MELBOURNE: The world’s top-ranked test batter Marnus Labuschagne is hoping to take his dominant form on Australian pitches to Pakistan and is leaving no stone unturned as he prepares for the three-Test tour. Labuschagne has been practising batting on his home balcony on a rubber mat laden with pieces of taped aluminium sheeting to try to emulate the variable bounce and turn of Pakistan wickets as Australia get ready for their first tour there since 1998. The Australian number three said he had tried something similar before heading to England for a county season in 2019 which culminated in a…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Tuesday said users of Trans World Associates (TWA), one of the two license holders for international landing stations of submarine cables, could face bandwidth disruptions due to a reported breakage in the company’s submarine cable system. The PTA said the fault was reported around 6pm on Monday and caused an outage of international bandwidth. “[It] may result in degradation of internet services for users of Transworld bandwidth,” the statement said. It added that the consortium was arranging ad hoc bandwidth to minimise the impact and efforts were ongoing to ascertain the exact location of…
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday announced a zero tax rate for freelancers in the information technology sector. He said Pakistanis, especially the youth, had great talent but the system did not allow them to excel. Speaking at the launch of the National E-Tijarat Portal, Mr Khan assured the youth of “all-out facilitation” by the government and urged them not to miss the IT revolution. They should not only generate revenues for themselves but also help bridge the country’s trade gap. “This is the technology revolution. The youth should in no way miss it. We expect the country’s IT…
MUSCAT: Ireland edged into the semi-finals of qualifying for this year’s T20 World Cup on net run-rate with a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Germany in Oman on Monday. The Germans could only post 107-7 from their 20 overs, and a third successive fifty partnership from openers Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie ensured the Irish reached their target, with 41 balls to spare. That was enough to put them top of Group A at the Global Qualifier A tournament, despite losing their opening game to the UAE. The UAE joined Ireland in the last four after a two-run loss to Bahrain,…
Australia Test captain Pat Cummins and opening batsman David Warner will not feature in the limited-overs meetings with Pakistan next month after they were left out of the squad for a trio of one-day internationals and a Twenty20 clash. Cummins and Warner, along with bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, have been included in the squad for Australia’s three-Test tour of Pakistan, but will not be involved following the conclusion of that series. The quartet of Cummins, Warner, Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell have contracts in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament, which is expected to start…
Shahid Afridi may be retiring from the PSL but does that put an end to the Boom Boom Afridi spirit? Not if his son-in-law-to-be can help it. Captain of the Lahore Qalandars, Shaheen Shah Afridi, wowed cricket fans in the Peshawar Zalmi versus Lahore Qalandars PSL match on Feb 21. Zalmi may have won the match but Shaheen won everyone’s hearts. Netizens couldn’t help but compare him to the OG cricketer Afridi, adding “Boom Boom” next to his name. Shaheen hitting sixes had everyone cheering — even his father-in-law-to-be. And it looks like he agrees with the uncanny resemblance between…
LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars seemed out of it, only for inspirational captain Shaheen Shah Afridi to pull them back in. Chasing 159 to win against Peshawar Zalmi, Qalandars needed 24 off the final over to win with Shaheen at the crease. Shaheen had already hit big shots off Mohammad Umar in the Zalmi pacer’s previous over but this time he was more devastating. After Umar had bowled a wide, Shaheen got a thick outside edge that flew over the wicket-keeper for four. That was followed by a six over fine leg and another over extra cover. Suddenly, the equation seemed in…
There is no such thing as an uneventful and dull Pakistan Super League (PSL). First, it was a league that was played thousands of miles away from the country it bore the name of. Then there was that nasty spot-fixing scandal of 2017, followed by the national quest to bring the tournament along with the big names in world cricket to Pakistan. When the A-listers finally started warming up to the idea of traveling to Pakistan, Covid-19 struck and made it an annual routine to cut up the PSL into two halves. This year, the league’s seventh edition is being staged…
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid offered on Tuesday to deploy more Rangers paramilitary in Karachi to curb the rising incidents of street crime in the metropolis. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said: “If the Sindh government asks, we are ready to increase [the deployment of] our Rangers forces. We are even ready to deploy them at police stations.” “If [Sindh] Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah ask us for any assistance, we are willing to provide it,” he added. In response to a question, he further said the situation in Karachi was not good. “The situation that I saw in…
Mathew Perry could reveal details about Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s divorce, fears Aniston. An insider told Closer Magazine the actress is aware of how much her Friends co-star knows about her situation with Pitt and is nervous all will be out in the open with Perry’s new book. “He[Perry] hasn’t suggested that the book will include private details about anyone else, but Jen knows Matthew will want a bestseller and, to achieve that, he’ll need to expose as many juicy secrets as possible,” revealed insider. The insider added: “And being privy to one of the most high-profile showbiz splits…
