Needing to win this match to qualify for the quarter-finals after a stalemate against Vietnam, Pakistan went behind in the 24th minute and the score stayed 1-0 at the interval.

Kaleemullah equalised in the 64th minute but Palestine took the lead again with Mohamed Halmal scoring his second just a minute later. Faisal Iqbal gave Pakistan a share of the points with a last-ditch effort.

Federation content despite exit

Despite the draw, Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Secretary Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi was disappointed with the team’s show against Vietnam.

“We should’ve won the first match,” Lodhi told The Express Tribune. “Vietnam’s an easy side compared to Palestine. But I can’t complain because the team conceded and then came back into the game. I must appreciate that. At least they scored goals.

“For now, I’m satisfied with the team’s show because after sending the team to different countries and spending over a million rupees
on these tours, we are expecting improvement and we want to give them enough exposure so that they can
perform against the best teams in Asia in the AFC Under-22 Championship qualifiers.”

Lodhi added that the federation was trying to arrange another tour before the qualifiers that take place from June 23 till July 3 in Saudi Arabia.

The team returns to Lahore today while the camp for the qualifiers start in Lahore after a four-day rest.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2012.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) will send its team to Bulgaria on June 2 to take part in the Olympic qualifiers.

The team, which was originally scheduled to travel to Italy via Iran, will now have a stop-over in Qatar for practice matches before heading to Bulgaria. The new itinerary, a more expensive one, has irked PVF President Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob.

“This trip will be more costly,” Yaqoob told The Express Tribune. “We’re already facing problems in raising Rs4.5 million for the trip.”

Talking about the team’s chances of qualifying for the Olympics, Yaqoob said that Pakistan will be playing Bulgaria, who are ranked fifth in Europe, while Egypt is the African champion and France is a strong side. Therefore, he stated, it would be optimistic to expect too much.

Meanwhile, he added that the biggest drawback was that the federation had to prepare the team in the absence of a foreign coach. The PVF was in talks with the Cuban federation and despite an assurance from the Cuban ambassador, the coach failed to arrive on time. “The Cuban federation told us that they can send the coach to Qatar, but it’s too late for it now.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2012.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s football coach Zavisa Milosavljevic, already disappointed by his players’ inability to score, now rues the mismanagement at the Al-Nakba International Tournament being held in Palestine that has seen schedules changed late in the day.

Milosavjlevic wanted his team to get enough practice ahead of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-22 Championship qualifiers in Saudi Arabia next month but, according to him, the inconveniences on the tour are affecting his team badly.

The Palestinian Football Federation changed the draws of the tournament yesterday after Uzbekistan failed to reach Nablus which resulted in Pakistan being moved from group C to group A, playing only two matches instead of three. They face Vietnam today followed by a match against Palestine on May 18.

“I’m disappointed that we’d be playing just two matches in the first round,” Milosavljevic told The Express Tribune. “We wanted as much match practice as possible. Our first opponents, Vietnam, have sent their under-19 team and I’m still trying to see how helpful that can be for us. Before coming here, we had no idea about which teams would be participating and what the level of competition was. Mind you, I’m still trying to figure that out.”

Meanwhile, the coach also complained about the state of the pitches, failing to be an improvement from the standards found in Pakistan.

“Vietnam will be a good side, their players have good technique. But the pitch and the weather also play a part. It’s very hot here and the matches will be played under lights which will be an experience for my team. We can only gauge where we stand after the first match.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2012.

KARACHI: Searching for rankings points and precious practice ahead of the French Open, Aisamul Haq Qureshi will begin his Rome Masters campaign tomorrow with a new partner – Austria’s Alexander Peya – as Dutch man Jean-Julien Rojer opted to rest before the season’s second Grand Slam that starts on May 21.

Aisam and Rojer lost to India’s Mahesh Bhupati and Rohan Bopanna in the Madrid Open quarter-finals last week despite beating top-seeds Mike and Bob Bryan in the earlier round.

“Rojer has been on the circuit for 16 weeks now and he needed some rest,” Aisam told The Express Tribune. “I had already registered for the Rome Masters so I’m playing with Peya who has just split up with his Austrian partner Oliver Marach. I’m still hopeful of my campaign in Rome. It’s the best I could do in such a short time.”

Aisam and Rojer won the Estoril Open in Portugal last Sunday, the pair’s only title after playing together for almost five months. However, Aisam said that the Austrian players were very skilful and pairing up with Marach brought him the Thailand Open last year.

“Its all about trial and error right now. Rojer’s break came as sudden news but we still have a chance of playing together at the French Open. This event will be tough, having known that my ranking is also going down. I really need to improve.”

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles matches, South African Chanelle Scheepers beat Jarmila Groth of Australia 6-4, 7-6 while Vania King eased past Tsvetana Pironkova 6-0, 6-1. Serbian Ana Ivanovic beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3 and German Julia Goerges got the better of Aleksandra Wozniak after a tough 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 win.

In the men’s draw, Gael Monfils beat Alex Bogomolov 6-4, 6-1, Bernard Tomic beat Santiago Giraldo 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 while Spain’s Fernando Verdasco won after Oleksandr Dolgopolov retired after losing the first set 6-0. (With additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2012.

KARACHI: Pakistan will get their campaign at the Al-Nakba International Football Tournament underway against Sri Lanka today with coach Zavisa Milosavljevic still expressing concern over the side’s scoring ability.

The under-22 team, composed of nine KRL players, is touring Palestine for the first time but Milosavljevic was more worried over the players’ failure to find the net after the club registered two draws in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President’s Cup matches.

According to Milosavljevic, the squad, which is led by national champions KRL captain Kaleemullah, is still in the process of finding its strengths and improve its finishing.

“This team has nine players from the KRL side,” Milosavljevic told The Express Tribune. “KRL failed to score in the President’s Cup and as far as the matches in Palestine are concerned I am hoping that they would learn and grow with each one. The team’s finishing is still weak. We’ve been going through tactics but we can’t win without scoring.”

Pakistan are placed in Group B and will play their second match against Palestine on May 16 before taking on Vietnam. For Milosavljevic yet again, the tournament is part of preparation for the AFC Under-22 Championship qualifiers that will take place next month in Saudi Arabia.

“The important thing is that players get the idea of conditions which will be similar to those in Saudi Arabia. I’m looking at it as preparation for the qualifiers. It will be good practice.” The Palestinian side toured Pakistan last year, playing two matches in Lahore and Karachi. The tourists prevailed in the first game before a goal-less draw in the second.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2012.

This the first time Peshawar is hosting top-ranked players since the 2002 Davis Cup ties. According to the KPKTA Director Ayaz Khan, the province has been regularly ignored by the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) and the championship is taking place there due to the Sports Minister’s interest in the region.

“It’s exciting and sad at the same time,” Ayaz told The Express Tribune. “This is the maiden tennis championship in Peshawar since the KPKTA was formed in 1974. We’ve been neglected by the PTF.”

Ayaz added that while the association was organising the event on its own, the national body’s lack of interest in the region was driving players away from Peshawar and to Lahore or Islamabad in order to take part in national events.

Meanwhile, according to the PTF, the lack of tournaments in Peshawar is due to a lack of activity by the provincial association. The PTF, according to an official, has eight units and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was the least active one.

‘It’s the provincial association’s decision to organise events and the PTF can only give them the rights and allot ranking points,” said the PTF official.

“They really can’t complain about the situation. It’s their job to promote the sport.”

Meanwhile, according to Pakistan’s top-ranked player Aqeel Khan, the event will help revive tennis in the province.

“In the early 90s we used to have at least 10 players from Peshawar in the national camp,” said Aqeel. “But now there’s is no one in the national tournaments. It’s sad because it shows the demise of tennis in the province.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2012.

Aisamul Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer were sent crashing out of the Madrid Open with a 7-6, 7-6 loss in the quarter-finals against the Indian pair, less than 24 hours after the Pakistan-Dutch pair had sent the top-seeds Mike and Bob Bryans packing.

Aisam and Bopanna parted ways end of last year and this was the duo’s first meeting on court as Aisam and Rojer looked favourites after their Estoril Open triumph on Sunday was complemented by the second-round upset.

However, the pair failed to maintain its form with Aisam terming the tie-breaks the trickiest parts of the match.

“It’s the tie-break that sealed our fate,” Aisam told The Express Tribune. “Rojer and I are clicking and we’ve been playing well since last week. However, the tie-breaks come back to haunt us. Bopanna and Bhupathi played extremely well. I’m not bitter because we chased them right till the end.”

According to Aisam, it was emotional for him to play against Bopanna as a decade-long friendship turned into rivalry yesterday.

“It’s something very personal and yet something that sort of gave both of us an edge. I know his game very well and he knows mine. After a while, it became a game of nerves. But my priority was to win, of course. I believe we’ll peak during the Rome Masters next week. Beating the Bryan brothers was a fluke. It was due to hard work.”

Aisam has to list in the top-10 by the end of the French Open to be eligible for the London Olympics. He started the year in eighth but fell to 14th. However, the Estoril Open triumph helped him get up to 13th.

Azarenka fights back for semis

Meanwhile, women’s top-seed Victoria Azarenka saw off China’s Li Na with a battling 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win to reach the semi-finals.

Ninth-seed Serena Williams won another battle of former number one players as she defeated second-seed Maria Sharapova, the Stuttgart champion, 6-1, 6-3 with 11 aces, 28 winners and five breaks of serve in 80 minutes.

Williams said that while the blue clay courts remain problematic, the issue was not enough to make her consider skipping the event as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have threatened to do.

“This is a tough surface and it’s extremely slippery,” she said. “But Djokovic is still in the event and so is Roger Federer. If I’m not here next year, it won’t be because of the clay. I don’t think there’s been any improvement in the courts over the week, but every clay court is different. This is not the best court”

Agnieszka Radwanska beat Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 6-4. (With additional input from AFP)

Serena Williams

“This is a tough surface and it’s extremely slippery. I don’t think there’s been any improvement in the courts over the week, but every clay court is different. This is not the best court – definitely not what they play like at Roland Garros.”

Victoria Azarenka

“I see no reason to talk about the courts until after the event. These are the conditions we have to deal with. But Li Na played unbelievable in the first set. I knew I had to do something. I don’t know if it was confidence or self-belief or what.”

Del Potro

“I am really happy with my tennis, with my body and I am feeling really confident on clay. I don’t feel any pain so it’s a good sign for the next tournament and I think I’m getting better tournament by tournament.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2012.

KARACHI: The 27-year-old Malk Yasir Awan grew up on polo ground and horses have always been his passion, because there is a sense of nobility to them.

However, never did he think that he would represent Pakistan and demonstrate the traditional sport of tent-pegging infront of Queen Elizabeth.

Awan is part of the five-member squad that is leaving for London today to participate in the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations, the first time a Pakistani tent-pegging team will be seen in an international event.

“Its exciting and intimidating at the same time,” Awan told The Express Tribune. “There will be best horsemen from across the globe. Being there in our traditional uniform, it’ll be a honour. My father is extremely proud of me. We’ve spent our lives with horses and getting an opportunity like this is almost surreal.”

Team leader Adil Shah, running a local magazine Horse and Horseman, used his contacts to land Pakistan a slot. He added that the participants have been practicing individually and the preparation of the uniform – Peshawari chappal, Balochi shalwar, Boski kameez  and Sindhi topi – took more than a month.

“The whole idea is amazing, we’d be the symbol of everything that Pakistan stands for and we’ll represent each province in our uniform,” said Adil. “Our participation is going to send out a very positive message to the world and help the create Pakistan’s soft image in the international media.”

Apart from Awan and Adil, the Pakistan team includes Asad Farooq Khan, Sardar Waqar Khan and Qaiser Mehmood.

The game of tent-pegging has a mounted horseman riding at a gallop and using a sword or a lance to pierce, pick up, and carry away a wooden peg as targets.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2012.

“It killed me to have to choose between Panna and myself,” said Ashiq Balouch, the owner of a racing donkey that was shot during the Lyari violence.

For Ashiq, his donkey was like his child — he fed her peanuts, conserving her energy for the weekly races that took place. Losing Panna meant that Ashiq had lost a way to make his livelihood.

Four racing donkeys were shot in Lyari last week, forcing the Lyari Donkey Cart Association (LDCA) to cancel the Hamara Karachi race that carried a prize-money of Rs50,000.

And according to Shabbir Balouch, the second of the affected owners, it was not the donkeys that died, ‘it was a funeral for four families’.

In Lyari, the labourers save up for months in order to own a donkey that usually costs them Rs100,000, with an additional Rs12,000 maintenance per month.

“I had to make a choice, my house is not big enough to shelter six children and a donkey as well,” Ashiq told The Express Tribune. “Panna was tied in front of my house in Warah when the shooting started. I really couldn’t go outside to bring Panna in. She died in front of me, taking 10 bullets.

I couldn’t even move her body because the shooting did not stop. Her body lay there for three days, in front of my house.

“It was painful. My emotional and monetary investment went down just like that. I don’t know how I’ll make a living now.”

Meanwhile, according to the LDCA Secretary Faiz Muhammad Balouch, who also organises the weekly and monthly races, the event was cancelled to pay respect to the dead donkeys and a way of telling the Sindh Sports Board (SSB), who collaborate with the LDCA, that the deaths of those donkeys also seal the fate of those families’ livelihood.

“We need support and the SSB President Muhammad Ali Shah has promised us that but nothing is happening at the moment,” said Faiz.

“There won’t be any races until June because the situation in Lyari has affected us in the worst possible way. It has taken away the livelihood of 12 labourers who relied on their donkeys for work. Now their children are starving because they are out of work.”

Faiz added that the LDCA’s only demand was funds and support to the affected families. He also wants donkey-cart racing to be pat of next year’s Sindh Games.

“It’s a good time to make these racers feel part of the sports community. Besides the financial support, the SSB should make it a part of the Sindh Games. It’s a very local sport but is very popular and Sindh Games is all about promoting regional games.”

However, an SSB spokesperson ruled that out straightaway and added that compensation for the affected labourers will only be announced after the government announces the budget next month.

While the SSB ponders over its next move, Shabbir feels that the damage was beyond repair.

“It’ll take me at least two years to get another donkey. How will I save Rs 100,000 besides taking care of my daily expenses? I’m now looking or a job. My donkey-cart racing days are over.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2012.

KARACHI: The AFC President’s Cup begins in Lahore today with Pakistan’s KRL taking on Mongolia’s Erchim FC at the Punjab Stadium.

The visiting Mongolian team, however, is unhappy with the state of the football pitch in the stadium.

“The pitches are very dry here and we were hoping it would be greener,” Erchim’s coach Batnasan told The Express Tribune. “Our players have to be very careful as this can cause serious injury. The game, too, will be very slow.”

KRL coach Tariq Lutfi, who is very confident about his team ahead of the opening match, agreed with Batnasan, adding that the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) tried to maintain the ground but conditions could have been better.

“We have spent the last two weeks practicing here so we’re very comfortable with this pitch,” said Lutfi. “I feel that it will work to our advantage. The PFF could have improved the quality since they had enough time before the event.”

The President’s Cup features three teams with the top two qualifying for the next round that will be played in September.

The event was dealt a major blow when Bangladesh’s Sheikh Jamal Football Club pulled out of the event due to security reasons.

Batnasan, meanwhile, was satisfied with the security arrangements in Lahore. Similarly, Chinese Taipei Champions Taiwan Power Company’s coach Chen Knei Jen said that his team was anxious about coming to Pakistan but it feels safe in Lahore.

“We don’t feel threatened,” said Jen. “We arrived on Sunday and are satisfied with the security arrangements.”

All three sides in the event will play each other once. The second match takes place on Thursday between Taiwan Power Company and Erchim FC.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2012.