Event has boost up morale of Pakistan and encourages local cricket talent
Interview with Muhammad Talha – cricket analyst
PAGE:Â Tell me something about yourself, please:
Muhammad Talha:Â I am working in Arif Habib Group for last 10 years. Before joining the Arif Habib Group Company, I served in Al-Abbas Group, Ghulam Farooq Group and EY Ford Rhodes and gained experience in diversified sectors serving clients spanning the financial, manufacturing, trading and service industries. I have a working experience of more than 18 years in various diversified capacities including property operations.
PAGE:Â What are your current engagements/assignments?
Muhammad Talha:Â I am associated with the real estate project Naya Nazimabad owned by Javedan Corporation Limited. We have developed phase-1 of Naya Nazimabad and now it is a living community. My current engagements include the overall set up and management of an estate of the art Gymkhana at Naya Nazimabad, Karachi. We understand the facility will be one of its kind in the city and its membership as privilege. Almost all renowned clubs/Gymkhana are located in south of Karachi while there is no such state-of-the-art club in Karachi Central/West/East having population of more than 6 million people. Naya Nazimabad Gymkhana (NNG) includes 42-room guest house having five-star resident facilities with one top of the line executive floor having business center. Air Service shall also be available to the NNG members from Karachi Airport and also from their desire location. NNG shall provide all the recreational facilities to the sports lovers by providing them the unique feature of giving training through the specialized trainers so that it would give a chance to the young legs to represent themselves on national level as we would have an international scale sports facilities. Cricket ground, football ground, basketball, futsal, mini hockey ground, horse riding, billiard, squash, tennis, table tennis, chess table etc. will be part of Naya Nazimabad Gymkhana. This state-of-the-art Gymkhana shall have four restaurants covering variety of food including desi, continental, Chinese cuisines in the presence of well-trained chefs to deliver the delicious food to our members at an affordable prices. A full gym with high quality equipment, sauna, spa, yoga, jacuzzi, swimming pools and all key sports facilities will also be available to boost healthier lifestyles for the community as a whole. Meeting rooms/conference hall/banquet hall shall also be the part to cater the need of professionals and corporate clients. We are in the process of launching 8 to 9 thousands apartments at Naya Nazimabad and this Gymkhana shall be the ideal place for friends and families to boost up their socializing activities. We hope that this Gymkhana will be a valuable addition for Karachiites, which will surely transform Naya Nazimabad into a model Sports City.
PAGE:Â Tell us about the recent sending off ceremony of Karachi Kings held at Naya Nazimabad:
Muhammad Talha: Since the launch of Pakistan Super League – PSL, it has now been a tradition that every year Naya Nazimabad organized an event to send off the Karachi Kings team when they go to play in PSL. Players and coaching staff of Karachi Kings flown to Dubai on Feb 10, 2019. Before their departure, Naya Nazimabad organized a mega event to send off their stars. A warm welcome was given by the crowd when owner of the Karachi Kings, Salman Iqbal entered the ground in Naya Nazimabad along with President Karachi Kings, Waseem Akram; Head Coach & Team Advisor, Mickey Arthur and Karachi King players including the captain Imad Waseem, Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam, M. Rizwan, Usman Khan Shinwari and the rest of the team members.
The ceremony was attended by the Federal Ministers, parliamentarians, Provincial Ministers, Mayor Karachi, Commissioner Karachi, National players along with PSX, FPCCI, KCCI, Government officials and a large number of cricket lovers at Naya Nazimabad who had also enlightened the show with their presence. Mr. Arif Habib – Honorable Chairman of the Group welcomed all the guest and praise the dedication and commitment shown by the team of Karachi Kings and wished and pray for its success. He said that cricket is a thrilling sport which is loved by the entire nation and requested all the corporate entities to put strong emphasis on CSR activities.
Mr. Salman Iqbal, Mr. Wasim Akram, Mr. Mickey Arther, Mr. Imad Wasim, Mr. Muhammad Amir, Mr. Babar Azam also addressed during the ceremony and obliged the management of Naya Nazimabad to host such a wonderful event. They have also pledged to win the trophy this time and to glorify the Karachiites.
PAGE: What is your opinion about the Pakistan Super League?
Muhammad Talha: PSL is one of the outstanding initiative taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board. This would not only promote the local talent but would also be helpful to raise the game standard of the players by playing alongside international super stars. It will also resolve the team management problem after many players who had under performed during our recent series against South Africa. It was a great setback and dilemma for all of us to witness such a poor performance by the Pakistani team. So with PSL coming up, it would not only solve player selection concern but would also give us an opportunity to improve ourselves further and lift the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019.
PSL 4 will be a very entertaining and full of excitement league. It will provide a way forward to get some emerging players who may acquire a place in the national team. The opening ceremony of PSL 4 was one of the memorable one where the superstars of the Pakistan and international stars showcased their performance which had made almost the entire nation glued to their TV screens. The use of Hologram and laser technology mesmerized the crowd.
The opening match which was played between Islamabad United and Lahore Qalandars was a thriller one. The young talent Haris Rauf from Lahore Qalandars showed his talent by balling at the speed in the range of 140-150 KPH which is a good for the Pakistani cricket team option. The inclusion of AB de Villiers renowned as Mr. 360 in Lahore Qalandars shall make a huge impact in this PSL. The amount of talent he has got and the great stature he is enjoying amongst all the cricketers shall boost the standard of the game in PSL. For Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the fourth edition of the tournament holds immense significance as they continue working towards bringing back international cricket to Pakistan.
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PAGE: How would you describe the brand PSL?
Muhammad Talha:Â In 2016, there were so much doubts about the launching of 1st edition of PSL, people thought that it would be a failure, people would not come on to the ground, external pressure from other leagues, players commitment to their country, PSL schedule contradicting with the international fixtures etc. However, all the three editions of PSL has drawn attention of the people from all around the globe. PSL is just one of the several T20 leagues that have sprung up around the world. PSL is now the biggest league in terms of per capita income. PSL has given a hope to the young talent in the country. There are so many cricketers who have done well in PSL and make their inroads to start their international carrier from the Pakistan international cricket team. Players like Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shinwari, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Hassan Khan, Muhammad Nawaz and many more other emerging talent has capitalized their chances to shine in the Pakistan Super League. PSL is now become a festival for this sports loving nation. People used to watch live matches on their TV and mobile sets with an utmost excitement. Last year, when the final of PSL was played at the National Stadium Karachi, I remembered the way people come to the ground almost 3 to 4 hours earlier so that they may easily enter in to the ground and watch their dream stars playing in front of them.
PAGE: How would you comment on the branding of PSL:
Muhammad Talha: This year PCB has successfully awarded a three-year television and social media streaming rights which worth’s almost $36 million. This deal is clearly reflecting the worth of PSL brand in the international market. The board also went smart to get an estimated quote from a renowned firm to get an idea of PSL’s brand value before signing the contract. This move produced positive results for PCB as the cricket board has currently sold the title sponsorship for $14.3 million as part of the new sponsorship deal; in 2016 this amount was $5.2 million. It will touch the peak if all the matches of PSL 5-2020 shall be held in Pakistan after the success of PSL 4. PSL would have a vital impact on the promotions and sponsors. The world would get to know about Pakistani companies enabling imports in foreign countries leading to an increase in foreign exchange reserves. This would also promote local producers of Pakistan reducing the number of imports and leading to the growth of Pakistan’s domestic industries. This would be quite handy in the increment of GDP as well as GNP by letting overseas Pakistani’s to invest more in Pakistan. PSL is one of the major cricket tournament held by Pakistan likewise IPL and Big Bash super leagues.
It is the event which lifts up the morale of Pakistani’s after watching amazing combats of top class teams including international players leading to joy and excitement all over the country. Talking about the international players, it would eradicate all the stereotype elements regarding Pakistan, one of them is Eva zu Beck; a polish traveller who has fallen in love with Pakistan. PSL would bridge the gap between the rest of the world and Pakistan by promoting a peaceful image of Pakistan.
PAGE: Your views on cricket in Pakistan in the days to come:
Muhammad Talha:Â Seeing the continuing growth of PSL in recent years, cricket in Pakistan would be promoted to a newer level. New talents will emerge as a pride of Pakistan’s national cricket team. Due to improved law and order situation, expected political stability in Afghanistan, tourism promotion by the newly-elected government and PCB continuous efforts shall bring full-fledged international cricket back on home soil. Incident-free PSL 4 will encourage Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa to return to Pakistan for full international series, later in the year which may attract other teams to visit and play in Pakistan. This will change the perception of Pakistan and may undoubtedly lead ICC to insist on foreign teams returning to Pakistan.
We are hoping to have best talented boys to come up in Pakistan cricket and to represent our country in the international arena. We will Insha Allah win World Cup 2019 with our best talented players under the leadership of Sarfraz Ahmed.
In my opinion, there is a strong need to strengthen our domestic structure so that we would also get the players who can serve the country not only in T20 or One-day format but they should be able to succeed in a Test format too. After the departure of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, there is a decline in performance of our Test team which is not a good sign. Pakistani team has lost its home Test series against New Zealand and white washed from South Africa. While when we take a look on our neighboring country India, they have recently won a series against Australia on its home soil becoming the first South Asian team to win a Test series against Australia in Australia. However, there is still more work to be done by the management of PCB and the skipper Sarfraz to do well in all 3 formats and bring back the glory and pride which we deserved to be. The inclusion of newly appointed Managing Director Mr. Wasim Khan may be helpful to run the PCB professionally.