January 31, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 1, 1427

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KARACHI, Jan 30: President, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Shaharyar M. Khan, has said that Karachi is a peaceful city and the stigma attached to it since last four years has been removed.

He made this observation while speaking at the launching ceremony of a book ‘Winning Strokes’ creating possibilities in the spirit of the game, authored by an Indian cricket enthusiast Dubai-based Shyam Bhatia on Monday.

‘By playing host to England and India in friendly and sporting manner, we have been able to erase the stigma,’ he declared.

He said it was a historic day that the book has been launched in the city during the ongoing third Test match between the two neighbouring countries.

The PCB chief termed the 2004 Indian cricket team tour as ‘mini revolution’ as it paved the way for people to people contact.

The Indian team manager, Raj Singh Dugarpur, highly applauded the author’s cause for donating the proceeds to under-privileged cricketers across the world.

Describing the author as pioneer for promoting the noble cause, he said the book itself was a small compliment from him. “This is spirit of the game which prevails on either side of the pitch,” he opined.

The Indian manager recalled that he had attended couple of similar books launch of Shyam Bhatia globally and the objective of whole exercise was to contribute something for the game.

He cited an example of Cricket Club of India (CCI), Mumbai, which embarked to pick bare-footed poor youths having no access to club cricket and picked some of the talented ones. Five of them jumped into the CCI team in three years, he said.

Raj Sindh hoped that the author would continue to help promote the game among under-privileged and produce more Bradman, Tendulkar and other in the days to come.

Bhatia said the idea was conceived by him about five years back aimed at repaying the debt to the game.

The Mirpurkhas-born, Bhatia disclosed that he was associated with cricket since he was a teenager.

“I have tried to compile all international cricketers in one book and announced that the proceeds would be distributed among under-privileged cricketers in UAE, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, West Indies and South Africa.

He announced to donate fifty percent sale proceeds of the book to former Test cricketer Rashid Latif who runs an academy in the city.

Welcoming the guests, Mansoor Khan, Chief Executive Saudi Pak, who sponsored the book, described it a commendable effort by the author.

The ceremony was attended by Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzak, Moin Khan, Rashid Latif, Zaheer Abbas, Salahuddin Ahmed, Iqbal Qasim and UAE cricket board official Redha Abbas.