BEIJING: China doused the Olympic flame on Sunday night, closing Beijing Games that will be remembered for the extremes of its anti-Covid measures and outrage over the doping scandal that enveloped 15-year-old Russian skating sensation Kamila Valieva. Chinese President Xi Jinping was on hand for the snowflake-themed ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium, where International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach described the Beijing Games as “truly exceptional” before declaring them closed. The Beijing Games, contained inside a “closed loop”, were the second Olympics in six months to be deprived by Covid-19 of much of its festivity. They were also stalked by politics,…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
LEEDS: Celebrating scoring Manchester United’s fourth goal, Anthony Elanga held a finger to his lips. No way were the Leeds United fans being silenced, though. No chance. Not when they’d waited 19 years to see their fiercest rivals at Elland Road in the Premier League, initially because of relegation and then pandemic curbs on fans. Not when they’d already come back from two goals down by scoring twice in 24 seconds to wipe out United’s lead on Sunday. Ultimately, though, the tide turned back in United’s favour to win a six-goal thriller on a drenched pitch. Second-half substitutes Fred and…
MELBOURNE: Opener Kusal Mendis struck an unbeaten 69 off 58 balls to help secure a consolation five-wicket victory for Sri Lanka, who fired with both bat and ball against Australia in the fifth and final Twenty20 international on Sunday. The hosts posted a middling 154-6 after opting to bat in Melbourne, but the Sri Lankan batsmen finally found their feet to reach 155-5 with one ball remaining, ending the series 4-1 in Australia’s favour. Mendis batted positively, but sensibly, with captain Dasun Shanaka (35) in an 83-run partnership which powered Sri Lanka to their first win against Australia in any…
KOLKATA: India beat West Indies by 18 runs in the third and final Twenty20 international thanks to a brilliant innings by Suryakumar Yadav at the Eden Gardens on Sunday to win the series 3-0. West Indies will fly home without a single victory on the tour having also lost the One-day International series 3-0. Yadav (65) walked in with India in dire straits at 66-3 at the halfway mark and he went after the bowling, smashing seven sixes — including three in the final over — to guide India to a competitive total of 184-5. West Indies lost wickets cheaply…
LAHORE: Quetta Gladiators did what they needed to do. But not by the margin they needed to. The Gladiators beat the Karachi Kings by 23 runs here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday in their final round-robin match but it still wasn’t enough for them to leapfrog Islamabad United into the final playoff spot in the standings. The Gladiators needed to win by a huge margin to keep their qualification hopes alive but it was the Kings who dominated most parts of the game before a batting collapse led them down. Looking to build on their first win of the…
LAHORE: The numbers Islamabad United — and Quetta Gladiators — wanted to know were flashed just before the start of Multan Sultans’ innings. If they prevented the rampant Sultans from reaching the paltry 106-run target they had set in 3.5 overs, United would be assured of a playoff spot in this season’s HBL Pakistan Super League. They knew they’d done just enough in their final round robin fixture at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Sunday. It was more about damage limitation than getting a win. United’s progress into the final four, and the Gladiators’ fate, was sealed when the Sultans…
Cricket Australia is open to splitting the head coach’s role for its men’s team following Justin Langer’s exit, CA chairman Lachie Henderson said on Monday, conceding it was taxing for one person to coach across formats. Langer, who guided Australia to their maiden Twenty20 World Cup in November and a 4-0 Ashes triumph against England subsequently, rejected a short-term extension and resigned this month. Andrew McDonald has been appointed on an interim basis ahead of the team’s tour of Pakistan next month and is considered a front-runner for a permanent role. “I think it is a very time-consuming role for one individual and maybe a…
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin says “we negotiated hard with the International Monetary Fund in the past and it would be done again as the (Fund’s) wish list cannot be implemented in totality,” adding “we have to hold discussions on each issue with them.” Owing to hard bargaining, the prior action conditions for qualifying for a $1 billion IMF credit facility were softened to some extent. The government is struggling to evolve a strategy to achieve sustainable balanced growth that is inclusive while remaining in the mutually agreed IMF programme. The IMF credit facility does help borrowing countries to get more…
LAHORE: In yet another case of substandard material and equipment use, a National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) team has found several discrepancies in the construction of two megaprojects, but the company’s management is reluctant to act, Dawn has learnt. An official source told Dawn that the team visited two grid stations — a 500- kilovolt station in Rahim Yar Khan and a 220kV station in Lal Sohanra (Bahawalpur district) completed a few years ago — and found issues like substandard construction material, faulty circuit breakers, the absence of an oscillograph system, transformers in bad condition, etc. “But such serious issues are not being…
LAHORE: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production, and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood has said trade with India is the need of the hour and beneficial to both countries. Also, Russia wanted to do investment in the field of construction and lay pipelines in Pakistan, he said on Sunday. “As far as the ministry of commerce is concerned, its position is to do trade with India. And my stance is that we should do trade with India and it should be opened now,” Mr Dawood said in an interaction with media at an exhibition on engineering…
