March 07, 2009

just before the Pakistan women’s cricket team departed for Australia to take part in the ICC Women’s World Cup there, its 22-year-old Vice Captain Sana Mir said that other than trying to win for their country, the girls would also be portraying to the world that Pakistan is a progressive nation where women’s sports are given as much importance as men’s sports.

Although that would perhaps be stretching the truth a bit far, sports is all about learning to keep on going even when there is little hope. Sportswomen in Pakistan have and are still struggling to make a name for themselves but last year saw a breakthrough when the long struggle reaped a positive result. The women’s cricket team won all of their matches in the World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa to only lose to their hosts in the final. Coming second, they still managed to qualify for the mega event underway in Australia right now.

The 11 girls in green brought fresh hope for many other sportswomen of Pakistan who choose to look ahead rather than worry about what happened in the past. They have a long way to go but many have achieved a lot already despite their tender ages. Meet our young sportswomen. It may have been just about taking part earlier, but that is no longer enough for these spunky go-getters. They are going for the win.
 

BISMAH MAROOF — CRICKET
At 17-and-a-half years of age, Bismah Maroof is the baby of the Pakistan women’s cricket team and arguably its star.

Young Bismah is a versatile left-handed batswoman who opens for Pakistan and has pulled the side out of difficulty on many occasions as was witnessed during the Asia Cup in May 2008, in Sri Lanka, and the recently-concluded triangular series in Bangladesh in mid-February.

Bismah was first discovered in 2006 during camp at the Lahore Country Club in Muridke and has been a valuable part of the side ever since. She has scored 248 runs in 19 One-Day Internationals.

Bismah was named Player of the Series in the inaugural National Women’s Twenty20 Quadrangular Championship in July 2008. Representing Central Zone Blues, she scored two half centuries in that series and was just two runs short of her third.

Earlier, in the Pakistan-Netherlands match in the 2008 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa, Bismah, opening with Taskeen Qadeer, put on 79 runs for the opening wicket partnership. Her own individual score in the match was 45. Pakistan beat the Netherlands by 94 runs to reach the final as well as qualify for the Women’s World Cup that begins in Australia from today (March 7) with Pakistan taking on India in their first match. We wish Bismah and the entire team best of luck in the mega tournament.

 

RUBAB RAZA — OLYMPIAN SWIMMER
Rubab Reza at 18 has accomplished what many dream about all their lives. As part of the 2004 Pakistan contingent to Athens, she became the first Pakistani female swimmer to compete in the Olympics. Her pictures and interviews were flashed in just about every sports magazine, newspaper and TV channel of the world.

Rubab has an assortment of medals from various national and international tournaments including the South Asian Games and other competitions in Spain and India.

And she hopes to bring more laurels to her country in the future too though she is very busy in her studies at the moment. She wants to go into medicine after completing her A’ Levels.

 

NUSHMIYA SUKHERA — GOLF
Fifteen-year-old Nushmiya Sukhera plays golf, an interest inherited from her golfer father Nawaz Sukhera.

Though she has literally grown around the sport, Nushmiya first gripped the golf club professionally at 12-and-a-half years of age. That was two-and-a-half years ago and she has featured in several national tournaments since then.

A student of O-Levels, Nushmiya plays with a 24 handicap. Her most-recent achievement was touring India in October 2008 to play against Indian Punjab in the 3rd Punjab Cup at the Chandigarh Golf Club. She was the youngest member of the Pakistan Punjab Golf team and has a shining trophy to her name from that tournament.

 

SHAHIDA HAMID — KABADDI
Few may be aware that the Pakistan women’s kabaddi team beat their Iranian counterparts in Iran in July-August 2008.

The Girls’ Kabaddi Tournament was an eight-match series played in seven different cities of Iran. Pakistan, propelled by the petite 17-year-old Shahida Hamid, won five matches and drew one to bag the series 5-2. Not only did Shahida manage to score many valuable points for her side, her enthusiasm and quick moves were a cause of great encouragement and strength for her fellow team members throughout the tour.

A matric student at the Khatoon-e-Pakistan School, Karachi, Shahida enjoys taking part in all sports. She has also played throw ball and netball at the national level.

 

UMAMA QADRI — NETBALL
Umama Qadri is a netball star. The pictures show her receiving the trophy from the Pakistan Netball Federation (PNF) at different occasions along with a solo one.

If you see a pole with a basket attached to it, you will also see Umama Qadri bouncing a ball somewhere not too far away from the vicinity. Once she shoots, the ball just has to end up in the basket. Umama rarely, if ever, misses.

The 14-year-old netball player is a student of Class IX at the City School (Girls’ Branch) North Nazimabad, Karachi. She usually plays as Goal Attack (GA) but has served as Goal Shooter (GS) too sometimes.

As part of the Sindh squad that won gold in the 8th National Women’s Netball championship in Faisalabad in November 2008, Umama remained outstanding throughout the tournament. She was later honoured by City Nazim Mustafa Kamal too. And just last month, she was acknowledged as the highest shooter by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) during the Karachi phase of the ASC Netball Coaching and Tournament Programme-2009.

Apart from shinning in several inter-school and national championships where she has been named Player of the Tournament with countless goals under her belt, Umama was also a member of the Under-16 girls’ netball squad that toured Australia to feature in the Southern Skies Tournament there in July, 2008.

Although Pakistan ended up 13th in the tournament, Umama has the honour to have been named the All Star Player after the referees and judges in Brisbane were fascinated by her ability to never miss.

 

KHADIJA KAZMI — FOOTBALL
An A-Level student at the Lyceum, Karachi, Khadija Kazmi was first discovered in 2006 by the Diya Football Club while playing futsal, a smaller version of football, for her school team when she studied at the CAS School. She has been playing both futsal and football on a national and international level ever since.

Khadija, who recently made headlines in the sports pages by scoring two double hat-tricks in two days (March 1, and 2) in the Inter-school futsal tournament, wants to pursue football in university as well. She plays in the midfield position and looks up to Arsenal’s Fabregas Soler ‘Cesc’, another midfielder.

On the national level, Khadija is part of the Sindh women’s soccer squad that features in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) women’s club and provincial tournaments. She has also travelled to Sri Lanka and Malaysia with Diya FC to play against various teams including Sri Lanka’s Army and Police squads whom they beat.

 

ANMAAR HABIB — SKIING
It has been seven years since Anmaar Habib first represented Pakistan in an international ski event. She was only 12-years-old then. Today, as a self-assured student of the exclusive ski academy Sugar Bowl in Northern California, USA, Anmaar dreams of representing Pakistan in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Anmaar Habib and Nadia Hassan Khan were the first two Pakistani female skiers to have represented the country in an international skiing event, the 2007 Asian Winter Games too.

Anmaar, visits Pakistan each year to take part in the Sadia Khan Ski Cup, the biggest skiing competition for women here, named after another national champion. She has the Sindh colour and won the giant slalom competition for her province last year.

 

GHALIA AND MALIHA KHURSHEED — TABLE TENNIS
If there are the Williams sisters in tennis, there are the Khursheed sisters in table tennis. And we are proud to say that they belong to Pakistan.

Ghalia and Maliha Khursheed are a terror to face alone and together they are an arsenal. Pakistan has won several laurels on the international level thanks to these two.

After dominating the Karachi scene, the girls claimed the provincial and national tournaments. As part of the Pakistan squad that featured in the World Table Tennis Championships in Guangzhou, China last year, they managed to push Pakistan into the 2010 Table Tennis World Cup.

Although they have played so much table tennis and won so many national and international titles that they can be called veterans, they are still Under-19. They would have climbed much higher in international rankings if they didn’t have to miss out on so many tournaments due to their school and college exams.

Maliha won the All Pakistan Masters Ranking Tournament-2009 just last month (February).