Last week, a big women cricketing activity held at the Qadhafi Stadium with the name of SAGA Premier League. Though all the four provincial women teams featured in it, with some national players in their ranks, the overall competition remained below par.

Even the final between Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained one-sided as the former won it by a big margin of eight wickets, achieving the target of 85 in just 10.3 overs.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar M Khan was the chief guest who distributed prizes and hailed the efforts of organizers for holding a women activity. Sindh and Balochistan also participated in it.

National players like Javaria Khan, playing as captain, Aliya Riaz, Subhana, Waheeda Akhtar, Sidra Nawaz and Sana Taj appeared for Punjab. Javeria, an international player, was also declared Woman-of-the-Final.

International players like Bisma Maroof, Nida Dar, Saniya Khan, Diana Baig appeared for the KP. Elizabeth Barkat, Ayesha Zafar and Sidra Ameen were the prominent players from the Sindh team.

Similarly, the Balochistan team was also looking strong in the presence of international player Asmavia Iqbal (captain), Marina Iqbal, Sumayya Siddiqui and Sana Urooj. But most of the matches had been a one-sided affair which shows a wide gap in the standard of sports among women.

PCB’s women wing general manager Shamsa Hashmi said all the four teams were selected by national selector Farrukh Zaman. The winners earned a cash prize of Rs100,000.

PCB Game Development director Aizad Hussain said the PCB wanted to prepare a good number of women umpires, coaches and other experts to replace men, but it would still take a long time.

The Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) sent only one competitor, Muhammad Tahir, to compete in the Qatar Cup this last week.

Tahir competed in the 84kg category, but he failed to bring any laurel to the country.

The country has produced a good number of weightlifters in the past, but since the standard of sports is declining by the day, the fate of weightlifters is no exception.

This last week the main focus of the local sports media was on getting the latest news about the fate of the Indo-Pak cricket series which is scheduled to be held from Dec 17 to Jan 4.

The electronic media particularly remained in the Qadhafi Stadium from early in the morning till the sunset, but nothing came out because the situation is still confusing as the PCB is still awaiting a reply from the BCCI.

As the time is running out for making arrangements for the series in Sri Lanka, a neutral venue, now chances are remote that even the PCB can organize it.

Last Sunday a good number of people attended the funeral of Dr Zafar Altaf, one of the great cricket personalities of the country, in Lahore who died of cardiac arrest in Islamabad.

Saleem Altaf and Shafqat Rana were among the prominent Test cricketers who attended his funeral prayers. Dr Zafar had rendered great services as a PCB secretary in the early 70s. He, along with the then PCB head Hafeez Kardar, introduced the departmental cricket in the country.

Since then thousands of players have benefited from the departmental cricket.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2015