KARACHI: Legendary Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis praised emerging cricketers for their ‘talent and hunger’ after the conclusion of the National Women's One-Day Tournament.
Younis, who mentored Challengers in the recently-truncated five-team tournament, termed it a great experience and emphasized the need for more guidance and support for the national women’s cricketers.
“Working with girls was a great experience,” stated Younis. “So much talent and hunger. They deserve more guidance, more cricket and lot more support to blossom and challenge world cricket.”
For the unversed, the five-team tournament, originally scheduled to run from November 8 to 30 here, was prematurely curtailed by the cricket board due to a fire incident at the team hotel.
“Fortunately, no players were injured, as the PCB promptly evacuated the five players in the hotel at the time of the incident and relocated them safely to the Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Centre,” the PCB stated.
The fire captured the local hotel when four teams were involved in the fifth-round matches of the tournament, while the remaining one side, Strikers, was training.
The cricket board further shared that it decided to ‘truncate’ the tournament to prioritise the health and safety of the players, while the unavailability of inadequate accommodation alternative added to the outcome.
“The decision to truncate the tournament was made with the health and safety of the players as the top priority,” stated PCB.
“Additionally, the unavailability of alternative accommodations to meet the approximately 100 rooms of the required standards for contributed to this outcome,” the statement added.
To determine the tournament winner, the PCB has decided that the Invincibles and the Stars – the top two teams after four matches – will face off in the final, the date and venue for which will be announced in due course.
Sohail Imran Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.- Waqar Younis
