KARACHI: In an opening exhibition match, Pakistan XI beat Kashmir XI 40-39 in a closely-fought game in the Kashmir Cup basketball tournament here at the Arambagh court on Tuesday.

Hassan Iqbal (10 points), Haris Khan and Hamza (8 points each), Faizan Yousuf 7 points and M Daniyal Khan 5 points were the main scorers for the winners. For the losers, Raj Kumar scored (12 points) while Zainul Abideen and Asad Hafeez scored (11) and (9 points) respectively.

The tournament is being held by Karachi Basketball Association in collaboration with Pakistan Sports Welfare Association in seniors and juniors categories with seniors category event to start from Feb 12.

Earlier, Assisstant Commissioner Aram Bagh Muttahir Hussain Watto, while declaring the tournament open, paid tributes to the organizers for highlighting the cause of Kashmir by holding such an event which is being held to express solidarity with people of held Kashmir.

Muttahir told the gathering that he himself has been a basketball player during student days at Atchison College Lahore and would love to promote the game at grass root level in the district. He also paid tributes to Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shalwani and DC South Syed Salahuddin Ahmed for their efforts to patronize basketball in the city.

Later, he announced that in March DC South Basketball tournament will be held at Aram Bagh court and named KBBA president Ghulam Muhammad Khan as chief organiser of the event.

KBBA President Ghulam Muhammad Khan, SOA Vice President Engineer Mehfoozul Haq, PTF’s Khalid Jameel Shamsi, Abdul Nasir were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2019