India top order batsman Virat Kohli had a subdued one-day series against West Indies but captain Rohit Sharma said the team were not worried about his form. While India completed a 3-0 series sweep in Ahmedabad on Friday, Kohli did not shine, managing scores of eight, 18 and zero. But Rohit laughed off suggestions that the person he replaced as India’s white-ball captain was low on confidence. “Virat Kohli needs confidence? What are you saying?” an amused Rohit told a reporter after Friday’s victory. “Not hitting hundreds is different but in South Africa, he just made two fifties in three matches. “I don’t see…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
LAHORE: The count has stopped at six for Multan Sultans. The defending champions saw their winning start snapped in emphatic fashion by a relentless Lahore Qalandars at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday. A 52-run victory for Shaheen Shah Afridi’s men, playing their first game in front of their home crowd, not only underlined the Qalandars’ HBL Pakistan Super League title credentials but also showed why they have the most dangerous bowling attack as they defended 182. Sultans’ big-hitters Tim David and Rilee Rossouw were effectively neutralised. Their inspirational captain Mohammad Rizwan couldn’t find his strokes. The fluent Shan Masood never…
India’s Shreyas Iyer fetched the top price in the first round of the auction for the Indian Premier League — the world’s most valuable cricket tournament — on Saturday. Iyer, who stood out with his match-winning 80 in India’s 3-0 ODI whitewash of the West Indies on Friday, went to Kolkata Knight Riders for $1.62 million in the two-day auction in Bangalore. The first set of 10 marquee players each had a base price of $264,000 in the auction, which sets their salary for the 10-team tournament. Kolkata secured a return for Australia’s Pat Cummins for nearly $1 million and chief executive…
ISLAMABAD: PTCL Group President & CEO Hatem Bamatraf on Friday dispelled rumours that Ufone is currently in the process of acquiring a telecom company, while adding that options are always open in businesses. Addressing his maiden news conference at the PTCL headquarters after taking charge as the group head in May 2021, Mr Bamatraf — without naming any entity — said, “We are looking at the market and currently are not in the process of merger and acquisition. But this does not mean that we will not consider any available opportunity.” He was responding to a question regarding the rumours…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has allowed export settlement of 14 items to Afghanistan in local currency. The export of poultry and products, meat, cement, pharmaceutical, textiles, fruits, vegetables, salt, rice and surgical instruments to the crisis-hit neighbouring country can be settled in Pakistani rupees, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood announced on his official Twitter account on Friday. The adviser said that queries have been received regarding export to Afghanistan in Pakistani rupees. “We would like to clarify that to ease exports to Afghanistan; MOC [Ministry of Commerce] has allowed export settlement of 14 items in Pakistan’s local currency,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, the…
ISLAMABAD: The weekly sensitive price indicator (SPI), which gauges inflation on a short-term basis, fell 0.08 per cent for the week ended on Feb 10, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. The decline was mainly driven by a sharp drop in the prices of essential food items and stood in contrast to a 1.35pc increase recorded during the week ended Feb 3. The indicator decreased by 0.24pc for the lowest income group (people earning below Rs17,732 a month) and by 0.04pc for the highest income group (those earning above Rs44,175 a month). SPI is computed…
BEIJING: Appreciating Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing said both China and Pakistan would welcome all countries and international organisations to participate in the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the basis of consensus. “We appreciate the remarks made by Prime Minister Imran Khan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing on Friday. “China and Pakistan welcome all countries and international organisations that support the BRI or CPEC, conduct mutually beneficial cooperation and to seek common development to participate in CPEC development on the basis of…
KARACHI: Barring buses, two- and three-wheelers, the auto sector turned in a robust performance as car sales jumped by 61.5 per cent in the first seven months of this fiscal year followed by 80pc increase in demand for trucks, 56pc in jeeps/pickups and 16pc in farm tractors. The car segment, however, appeared to have slowed down in January with sales plunging to 16,985 units from 24,471 units in December 2021 while the overall sales in 7MFY22 stood at 131,759 units versus 81,569 units in the same period last fiscal year. On the pattern of issuing combined sales of Honda Civic/City…
KARACHI: The remittances being sent by the overseas Pakistanis fell by 5 per cent year-on-year to $2.144 billion in January, showed data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday. On month-on-month, the remittances depicted a fall of $376 million or 15pc. The workers’ remittances remained above the $2bn-mark for the 20th consecutive month, however. If the falling trend persists in the remaining months of this fiscal year, it could pose serious problems for the economic managers as the government heavily relies on remittances, which are much higher than the country’s total export proceeds. The remittances grew at…
DUBAI: Hundreds of Afghans have launched a rare protest at a United Arab Emirates facility where they have been housed since fleeing their homeland last year, holding banners pleading for freedom and demanding to be sent to the United States to be resettled. Thousands of Afghans were last year evacuated to the Gulf Arab state on behalf of the United States and other Western countries amid the chaotic US-led withdrawal from Afghanistan and return to power of the Taliban. The UAE, a close US partner, agreed to provide Afghans with temporary housing as they waited to be resettled elsewhere. Six…
