The next week, Lahore will host some of the matches of the first World Cup One-day Cricket for Blinds. The teams of Bangladesh and Nepal have arrived in the city. The opening match between Pakistan and Bangladesh will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium on Monday. After the Indian government did not allow its team to travel to Lahore, their matches have been shifted to the UAE, where Australia and Sri Lanka are also playing their matches.

The Nepalese team arrived in Lahore via Wagah after a 100-hour journey by road. Woman cricketer Bhagwati is also the part of their team. She said that after playing domestic cricket for 12 years, the world cup was her first international match.

Bangladesh cricket team manager Deedar Chaudhary said that his contingent had brought good wishes from their prime minister and the people of Bangladesh. He said in the past India had visited Lahore to participate in the T20 World Cup and it should again come here for this One-day event. He said Bangladesh was hopeful of a better performance in its matches against Pakistan and Nepal in Lahore.

The trophy unveiling ceremony for the World Cup was also organised at a local hotel last week. A special inaugural ceremony is also the part of the programme and it will be held at Alhamra Centre near Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday.

Pakistan blind cricket team has a good standing in the world and it has won many titles for the country.

The Sports Board of Punjab (SBP) inaugurated the Tennis Academy, located in the newly-built Tennis Stadium in the Nishtar Sports Complex, last week. One has no idea when the Tennis Stadium was formally inaugurated. However, after establishing the academy there, hopefully, the infrastructure of the stadium would be properly used. The construction of the stadium had completed one year back.

The SBP staff was present to see Punjab Sports Minister Jahangir Khanzada to inaugurate the academy.

“Pakistan has a great number of players who will be nurtured to the world level after getting training here,” he said.

Pakistan tennis coach and former Davis Cupper Rashid Malik, who will run the academy, said it was the best facility in Asia.

Sports Secretary Aamir Jan said the tennis complex was completed at the cost of Rs200 million.

Last month, the SBP had said that 34 sports projects were ready to be inaugurated, and the Tennis Academy is the first one which has been inaugurated. Hopefully, the SBP will not make any further delay inaugurating the other 33 projects.

Over 200 male and female badminton players from all over the country have gathered in Lahore to feature in the National Badminton Championships. The event started at the Punjab University New Campus courts. Wajid Ali, secretary of the Pakistan Badminton Federation, who has also remained national champion from 2001 to 2011, said all the arrangements were ready to facilitate the players, coming from different parts of the country.

He said it was not easy to accommodate such a good number of players as the federation was facing financial problems. The teams participating are Punjab Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Wapda, National Bank of Pakistan, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, the PTCL, the KPT, the PMAD, Railways, Army, Police and FATA.

Though political relations between Pakistan and the US are in troubles, in sports, both countries are working with each other. The Galaxy Sports Academy in collaboration with American Consulate of Lahore organised a Girls’ Basketball Gala on Kinnaird College courts last week. It was a 10-day long event with a theme of ‘Empower women through sports’. The girls not only participated in basketball matches, they showed enthusiasm in yoga training, career counseling and writing power.

US Consulate Public Affairs Officer Michael Guinan was the chief guest. Also present on the occasion were Mahreen, Big Brother Dr Khalid Jameel, senior journalist and resident editor of Pakistan Observer Khalid Butt, Prof Tahir Nazir, Ammara Rubab (director of KC sports), associate secretary of Pakistan Basketball Maudood Jafri, president of the Galaxy Sports Academy Muhammad Babur and former international women hockey player Rabia Qadir.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2018