Boy killed in celebratory gunfire after Pak team's win

Agencies
June 20, 2017

Karachi, Jun 20: "Papa, I've been shot," were the last words of a 15-year-old boy who died after being struck by a stray bullet from aerial firing as frenzied celebrations rang across Pakistan over its cricket team's Champions Trophy triumph.

gunfire

As the nation celebrated Pakistan's victory over arch- rivals India in the ICC Champions Trophy, 2017, on Sunday, Syed Hussain Raza Zaidi fought for his life in an operation theatre at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) here.

The country-wide jubilation turned into a day of mourning for Syed Qazim Raza Zaidi's family, who lost their eldest son, Hussain, due to the aerial firing in the name of celebrations for Pakistan's victory, The Express Tribune reported.

It was not an isolated incident as several people were reported to have been injured in celebratory aerial firing. Nearly a dozen people were injured in Karachi itself as residents resorted to indiscriminate aerial firing following Pakistan cricket team's triumph. Several were reported to be injured in aerial firing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Hussain was standing on the balcony of his house and watching fireworks in the area soon after Pakistan defeated India by 180 runs when he told his father, "Papa some men holding guns are firing (now) that Pakistan are the new champions".

Qazim asked his son to come inside and as soon as he turned to go in his room, he heard his son scream.

"He (Hussain) shouted 'Papa, mujhe goli lag gai (Papa, I have been shot)," Hussain's uncle, Syed Hassan Raza Zaidi said, narrating the boy's last words.

Hussain's parents rushed their son to JPMC, but he had lost too much blood by the time they reached the hospital. "JPMC doctors started operating on Hussain, but he breathed his last at 2AM," Hassan told the daily.

The boy's funeral prayers were offered at the Model Colony mosque and he was laid to rest in the Model Colony graveyard.

At 9:30 PM, when the whole nation was overjoyed with Pakistan's victory, around four men on two motorcycles passed by the street of Model Colony firing shots in the air and one of which hit Hussain in the ribs and passed into his stomach, explained another uncle, Syed Nazir Raza Zaidi.

Also, in a separate development, police arrested Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Amanullah Mehsud for aerial firing following Pakistan's victory. Mehsud was arrested and an FIR was also registered against him at the Darakhshan police station in Karachi.

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Agencies
April 25,2020

London, Apr 25: Former Australian cricketer Graeme Watson who was fighting cancer, has died at the age of 75.

Primarily a middle-order batsman and a medium-pace bowler, he featured in five Tests from 1967 to 1972 and two ODIs in 1972, ESPNcricinfo reported.

The all-rounder earned the national call during the 1966-67 tour of Rhodesia and South Africa. Watson slammed a half-century in the first innings of the second Test of the series.

However, the medium-pace bowler was ruled of the next test after suffering an ankle injury. He returned for the fourth Test in Johannesburg where scalped his career-best 2 for 67 but failed to leave a mark with the bat as Kangaroos lost the series.

In 1971-72 he moved to Western Australia and played a major role in their Sheffield-Shield win in 1971-72, 1972-73, and 1974-75 seasons.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 2: Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has said that he was ashamed on seeing the training regime of Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

Iqbal said that the incident happened two-three years back as he thought to himself that why he cannot do the same even when he is the same age as Kohli.

"I must say this, it is not because I am talking to an Indian commentator, India is our neighbour so whatever things they do, it affects Bangladesh as well. We follow what is happening in India, when India changed its approach towards fitness, it impacted Bangladesh the most," Iqbal told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I have no shame in admitting this, when I saw Virat Kohli running around two-three years ago, I was ashamed of myself, I thought this is a guy who is probably my age, but he is training so much and I have not doing even half of it. We have a great example in our team as well, Mushfiqur Rahim manages himself well regarding fitness," he added.

During his initial days of international cricket, Kohli was fond of chicken which he has admitted several times during media interaction.

But in 2013, the 31-year-old batsman intentionally shifted his focus to fitness, diet, and training.

Now he has become punctual about his diet which has given him a different character on and off the field.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have also kept on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar managed to call time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings.

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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