ISLAMABAD: Security concerns stopped foreign cricketers from touring Pakistan four years ago when the country’s premier domestic Twenty20 tournament was launched, forcing organizers to stage the event on neutral turf in the United Arab Emirates.
When the 2020 edition of the Pakistan Super League starts in Karachi on Thursday, Darren Sammy of the West Indies and Shane Watson of Australia will be among 36 foreign cricketers involved in the six franchises.
“The foreign players coming is a huge bonus for us,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief executive Wasim Khan told the Associated Press. “It’s a massive step forward because they (foreign players) clearly believe that it’s safe to be here for 4-5 weeks.”
The return of international cricket has been a slow process in Pakistan following a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team’s bus in Lahore during a test series in 2009.
For this T20 event, the PCB has worked with the Federation of International Cricketers Association and also shared its security plans with foreign stars to make them feel safe in Pakistan.
“We firmly believe now that we are in a good position,” Wasim said. “We’re delighted there are so many players coming here and it’s a great endorsement for us as a country.”
Pakistan cricket went into isolation for more than six years after the attack near Qaddafi Stadium in Lahore in 2009.
There was a ray of hope in 2015 when Zimbabwe toured for limited-overs series but it wasn’t enough for Pakistan to host its first PSL tournament the following year, forcing organizers to stage it in the UAE.
In 2017, the PSL final was played at a packed Qaddafi Stadium, in stark contrast to the group-stage matches that were contested in mostly empty venues in the UAE.
Over the next two years, a World XI, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies also played limited-overs matches in Pakistan, and more PSL games were staged in Lahore and Karachi.
The PCB overcame another barrier when it hosted test matches last year in Pakistan for the first time in a decade. Pakistan successfully hosted two tests against Sri Lanka in December and, after a lot of negotiations, last month managed to convince Bangladesh to play a test in Rawalpindi.
All the ‘cricket comes home’ activities, of course, require heavy security surrounding the foreign teams, with the kind of armed security and road closures usually reserved for visiting heads of state. Visiting players have had virtually no movement outside the team hotels or match venues — although a few Sri Lanka players went to a shopping mall while they stayed in the federal capital.
But Wasim believes that over time, the blanket security can be eased and players will feel more relaxed.
“Certainly it’s something that we are looking at,” he said. “The more we play at home, the more confidence people have, the better it will become. We certainly can’t sustain state-level security.”
More freedom of movement for visiting players and ensuring costs for security don’t overburden federal and local governments has to be balanced, Wasim said, with “making sure we never become complacent and we provide the right level of security.”
In a bid to reassure cricket officials from countries such as Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa about the security situation, Pakistan invited the Marylebone Cricket Club — the guardians of the laws of cricket — for limited-overs matches in Lahore.
Led by ex-Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, who is also MCC president, the players have had VIP-level security, which is a slightly lower level than that provided to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka squads for recent series.
“MCC has played golf ... so we’ve given them the level of freedom which under VIP status you can afford. Certainly, that’s something that we wish to move forward as well,” Wasim said.
Sangakkara has also backed Pakistan’s efforts to resume international cricket in Pakistan.
“Security is always a major concern everywhere is the world,” Sangakkara said. “In Pakistan I think the steps that have been taken over the past few years have instilled great amounts of confidence in the cricketing nations beyond the shores of Pakistan and slowly but surely that confidence is building up.
“The more times international sides tour that message becomes stronger and becomes harder to ignore.”
And Wasim believes the need for Pakistan to ‘host’ international cricket series in neutral countries is closer to ending.
“There’s no reason for us to play anywhere else now,” Wasim said. “Cricket has firmly resumed within the country and we fully expect this to be the way moving forward.”
Going back: Upswing in foreigners for Pakistan’s T20 league
https://arab.news/z3862
Going back: Upswing in foreigners for Pakistan’s T20 league
- Security concerns stopped foreign cricketers from touring Pakistan four years ago
- Pakistan Cricket Board says foreign players coming to Pakistan is a ‘huge bonus’
In Rawalpindi, 77-year-old tea shop named after India’s Ludhiana is still a hit with customers
- Ludhiana Tea Shop owners migrated from India’s northwestern city at the time of Partition in 1947
- Customers say they come from far-off places to relish the taste of tea at the shop which they find unique
RAWALPINDI: At a small tea shop in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, Nazir Hussain pours piping hot tea from a kettle into small cups and hands them away to eager customers, many of them regulars who have been frequenting the shop for decades.
This is the scene from a typical evening at Ludhiana Tea Shop, located in the narrow streets of Rawalpindi’s old Lal Kurti area. The tea shop takes its name after the northwestern Indian city of Ludhiana, from where its owners migrated to Rawalpindi in 1947.
“My grandfather named this business in the memory of his hometown in India,” Hussain, who took charge of the shop in 1976, told Arab News, adding that he also sold dairy products and ghee.
“We are a family of milk sellers,” he said. “In India, we used to do the same. We were milk sellers and we used to own buffaloes.”
The shop has been serving tea to customers for the past 77 years. Agha Asghar Saeed, 72, is one of them and has been coming here since he was young.
“I was born here. I spent my childhood here, my youth and now my old age as well,” he told Arab News. “I’ve been having this tea since then.”
During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Saeed would break his fast at home but have tea at Ludhiana Tea Shop.
“I am addicted to this tea,” he explained.
But what inspires such loyalty in customers?
“You have to buy good quality milk,” Hussain said, adding that he purchased pure and organic milk for his shop that was a bit expensive. “Not everyone knows how to buy good milk.”
He maintained that most milk sellers in Pakistan did not sell pure milk, making him take several sips while buying to check the fat content.
Just like the milk, he continued, the quality of the tea leaves was also important.
The price of one cup of tea used to be around five paisas several years ago.
“Now, we sell it for Rs60 (22 cents),” he added.
The rich taste of Ludhiana Tea Shop means Muhammad Hasnain and his friends visit it every day rather than go to other tea shops in the neighborhood.
“Obviously, everybody wants a good bang for their buck,” Hasnain told Arab News. “The most important thing for anyone is that the quality should be good, and both quality and quantity are good here.”
Ludhiana Tea Shop offers customers deep-fried sweet and savory snacks, such as pakoras, samosas, jalebis and spring rolls, delectable items popularly consumed in Pakistan with tea.
Muhammad Shoaib Khan, a man in his 30s, informed he visited the shop with his friends at least a couple of times every day.
“We come on our bikes and travel for at least 1.5 kilometer on every trip,” Khan told Arab News. “It roughly adds up to 6 kilometers.”
Despite the cost of petrol, which has surged in recent times, Khan said he visited the shop for tea because it was worth it.
Hussain said he understood why customers came from far-off places just to have a cup of tea at his 77-year-old shop.
“Everyone cannot make good tea,” he said. “They don’t pour their heart in it. They lack passion. Making good tea is something that can only be done from the heart.”
Malala Yousafzai vows support for Gaza after backlash over Broadway musical
- Yousafzai was criticized in Pakistan for co-producing a play with Hillary Clinton who supports Israel’s Gaza campaign
- The Nobel laureate says ‘we do not need to see more dead bodies’ to understand the urgency of a ceasefire in Gaza
LAHORE: Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Thursday condemned Israel and reaffirmed her support for Palestinians in Gaza, after a backlash in her native Pakistan over a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an outspoken supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas.
The musical, titled “Suffs,” depicts the American women’s suffrage campaign for the right to vote in the 20th century and has been playing in New York since last week.
“I want there to be no confusion about my support for the people of Gaza,” Yousafzai wrote on X, the former Twitter. “We do not need to see more dead bodies, bombed schools and starving children to understand that a ceasefire is urgent and necessary.”
She added: “I have and will continue to condemn the Israeli government for its violations of international law and war crimes.”
Pakistan has seen many fiercely emotional pro-Palestinian protests since the war in Gaza began last October.
Yousafzai’s “theatre collaboration with Hillary Clinton – who stands for America’s unequivocal support for genocide of Palestinians – is a huge blow to her credibility as a human rights activist,” popular Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday.
“I consider it utterly tragic.”
Whilst Clinton has backed a military campaign to remove Hamas and rejected demands for a ceasefire, she has also explicitly called for protections for Palestinian civilians.
Yousafzai has publicly condemned the civilian casualties and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The New York Times reported the 26-year-old wore a red-and-black pin to the “Suffs” premier last Thursday, signifying her support for a ceasefire.
But author and academic Nida Kirmani said on X that Yousafzai’s decision to partner with Clinton was “maddening and heartbreaking at the same time. What an utter disappointment.”
The war began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Hamas militants also abducted 250 people and Israel estimates 129 of them remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.
Clinton served as America’s top diplomat during former president Barack Obama’s administration, which oversaw a campaign of drone strikes targeting Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan’s borderlands.
Yousafzai earned her Nobel Peace Prize after being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban as she pushed for girls’ education as a teenager in 2012.
However, the drone war killed and maimed scores of civilians in Yousafzai’s home region, spurring more online criticism of the youngest Nobel Laureate, who earned the prize at 17.
Yousafzai is often viewed with suspicion in Pakistan, where critics accuse her of pushing a Western feminist and liberal political agenda on the conservative country.
Pakistan commends UAE leadership for ‘swift’ response to record-breaking rains
- Pakistan’s foreign minister telephones UAE counterpart, expresses sympathy over devastation caused by torrential rains
- Heavy rains lashed UAE last week, turning streets into rivers and hobbling Dubai airport, world’s busiest for global passengers
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday commended the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leadership for its swift and efficient response to the devastation caused by record-breaking rains in the desert country.
Heavy rains lashed the desert country last week, turning streets into rivers and hobbling Dubai airport, the world’s busiest for international passengers.
The rainfall was the UAE’s heaviest since records began 75 years ago, dumping two years’ worth of rain on the desert country.
“Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held telephone conversation with Foreign Minister His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed of United Arab Emirates to express deepest sympathy on the devastation caused by recent torrential rains,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said.
“He commended the leadership of the UAE for the swift, efficient and timely administrative response to this natural calamity,” it added.
The foreign ministry said both representatives also exchanged views on matters of bilateral and global importance.
Pakistan’s PM Sharif last Friday telephoned UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, urging both countries to collaborate to tackle the impacts of climate change.
Sharif had lauded the UAE president for his “outstanding leadership qualities” and strong commitment to ensure the welfare of the Emirati people.
Pakistan has been prone to natural disasters and consistently ranks among one of the most adversely affected countries due to the effects of climate change. Torrential rains have killed more than 90 people in the South Asian country this month, according to authorities.
Malala Yousafzai faces backlash for Clinton musical co-credit
- Malala Yousafzai co-produced “Suffs” musical with Hillary Clinton, which depicts American women’s struggle for right to vote
- Yousafzai has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an ardent supporter of Israel’s war on Palestine
LAHORE: Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai faced a backlash in her native Pakistan on Wednesday, after the premier of a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The musical, titled “Suffs” and playing in New York since last week, depicts the American women’s suffrage campaign for the right to vote in the 20th century.
However Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an outspoken supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Pakistan has seen many fiercely emotional pro-Palestinian protests since the war in Gaza began last October.
“Her theater collaboration with Hillary Clinton — who stands for America’s unequivocal support for genocide of Palestinians — is a huge blow to her credibility as a human rights activist,” popular Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar wrote on social media platform X.
“I consider it utterly tragic.”
Whilst Clinton has backed a military campaign to remove Hamas and rejected demands for a ceasefire, she has also explicitly called for protections for Palestinian civilians.
Yousafzai has publically condemned the civilian casualties and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The New York Times reported the 26-year-old wore a red-and-black pin to the “Suffs” premier last Thursday, signifying her support for a ceasefire.
But author and academic Nida Kirmani said on X that Yousafzai’s decision to partner with Clinton was “maddening and heartbreaking at the same time. What an utter disappointment.”
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 34,262 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The war began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Clinton served as America’s top diplomat during former president Barack Obama’s administration, which oversaw a campaign of drone strikes targeting Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan’s borderlands.
Yousafzai earned her Nobel Peace Prize after being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban as she pushed for girl’s education as a teenager in 2012.
However the drone war killed and maimed scores of civilians in Yousafzai’s home region, spurring more online criticism of the youngest Nobel Laureate, who earned the prize at 17.
Yousafzai is often viewed with suspicion in Pakistan, where critics accuse her of pushing a Western feminist and liberal political agenda on the conservative country.
Pakistan’s foreign minister calls for early resumption of PIA flights to Europe
- Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar meets EU ambassador to discuss bilateral ties, trade and matters of mutual interest
- PIA flights to Europe and the UK have been suspended since 2020 following Pakistan’s infamous pilot license scandal
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday stressed the resumption of direct flights from the country’s national airline to Europe, the foreign ministry said, in his meeting with EU Ambassador Riina Kionka during which both sides discussed bilateral relations, trade and matters of mutual interest.
PIA flights to Europe and the UK have been suspended since 2020 after the EU’s Aviation Safety Agency revoked the national carrier’s authorization to fly to the bloc following a pilot license scandal that rocked the country. The issue resulted in the grounding of 262 of Pakistan’s 860 pilots, including 141 of PIA’s 434.
Kionka and Dar discussed Pakistan-EU bilateral ties and important issues of mutual interest during their meeting, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said. Dar told Kionka Pakistan views the EU as a “valued partner” and an important factor of stability during the current volatile times.
“FM emphasized the significance of direct flights between Pakistan and European countries in view of large diasporas,” MoFA said. “In this regard, he stressed on the need for an early resumption of PIA flights to Europe.”
Both sides also expressed satisfaction over the “significant progress” of Pakistan-EU institutional mechanisms and resolved to maintain the upward trajectory of their relations by increasing their high-level interactions.
“FM vowed to further strengthen the existing strategic partnership in all areas, inter alia, trade, migration, climate change,” MoFA said.
“The EU side assured their full cooperation to Pakistan in achieving the objectives of economic diplomacy.”
The EU is Pakistan’s second most important trading partner, accounting for over 14 percent of the country’s total trade and absorbing 28 percent of Pakistan’s total exports. Pakistani exports to the EU are dominated by textiles and clothing.
Pakistan’s GSP+ status is a special trade arrangement offered by the EU to developing economies in return for their commitment to implement 27 international conventions on human rights, environmental protection and governance.
