The last week ended with a good news for Pakistanis. In Abu Dhabi, Pakistan won the two Test series against Australia by winning the last Test by a big margin of 373 runs. Another good development came from squash courts where Tayyab Aslam won an international tournament in Lahore after beating Malaysian Ivan Yuen 3-2 in the final.

The victory in the Test match against Aussies also discovered pacer Muhammad Abbas, another fine product in the pace attack. He shattered the 12-year-long record of Muhammad Asif of taking 10 wickets in his second Test. In all, Abbas took 17 wickets in the two matches which is a record on the UAE’s pitches, where fast bowlers have to struggle.

Abbas earned lots of applause from both captains Sarfraz Ahmad and Tim Paine, as both declared him the real difference between the two teams in the short series. Moreover, another stalwart fast bowler Dale Steyn, of South Africa, also called Abbas another emerging world-class pacer. One can wish that Abbas uses his talent not only for the betterment of his own cricketing career but also for the country and the world cricket.

The news of the victory of Tayyab is also a great aspiration for the country’s sports as our players have been struggling in this game for the last two decades after the end of the career of great player Jansher Khan due to his injury problems. The Lahore remained hub of squash as back-to-back three international events, two for men and one for women, were held at the Punjab Squash Complex in recent weeks. The first one was won by Egyptian Youseef Soleman and the second by Tayyab. The women’s title went to French player Melissa Alves, who defeated Farida Mohamed, of Egypt, in the final. A good number of men and women players from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ireland, England, France and Egypt remained in Lahore for 15 days to feature in these tournaments to grab a total cash of $45,000.

Last week, renowned world hockey umpire from Holland Rob Louthovers visited Lahore. He experienced, what he says, the best hospitality and care of the Lahorities when he was rushed to a local hospital in medical emergency. Louthovers, who has supervised three Olympics and two World Cups besides 12 Champions Trophy, is a great admirer of the Pakistan hockey. He was on his 12th visit to the city of his life when he felt pain in the chest and was hospitalized. After 24 hours medical treatment in emergency, he was discharged. Talking to Dawn, Louthovers said he was really impressed the way he was treated at the hospital and the way friends and well-wishers cared about him. He is still in Lahore enjoying hockey activities. He also held a one-day umpiring course for the local umpires to hone their skills.

Like every Pakistani, Louthovers is also disappointed over the current state of affairs of the national game of hockey.

“I remember once Pakistan used to be a big force in the world of hockey and every country wanted to play against the Pakistani team but now it is hard for Pakistan to get maximum tough international series, in Europe” he says.

“Anyhow, I love to see the progress of Pakistan hockey for which several serious efforts are required as talent still exists in this part of the world,” he smiled.

Last week, the city of Lahore remained the centre-point of national football activities. The National Women’s Championship is already in progress at different grounds of the city; in the last days of the week the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) also shifted the Pakistan Premier Football League matches to the Punjab Stadium from Multan. The premier league is the most worthy annual event of the PFF.

Every day, two matches are being held and the event will continue throughout the month of October. The women’s championship, however, is going to end next week.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2018