Pakistan wins ICC 20-20 2nd World Cup

After 17 years, Pakistan has won another mega multinational cricket tournment. A very important success at a very right time for Pakistani nation. We, as a nation, have suffered and are still suffering through a lot of setbacks; and this accomplishment of our cricket team has given the nation to smile for something; they have provoked patriotism in our hearts and almost every Pakistani feels like that he/she has gained independance again.

Due to terrorist acts in our homeland, we are neither neglected in sporting world but also in business world. A lot of investors have pulled back their hands. Even RentACoder also displays a ticker that Software Buyers should rethink before signing a contract with a Pakistani programmer because they have electricity issues. But everyone should not forget that, even the current most successful nations today were far worse than us in their dark ages about 5-6 centuries back. If we compare us with them, we are still new and by the grace of Almighty Allah, we will bounce up as the most successful nation; and our touch will turn dust into gold….

Good luck Pakistan.

ICC 20-20 World Cup 2009 – 1st SEMI – FINAL

The copyrights of this video belongs to ESPN Star.

ICC 20-20 World Cup 2009 – FINAL

The copyrights of this video belongs to ESPN Star.

Nowtees

Last year, I submitted a T-Shirt Design in Nowtees, and yesterday I received a letter from them that they have accepted my design. I signed an agreement, according to which my design is the property of Nowtees but they will put my name as designer in T-Shirt’s tag. I said to myself, why not? I designed it to submit at Nowtees, otherwise I would have never designed it, so it’s theirs

As soon as the T-Shirt comes in market, I’ll upload picture of that too. This incident has made me believe that we must try our best in all those areas which are in our range and Allah will give us positive results when we need them most. No doubt, God works in mysterious ways. Thanks Allah Almighty.

Study in UK

I came across this site, educational excellence, which has an official branch in Lahore and is very dedicated in doing arrangements for students to study aboard.

e² is British registered company now operating in various countries including China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, India and the UAE, to provide quality professional counseling services to students seeking to study Overseas. We believe international students deserve professional guidance to make the right choice when selecting to study in UK or other countries.

The company is managed by the company director who has over 12 year experience of International Education, Student Recruitment Consultancy Services and Commercial Training Contracts, with the public and private sectors, in a number of countries.

e² Team members (located in Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka and Nepal) already have a considerable range and depth of experience in promoting UK & Australian courses to international students and have a substantial network of well established overseas contacts to make your marketing strategy a success.

What IF?

It was the first death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto on Decemeber 27, 2008. I was going through an article posted at Pakistaniat and thought the same thing; i.e. What if, the incident would not have occured. Well, I believe that we cannot undo anything and thinking of WHAT IF is a foolish thing(in my view)….but I hope that ripples generated by her death should gradually remove the impacts on Pakistan. The article is short and nice and I found a good image there; indicating the Bhutto time line. May Allah bless her soul.

The Story of Pakistan

The Story of Pakistan, its struggle and its achievement, is the story of great human ideals, struggling to survive in the face of odds and difficulties…

- Quaid e Azam (Chittagong, March 1948)

Story of Pakistan is the most comprehensive reference of political history of Pakistan. I prepared for my exams from here and got 90% result , jokes apart but it is a great site. It has information about almost all those heroes who contributed in their different ways to create Pakistan; and it also has information about almost all those who contributed to bring Pakistan into stability and enable Pakistan to face the modern age.

Welcome 2008

A long year(2007) has come to an end. Many memorable moments occured in that year, for which I will remember this year. Just a reminder of what happened in 2007, can be listed as follows:

At Personal level:

I participated in Table Tennis Tournment held in Techlogix. A little effort of mine took my team to the final of the tournment but due to an immense pressure, I lost the decider set of the final match and our team ended up second in the tournment, although it was predicted that our team would not qualify for the quarter finals as well.

I spent a night at Techlogix to complete one of the user story, in which we had to handle the free rotation of tools drawn by user at design time of InteractX. I enjoyed and learned a lot working in this application and mainly on this particular user story. A lot of basic mathematical calculation was used in it. The main problem was that the CDC class of MFC does not support any angle. The bounding rectangle, which can be scaled and translated in the client area, is drawn by 3 general parameters namely, top cornor point, width and height; and there is not support for rotation; so I had to implement a wrapper over it which would provide:

ROTATION: draw a lollypop(also called rotation gripper) above the bounding rectangle to provide free rotation,

SCALING: handle the cornor masks so that it can be easily scaled up or down without altering the shape of the contained object,

TRANSLATION: translate the object and bounding rectangle anywhere in the client area.

I joined Tricastmedia Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd in July 2007 as a Software Engineer and my team mate changed from Haroon Saeed to Usman Qutab. So in other words, no difference occured in the team environment.

Tricastmedia took a sports gala trip to the northern areas of Pakistan and I fully participated in the event, by scoring quick odd runs in couple of matches which helped us to go to the final of the cricket tournment via run rate rule. Though we lost the match but I was the only one to take the only 2 wickets of the tournment champions which they lost in the final. Besides cricket, I scored the last goal in the football match which has made our chances to go to the final of the football tournment as well. The tournment was delayed due to rain and will be continued later this year.

Tricastmedia arranged Most Paindoo Day in office. A paindoo is a person with countryside background and has been living in modern city but is still not influenced by its atmosphere. I participated fully, and got the first prize.

I received a Gold Medal for academic achievement in BSc(HONS) in Computer Science from PUCIT, University of the Punjab. My office celebrated the occasion and congratulated me.

My little most brother underwent a plastic surgery of his ears in Rawalpindi. I went there to stay with him for his care, and it was a great trip.

At Pakistan Level:

The year 2007 began with Eid-ul-Azha and enjoyment for all.

First suicide bomb blast for Pakistan occured in January 2007 and many followed all year in different locations.

Brutal murder of Zille Huma, who was the Punjab Minister of Social Welfare and was killed for “not adopting the muslim dress code”.

The “Samjhoota Express”, a friendship train between Pakistan and India was blown up.

Pakistan participated in cricket World Cup 2007 and got out from it after a shameful defeat from Ireland. Australia won the World Cup third time in a row.

Bob Woolmer, Pakistan Cricket Team coach, died on the day following the defeat from Ireland. The reason of his death is still under question.

Inzimam-ul-Haq retired from oneday cricket and Shoaib Malik became the new Pakistan Cricket Team captain.

Lal Masjid incident.

Chief Justice of Pakistan incident.

May 12 mayhem in Karachi.

“Khuda ke liye” released last year which faced many protests.

Extremism in North and North-Western areas of Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif, chairperson of PML(N) and 2 time prime minister of Pakistan, returned after 8 year exile, but was sent back from the air port. He then came back again for general elections.

Pakistan participated in the first Twenty20 International WorldCup. Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistani pace bowler, set another example by using bat against own team mate Muhammad Asif, and was sent home. Pakistan performed well and due to brilliant efforts of Misbah-ul-Haq reached the final of the tournment and ended up as runners up.

Misbah-ul-Haq continued his brilliant performance in all forms of cricket. He was aggressive in T20, moderate in 50 over game and was the most defensive in Test matches from Pakistan.

Police action in Geo TV office in Islamabad.

Government banned some channels and Geo is still banned.

Benazir Bhutto, chairperson of PPP and 2 time prime minister of Pakistan, also came back after a self-exile for the general elections and was welcomed by a couple of bomb attacks.

Emergency was imposed in Pakistan, and all parties’ activists were being held. Imran Khan was arrested after IJT students in Punjab University beat him and gave him to the police.

General Pervez Musharaf retired from the post of Chief of Army Staff and became President, after long delays by Supreme court.

Pakistan Cricket Team lost to India in India after a decade or two.

Assassination of Pakistan’s most famous artist, Gulgee, took place.

Benazir Bhutto was killed during his election campaign and investigation is still under process.

Overall, for Pakistan 2007 can be called a year of anger and angst as explained in All Things Pakistan. Lets hope the new year 2008, bring relief for the people of Pakistan and happiness for all of us. May Allah bless our country and us (Ameen).

Statistical highlights of 2006 in Cricket

What a wonderful year it was for Muhammad Yousaf. His total of 1788 in 19 innings broke Viv Richards’s 30-year old record for most runs in a calendar year. He also scored nine hundreds and took the record for most centuries in a year from Richards, who’d scored seven in 1976. Yousuf also scored centuries in five consecutive Tests in 2006 and is in second place with Jacques Kallis for most centuries in consecutive matches. Only Sir Don Bradman, who made hundreds in six consecutive Tests, is ahead of him – and Yousuf can break that record on the tour of South Africa. Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan broke the record for the highest partnership in a lost test when they added 363 for the third wicket at Headingley.

Besides Muhammad Yousaf, Irfan Pathan also began the year with a great success. Irfan Pathan became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test Match when he dismissed Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf off the last three balls of the first over at Karachi. The Lahore Test between India and Pakistan was also the first test match to have two triple-century partnerships. Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan put on 319 while Dravid and Sehwag put on 410. The 410-run partnership between Sehwag and Rahul Dravid at Lahore was the second-highest opening partnership in history, falling three runs short of the world record set by Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad against New Zealand at Madras in 1955-56.

Stephen Fleming begins his tenth year as captain of New Zealand in 2007; last year, he broke Arjuna Ranatunga’s record (193) for most ODI caps as captain when he led New Zealand out for the 194th time during the Champions Trophy. Fleming now has 195 caps and counting at the helm.

Shane Warne became the first bowler to take 700th test wicket.  And who can forget the Johannesburg chase, where Australia became the first team to score 400+ score in a 50 over one day match. They also achieved a name in scoring the most runs in a 50 over one day match, which did not last for 6 hours as South Africa chased the total and made the highest score in a 50 over one day match. Ricky Ponting’s 164 off 105 balls at the Wanderers is the highest score in a defeat in a 50-over match. Mick Lewis got smashed for 113 off ten overs at the Wanderers, the most expensive figures in one-day cricket. South Africa and Australia smashed a total of 26 sixes and 87 fours at Johannesburg and broke the record for most fours and sixes in a match.

But as both teams crossed Sri Lanka’s previous total of 398 by scoring 434 and 438 by Australia and South Africa respectively, Sri Lanka took back the record by hammering 453 in 50 over one day match against Holland. When talking about Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga broke the record for the highest opening stand in ODIs when they clobbered 286 in 31.5 overs against England at Leeds. Muralitharan took five ten-wicket hauls this year, breaking his own record set in 2001 when he took ten wickets in a match on four occasions. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara broke the world record for the highest partnership for any wicket when they amassed 624 for the third wicket against South Africa at the SSC in Colombo. They surpassed the 576 put on by Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama for the second wicket against India at the Premadasa in 1997.

link: A year dominated by Yousuf, Murali and Australia

Yousuf breaks 30-year-old record

A typically elegant, clipped on-drive for four off Corey Collymore took Mohammad Yousuf from 44 to 48 on the fourth day of the final Test between Pakistan and West Indies at Karachi. A modest raise of the bat acknowledged that the drive also took him past one of the longest-standing records in cricket, of most runs in a calendar year.
Sir Viv Richards’s had scored 1710 runs in 1976, a memorable run during which he scored two double-hundreds against England in England and the closest anyone had come to it since was Ricky Ponting in 2005, with 1544 runs. And just before he went past Richards tally, he had glided past Zaheer Abbas’s record for the most runs made by a Pakistani batsman in a three-Test series. Abbas had made 583 runs against the visiting Indians in 1978-79.

http://content-pak.cricinfo.com/pakvwi/content/current/story/270423.html

A series of unfortunate events for PCB

Thanks to the Australian umpire Darrel Hair, Pakistan cricket has been in the spotlight since August’s Oval Test against England when the captain, Inzamam-ul Haq, refused to take his team back on the field after it was accused of ball-tampering.
Inzamam was acquitted of tampering but was handed a four-match ban for bringing the game into disrepute, and according to Zaheer Abbas, who was Pakistan’s manager on the tour, he had “lost the confidence” of senior board officials.
Inzamam’s replacement, Younis Khan, last week refused to lead the side, saying he did not want to be a “dummy” captain. The refusal prompted Khan to resign, although he was reinstated by Ashraf on Saturday, hours before the team’s departure for India and the Champions Trophy.
The crisis gripping Pakistan cricket intensified on Monday with the resignation of the PCB’s director of operations, Abbas Zaidi.
Zaidi’s departure comes three days after the resignation of the former PCB chairman, Shaharyar Khan, and two days after Mushtaq Ahmed was sacked as assistant coach for the Champions Trophy. This is what an umpire can do……………… Not only he can turn the face of the match but he can also turn the fate of the team playing that match. Lets hope everyting turns out gooood………and Pakistan return home with the Champions Trophy. Good luck Pakistan Cricket Team

Pervez Musharraf – “In the Line of Fire”

General Musharraf is in the line of fire
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/09/06/10065284.html

General Pervez Musharaf wrote about his life and his experiences about Pakistan and her relations with the world. The book is available at local book stores for a price of Rs 1250 in Pakistan. The book can also be found at the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/Line-Fire-Memoir-Pervez-Musharraf/dp/0743283449