NEW DELHI: The Women’s World Cup in New Zealand will go ahead as planned despite the community spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in the country, the organisers of the event said on Friday. The tournament could not be held last year because of the pandemic, and New Zealand has imposed new restrictions to prevent a potential Omicron outbreak as in neighbouring Australia. “We did look at multiple contingency plans over the last 12 months but the plan is to retain the schedule as it is with the six venues,” Chief Executive Officer Andrea Nelson said in a virtual media…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
BUENOS AIRES: The president of South America’s football confederation has reiterated that teams from the region would boycott FIFA’s plans for a biennial World Cup and said there is no chance that such a proposal will go through. Alejandro Dominguez, the president of CONMEBOL, said on Thursday that “it’s a waste of time” for FIFA President Gianni Infantino to continue pushing his desire to stage a World Cup every two years. “CONMEBOL will not play every two years and that is final. … It is a no go, there’s no chance,” Dominguez said in an interview. “This [plan] was dead…
GWADAR: After the construction of a scenic cricket stadium in the port city, a football stadium is set to be inaugurated in the foothills of Koh-i-Batil, much to the delight of Makran’s people, especially sports fans. The director general of the Gwadar Development Authority, Mujeebur Rehman Qambrani, said on Friday that Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo Football Stadium had been renovated and would soon be inaugurated by Balochistan’s Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo. The old football stadium, spread over 138,000 square feet, was in a dilapidated condition and void of greenery, Mr Qambrani said, adding that players used to play…
After Peshawar Zalmi’s win against the Quetta Gladiators, fans are abuzz about everything that led up to the impressive win and Pakistani Twitter has posted the verdict, calling Shoaib Malik’s batting a game saver, grieving over Will Smeed’s almost century and churning out Faulkner-Sarfaraz memes to keep the balance of emotions in place. The PSL has had cricket fans in its grip before it even started and now with the tournament in full swing and the second match over, netizens have swarmed Twitter with memes and their favourite moments. Netizens claimed the real excitement kicked in in the second PSL match last night. The…
CAPE TOWN: Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Brendan Taylor was banned for three-and-a half years on Friday for breaching anti-corruption and anti-doping rules after he failed to report a match-fixing approach and tested positive for cocaine. The International Cricket Council said Taylor admitted to four charges under the anti-corruption code stemming from an incident in 2019 when he said he accepted $15,000 from businessmen in India, who asked him to fix international games. Taylor said he was blackmailed and never went through with the arrangement and that he was coerced into accepting the money. Taylor also was found guilty of an anti-doping…
KARACHI: The experience of more than two decades was on display when Peshawar Zalmi’s stand-in captain Shoaib Malik, after arriving at the crease right after the powerplay, took it right till the end. The 39-year-old, however, decided to assume to supporting role, while allowed all-rounder Hussain Talat to play the protagonist in Zalmi’s five-wicket victory in their HBL Pakistan Super League opener over Quetta Gladiators at the National Stadium here on Friday. The left-hander, with his impact, snatched the limelight off young English opener Will Smeed, who smashed 97 off 62, helping the Gladiators to post 191-4 in the first…
An imperious Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian to win her home Grand Slam in 44 years on Saturday, halting the charge of fearless American Danielle Collins in straight sets. The world number one was 5-1 down in the second set but came storming back to win on a tiebreak and sweep past the 27th seed 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) to be crowned Australian Open champion in front of an expectant Rod Laver Arena crowd. It was a third Slam title for the 25-year-old after her breakthrough French Open success in 2019 and Wimbledon last year, joining Serena Williams as the only active players to…
KARACHI: Headline inflation for January is likely to hover around 12.7-13 per cent, up 40-70 basis points from a month ago, analysts said on Friday. Along with Omicron and external pressures on account of higher imports, double-digit inflation is one of the main emerging risks to the economic growth trend, according to the Ministry of Finance. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 12.3pc last month, marking a 22-month high owing to higher food prices, increase in energy tariffs and upward revision in the rates of petroleum products. Ismail Iqbal Securities Ltd Head of Research Fahad Rauf told Dawn he expects inflation to…
KARACHI: Amid rapidly expanding economic activities, the conventional banks for the first time in the last three years made aggressive lending to the private sector instead of investing in risk-free government securities. The banks extended over five times more advances to the private sector in the first six and half months of the current fiscal year, exceeding the combined advances they had made in the entire FY21 and FY20. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed that the conventional banks made total advances of Rs514.7 billion during almost the first seven months (July 1, 2021-Jan 14) against Rs97.2bn in…
KARACHI: The stock market witnessed another day of lacklustre trading on the back of rising energy prices and an unstoppable surge in the number of Covid-19 cases. Range-bound trading resulted in the index oscillating between an intraday high of 229 points and an intraday low of 41 points before closing at 45,078 points, according to Topline Securities. By the end of trading, the KSE-100 index could add just 5.13 points, up 0.01 per cent from a day ago. Market participation increased 49.1pc to 173.6 million shares while the value of traded shares went up 23.6pc to Rs8.12 billion. Sectors that…
