Charlton dazzles at Jinnah Gold Cup

LAHORE: DS Polo/ASC and Diamond Paints qualified for the main final of the Master Paints Jinnah Gold Cup here at the Jinnah Polo and Country Club (JP&CC) ground on Friday.

A glorious seven-goal performance by Maxwell Charlton steered DS Polo/ASC to a hard-fought 9-7½ triumph over Master Paints in a seesaw semi-final. Besides Charlton’s heroics, Hissam Ali Hyder also added a brace. For Master Paints, which had a half-goal handicap advantage, Marcos Panelo slammed five goals while Juan Cruz Losada and Raja Jalal Arslan chipped in with one goal each.

The losing team made a good start as they were in front 5½-4 till the end of the second chukker. The winners, however, succeeded to reverse the scene in the third chukker and gained a 7-6½ lead for the first time as they added three goals while conceding one.

But an eventful fourth chukker saw first the losers salvage the lead by adding one goal for a slim 7½-7 lead, which was shortlived as the winners bounced back quickly adding two more goals before the end of the final chukker.

In the second semi-final, Raul Laplacette fired five goals to help Diamond Paints earned a 7-4 victory over FG Polo. Ramiro Zaveletta and Saqib Khan Khakwani contributed one goal each. For FG Polo, the goals came from Mian Abbas Mukhtar (two), Jamie Le Hardy and Francisco Bensadon (one goal apiece).

On Thursday, Remounts won both their two-chukker matches to qualify for the subsidiary final.

The matches were played among the losing sides of Pool ‘A’ — Remounts, Risala and Newage/Rizvi’s — and every side played two matches. After close battles, Remounts won both their matches and succeeded in qualifying for the subsidiary final.

Remounts first outpaced Newage/Rizvi’s 5-3½ and then overwhelmed Risala 4-2.—Sports Reporter

PHF to hold camps for senior, junior players

LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) will hold training camps for seniors and juniors in Lahore and Karachi, respectively to keep the players busy in activities as no national or international tournament is on the cards due to Covid-19 crisis.

In Lahore the camp will be held at the National Hockey Stadium from March 9 to 20 under the coaching of head coach Olympian Khawaja Junaid. Only 12 senior players have been invited as the PHF is not ready to take any risk by gathering many players for the camp due to the pandemic. In Karachi, the camp will be held at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium from March 7 to 20 where junior coach Danish Kaleem will supervise the camp. Twenty-two players have been invited for this camp.

Players invited to the camp:

Seniors: Amjad Ali, Muneeb-ur-Rehman, Mubashir Ali, Azfar Yaqoob, Umer Bhutta, Abubakar Mahmood, Ali Shan, Ijaz Ahmad, Ammad Shakeel Butt, Tanzeem-ul-Hasan, Rana Sohail Riaz, Hamza

Juniors: Rana Waheed, Moeen Shakeel, Ghazanfar Ali, Waqar, Mohsin Khan, Umair Sattar, Aqeel, Abdullah, Roman Khan, Mohibullah, Murtaza Yaqoob, Hammad Anjum, Hanan Shahid, Ali Raza, Shahzaib Khan, Asif Hanif, Mohsin Hassan, Anis, Hammad Ali, Asama Bashir, Waqar Ali, Samiullah Khan.—Sports Reporter

Covid stops play mid-game for Irish team

DHAKA: It was a case of Covid-19 stops play on Friday as a cricket match in Bangladesh involving a visiting Irish team was abandoned part-way through after one of the tourists tested positive.

Players from the Bangladesh Emerging Team and Ireland Wolves were tested on Thursday but a delay meant that the results didn’t arrive until after the match in Chittagong had begun.

When they arrived, umpires were informed that Irish all-rounder Ruhan Pretorius — who had already bowled four overs and picked up a wicket — had tested positive.

“We isolated the player immediately and stopped the game. We had no other choice as part of our Covid-19 protocol for the series,” Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Nizamuddin Chowdhury said.

The Ireland Wolves arrived in Bangladesh on a month-long tour on Feb 18 to play a four-day match, five one-day matches and two T20 matches.—AFP

Working group for 2023 SAG formed

LAHORE: A working group for the 2023 South Asian Games, to be held in four cities of Punjab, has been constituted by the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The POA in collaboration with the federal government has decided to hold the events of the regional gala in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, expecting the move will attract a good number of spectators in these cities. Pakistan hosted the South Asian Games in 1989 and 2004 in Islamabad. However, now it has decided to hold the games in four major cities of Punjab.

Meanwhile, POA president retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan constituted the following working group with the consent of provincial Sports Minister Rai Taimour Khan Bhatti: Amir Jan (president Punjab Olympic Association), Khalid Mahmood, Mohammad Shafiq, Ahmar Malick (POA), Mohammad Jehangir (all four from POA); Idris Haider Khawaja (Punjab Olympic Association); Adnan Arshad, Javed Rasheed Chohan, Hafeez Bhatti (last three from Sports Board Punjab).—Sports Reporter

Lahore Garrison team lead on opening day

LAHORE: The Lahore Garrison Golf team with 950 points emerged as leaders on the opening day of the inaugural National Inter-club Golf Championship here at the Lahore Garrison Golf Greens course on Friday.

The Peshawar Golf Club are second at a gross team score of 958, followed by DHA Golf Club, Karachi (1025) and Islamabad Golf Club (1039).

In the individual performances on the first day, the players of Lahore Garrison were most prominent. Matloob Ahmed had a round of gross 67 and Mohammad Shahzad was equally brilliant with 68.Amateurs Tariq Mehmood, Nouman Ilyas, Col Shafi and Damil Ataullah chipped in with admirable performances.

The Longest Drive Contest was also concluded.

In the ladies section, Parkha Ijaz won with a drive of 297 yards. Top one in the amateur category was Hamza Zahid of DHA Karachi (360 yards). The longest drive of 355 yards amongst professionals was hit by Ahmed Baig.—Sports Reporter

Squad for tri-nation blind series named

KARACHI: The Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) on Friday announced a 15-member national squad for the tri-nation series which is scheduled to take place in Bangladesh from April 2-8.

The event will feature teams from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Nisar Ali will lead the Pakistan squad while Zafar Iqbal is the vice-captain.

Squad: Nisar Ali (captain), Zafar Iqbal (vice-captain), Riasat Khan, Sajid Nawaz, Mohammad Shahzaib, Mohammad Tehsin, Badar Munir, Matiullah, Moain Aslam, Anees Javed, Mohammad Rashid, Shahzaib Haider, Mohsin Khan, Sanaullah Khan Marwat, Mohammad Safdar; Reserves: Akmal Hayat, Naimatullah, Naseebullah, Ahtesham-ul-Haq; Officials: Anwar Ali (manager), Muhammad Jamil (coach), Maher Yousuf Haroon (assistant coach), Tahir Mehmood Butt (trainer), Atif Qayoum (analyst).—Shiraz Asif

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2021