup concluded in Lahore today with Sialkot Stallions retaining the Champions title for third year running. Runners Up Karachi Dolphins were left wondering about their luck and skills as they have now appeared in 3 Finals in the past 4 tournaments and lost everytime.

Final Score: Karachi Dolphins (125/9), Sialkot Stallions (126/3). Detailed Scorecard here

Following have been winners and runners-up of 4 twenty-20 national tournaments that have been played in Pakistan so far.

2004/05: Winner: Faisalabad Wolves, Runners Up: Karachi Dolphins
2005/06: Winner: Sialkot Stallions, Runners Up: Faisalabad Wolves
2006/07: Winner: Sialkot Staliions, Runners Up: Karachi Dolphins
2007/08: Winner: Sialkot Stallions, Runners Up: Karachi Dolphins

13 teams from all over Pakistan took part in this year’s tournament. They were divided into 4 pools with winners of each pool qualifying for semi-finals. The points table at the end of pool matches looked as below.

Semi Final 1: Karachi Dolphins (69/1) beat Islamabad Leopards (68)
Semi Final 2: Sialkot Stallions (117/6) beat Lahore Lions (111/6)

Karachi and Sialkot both had a star-studded team. To me, atleast on paper Karachi’s team looked stronger with services of 6 players who have representated Pakistan’s national team.

Karachi was lead by Shahid Afridi. It also had Pakistan’s 5 other ODI players: Fawad Alam, Sohail Khan, Naumanullah, Khurram Manzoor and wicket keeper Sarfraz Ahmed.

Sialkot was lead by Pakistan’s national team captain Shoaib Malik and it also had the services of Pakistan’s 3 national ODI players Mansoor Amjad, Abdur Rehman and Kashif Raza and 1 test player Qaiser Abbas.

Shoaib Akhtar ki wapsi

Ofcourse a big news for this year’s tournament has been the return of Shoaib Akhter. He played for Islamabad Leopards and his performance remained as follows

v Karachi Dolpins: 4 runs in batting and 3-0-22-0 in bowling.
v Multan Tigers: did not bat and 4-1-14-1 in bowling