Moiz ready for last outing in Junior World Scrabble Championship

Pakistan's first-ever world champion will turn 22 next year, will only participate in seniors’ event

KARACHI: Pakistan's first-ever world champion Moiz bag will be starting out his campaign at the Junior World Scrabble Championship in Nottingham on Saturday, while he is in row with 16 other players looking for a clean-sweep.

Moiz won the 2013 World Youth Championship and made sure that he emerged as the top player in the country after Waseem Khatri, who was the most successful national player before him.

Now Moiz is also the coach for juniors and he believes that the goal is to secure complete domination this time, as the team prepared diligently for the event.

"We won five titles last year, so of course I want the team to win all six this time," Moiz told The Express Tribune proudly of the team he has prepared. "There are age groups, six of them, and we have very good players, we all prepared a lot, at least three to four hours a day, and even now as we are in Nottingham, we are analysing our game and strategies."

Meanwhile, this year's edition is special for the 21-year-old since it would be his last time in the juniors’ world championship.

"I want to win and each one of us wants to win the title. This will be my last time at the event, so I want to make an impression," said Moiz.

He added that coaching and also preparing himself was a challenge, but still a good learning experience wrapped in one.

"I'm preparing my opponents basically, that was interesting, but it also helped me as it is said that teaching also teaches us," said Moiz. "It was not easy because I had to make sure that all the players are keeping up, they are training online and offline, staying connected to them while making sure I prepare myself too. It was not easy. But we want to win this."

Moiz added that team US will be a tough competition as the last juniors champion belongs to the country.

He will also be playing at the World Scrabble Championship with Khatri and Tariq Pervez along with other junior players from October 23 after the juniors' event.

Pervez, who is also the Pakistan Scrabble Association Director Youth Program had said in the press conference this week that despite the success from the scrabble players the government has not supported them in any way, while it was likely that some of the top players would not have made to the championship due to financial constraints but they got the support from a sponsor that agreed to help the team.