SPORTS Friday, 25 September, 2015
ALLERTOVA STUNS HALEP IN CHINA Denisa Allertova pulled off the biggest win of her fledgling career, dumping world number two Simona Halep out of the Guangzhou International Women’s Open on Thursday. Allertova beat then-number 10 in the world Carla Suarez Navarro at the US Open last month, and was again impressive in China, despite the clash with Halep representing her first meeting with a player in the world’s top five. A run of taking six games out of seven helped Allertova take out the opening set and race to a 5-1 lead in the second, before rounding off a 6-4 6-3 victory with apparent ease. “I have amazing feelings, because I won against Simona Halep,” world number 74 Allertova said. “She’s a great player, ranked number two. I can breathe now! “I was just trying to focus every point, not looking who’s on the other side, just focusing on myself and playing my tennis. I was fighting every point and it worked. I’m so happy. “It was my first time playing such a top player like this, but at the US Open I played against Suarez Navarro, also an amazing player, a top-10 player, and I beat her, but it’s the first time in my life to have a win like this.” Allertova faces another stellar test in the semi-finals in the form of third seed Sara Errani, who thrashed Zheng Saisai 6-1 6-0 to reach the final four. Jelena Jankovic and Yanina Wickmayer will battle it out for a place in the final, after overcoming Svetlana Kuznetsova and monica Niculescu respectively. SPORTS DESk
NEW FACES SHOULD BE INCLUDED B’DESH WOMEN’S TOUR TO PAKISTAN CONFIRMED IN SQUAD TO FACE BANGLADESH: PAKISTAN WOMEN’S TEAM COACH Bangladesh Women will be going to Pakistan on September 28, to play two ODIs and two T20s. All four games will be in Lahore.* It will be the first tour to the country by a representative side from Bangladesh since the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009. BCB president Nazmul Hassan made the announcement at his residence on Thursday, saying the hosts have said they will provide the team with VVIP security. The confirmation came after the Bangladesh government had given the tour the green light through the sports ministry on Tuesday. Earlier this month, a security team from Bangladesh visited Lahore and Karachi to assess the safety arrangements. Karachi’s Southend Cricket Club had been considered as a venue, but in the end it was decided to restrict the tour to Lahore. “We received
the order from the government through the sports ministry,” Hassan said. “Now it is up to us. The Bangladesh team will go on September 27 or 28. We just have to iron out some of the details. But the women’s team is going. It is final.” Hassan said that the participation of Bangladeshi football and handball teams in events in Pakistan in the last few years suggested that the BCB should also think about sending a team. He said that the security team found security measures “satisfactory” but the BCB asked for the VVIP level of security. “We have been discussing for a long time about sending a women’s team to Pakistan. Football and handball women’s teams went to Pakistan, so since there was a feeling among them that BCB doesn’t want to send a cricket team, we decided to send a strong security team first. SPORT DESk
UAE confirmed as venue for Pakistan Super League
F
OrmEr firstclass cricketer and women’s coach Adnan Jamal has called for induction of budding young talent in the series against visiting Bangladesh team for grooming more women international players for future. “Inclusion of some new top performing women players will help in strengthening and expanding the pool of players in the national women’s team,” he said in a statement. This was the right time for Pakistan team to introduce new players, Adnan insisted. Bangladesh women’s team, a relatively weak outfit, is due to arrive here in the early hours of
ISLAMABAD Sept 27 to play a series of three One-day Internationals and as many Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan in Karachi and Lahore. Opening Twenty20 International will be played here at the Southend Club Ground in Defence on Sept 29 and second on Oct 1. Pakistan defeated Bangladesh after a nailing-biting final in the Incheon Asian Games last year. Adnan expressed hope that one-man selection committee of Farrukh Zaman will make a fair selection for the BD series. He, however, alleged that Pakistan women’s team was making slow progress because selection process was not transparent as only one-man committee was selecting the
team which was a joke. Adnan alleged that several senior players of Pakistan’s women team were occupying places despite giving inconsistent performance in international cricket. He was of the view that Asmavia Iqbal or Bismah maroof should be tried as the new captain in place of Sana mir. Adnan alleged due to complete command and control of Sana on the team matters, highly-talented off-spinner Nida Dar and some players were being wasted and sidelined. “Nida is very talented off-break bowler but captain Sana is not using her fairly,” he regretted. He once again appealed to PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan for increasing the number of selection committee members to at least three.
STAFF REPORT
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday confirmed UAE as the host for the inaugural edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), ending weeks of uncertainty over the venue of the Twenty20 tournament. The PSL, a Twenty20 league along the same lines as the IPL and Big Bash, will be held from February 4-24, 2016, in Dubai and Sharjah with a total of 24 matches deciding the winners of the tournament, the PCB announced in a press release. “The PSL has already floated tenders for broadcasters and producers. This will be followed by a tendering process for sponsorships in the second week of October. Franchise owners will be inducted between mid to end November after which the foreign and local players will be drafted and teams constituted,” Najam Sethi, Chairman of the Governing Council of the PSL, said. “There is a pool of top coaches also from which franchise owners will be able to pick and chose,” added Sethi. The change of venue from Qatar to UAE
SAMOA STRIKE THREAT CHANGED THINGS FOR THE BETTER: CENSUS Census Johnston believes Samoa would never have participated in the World Cup without threatening to strike in November. Experienced prop Johnston scotched rumours he was forced to retire from Test rugby by Toulouse, revealing he had a deal for World Cup release with the French club all along. Samoa only relented on industrial action at the 11th hour in November, eventually facing England at Twickenham despite disputes over pay and back-room infrastructure. Johnston confirmed World rugby brokered new agreements that have revolutionised Samoa’s set-up and secured their World Cup participation. “We do feel vindicated for threatening to strike in November, even though that was an extremely tough position to be in,” said Johnston, ahead of Saturday’s World Cup clash with South Africa. “For guys who play for tier one nations, they’re just used to having very solid, very secure systems. “And we’ve had years of not being used to what’s going on, and that’s just a relief and a weight off the boys’ shoulders. “And we can focus on the rugby now, not figuring out whether we’re going to get paid. Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore.
CMYK
comes after meetings of top officials of the PCB and the UAE board. In August this year, Sethi had officially announced Qatar as the venue after scheduling conflict meant grounds in the UAE were not available early next year. A Twenty20 league has been in the works since 2013 but the Pakistan Cricket Board has had to postpone it twice — in 2014 and 2015 — over what it said was lack of response from sponsors and logistics issues. In an interview, Sethi revealed that the PCB was ‘currently engaged with around 10-15 parties’ as commercial partners. Swashbuckling West Indian batsman Chris Gayle and England’s Kevin Pietersen, last week, became the latest highprofile cricketers to have agreed to be part of the PSL, joining a host of international stars in talks with the PCB. The 35-year-old Gayle, who is a major attraction in Twenty20 leagues in India, Australia and England, is the sixth player from West Indies to have joined the ranks of potential signings after teammates Keiron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Dwyane Smith, Samuel Badree were revealed as the first bigname players to come aboard the PSL.