Pakistan. Once completed, it will be the largest in Pakistan. Designed by Gerkan, Marg and Partners,
it has an ICC certified design, the complex will consist of a cricket
academy of international standard, gymnasium, swimming pool and hostels.
The complex will also include a sports academy.
Ground breaking ceremony
Bahria Town Karachi held the ground breaking ceremony of Pakistan's
biggest cricket stadium in Sports City Karachi on Friday, 14 April 2017.
The ceremony was attended by the top management of Bahria Town and
legendary cricketers like Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Shoaib Mohammad, Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam. Residents of Bahria Town Karachi as well as people from across the city attended this glorious ceremony.
Chief Guest of the event was the Chairman of Bahria Town; Malik
Riaz Hussain, who performed the groundbreaking ceremony by pressing the
button to start the crane on the project site. He said on the event that
Rafi Cricket Stadium will be built in about one and a half years and by next two years, there will be international cricket matches in
this ground. Given the level of security in Bahria Town, and ongoing
construction of Hyatt Regency Hotel near Theme Park in Precinct 5, Rafi
Cricket Stadium will be an optimal place for hosting international
cricket events.
Architect
Designed by world renowned GMP Germany, the creators of Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Rafi Cricket Stadium's structure has been designed by Boston-based Simpson SGH
whereas the façade has been created by SBP Consultants Germany and
M&B (Mushtaq & Bilal) Pakistan, MEP is designed by SMC (S.
Mehboob & Company) Pakistan, and Pre-Cast Support Consultants are
JPC, USA.
I do not want myself to be seen anything like Athar Ali Khan, but today's performance of Pakistan team needs appreciation, because today's performance both with bat and ball made sure that Pakistan has slight chance of winning the second test while still a 55% chances of Bangladesh saving the match, which is also mentioned on Cricinfo but now time is the constraint as four sessions remain before Pakistan would be packing their bags for Pakistan, to play against Windies at Karachi.
Mystery Bowler in Sajid Khan
Newbie in Sajid Khan made sure that Bangladesh would be fighting to avoid following on
Pakistan got busy as soon as play commenced at 10:50am. They first
declaring on 300 for four, with half-centuries from Mohammad Rizwan and
Fawad Alam. Then, despite being hamstrung by the umpires' diktat that
play wouldn't continue if they operate with fast bowlers, Pakistan made
inroads with spin.
On Tuesday, play was called off at 4.30pm, an hour before scheduled
close. Conditions continued to remain murky all day. Yet, it was better
than on the three previous days where heavy rain allowed just 63.2 overs
to be bowled in the Test.
Sajid Khan's maiden six-wicket haul left Bangladesh in danger of being made to
follow-on with one day of the Dhaka Test to go. It remains to be seen if
the weather will halt Pakistan's push for full WTC points, though.
Debutant Mahmudul Hasan Joy tried to charge
off spinner Sajid, only managing to edge to slip. Then, Hasan Ali made
his presence felt at point, first with a simple catch to dismiss Shadman
Islam before running out Mominul Haque with a direct hit.
Mushfiqur
Rahim was the next to go, one ball after surviving a close lbw call, as
he tried to swing Sajid across the line with Fawad taking the catch at
short midwicket. Then, Liton Das, sent ahead of Shakib Al Hasan, tried
to attack Sajid but only hit one back to the bowler as Bangladesh
slipped to 46 for 5.
Sajid
then completed his five-for when he trapped Najmul Hossain Shanto for
30. Shanto couldn't capitalise on his reprieves, first being dropped on
13 and later when he was caught behind off a Nauman Ali no-ball.
Shakib
tried to bristle his way for runs, but Bangladesh kept losing wickets.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz became Sajid's sixth victim. Shakib and Taijul Islam
then survived 5.2 overs before play was called off.
Pakistan
had earlier declared their first innings on 300 immediately after Fawad
reached his second Test half-century. Rizwan made an unbeaten 53 off 94
balls, with the pair's unbroken fifth-wicket stand worth 103.
Rizwan
endured slices of luck; he was dropped on 30 apart from surviving two
lbw calls from the on-field umpires, both reversed through DRS.
Bangladesh
had started well with pacers Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed bowling
well in tandem, with the wickets of Azhar Ali and Babar Azam
respectively. It was Khaled's first Test wicket, having bowled 69.4
overs over three Tests since his debut in November 2018.
When it comes to the Ashes
Tomorrow at 5 am Pakistan time (+5 GMT) and likewise 12 am Greenwich Meridian Time, England would be locking horns against their rivals Australia in Australia, hence this is gonna be something to worth watching, if there were India-Pakistan games, only than I won't had taken that much of the interest, but whatever the circumstances, the longest cricket format is likely to be watchable either in Australia and/or England, just because of different factors,
the Crowd
Ambiance at ground
Production and broadcast quality and standard
On-Ground Theming
On-Ground theming
This is something many of my fellow Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan friends would be thinking that یہ لڑکا کیا اول فول بک رہا ہے but Australian, British and Proteas ground advertisement does complement their theming, unlike Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Lankan grounds, where use of theming colours on on-ground advertisement does look obnoxious because just imagine you're watching a game in either of the South Asian countries, instead of watching a complementary colour schema as yellow, orange, black etc are always seen, including India who're now incorporated with electronic on-ground advertisement, but still they way colour combinations are used during British, Australian, New Zealand and Proteas games, which is pleasing to the eyes.
One of the most anticipated series was the one between Australia and India in Australia where heavy usage of electronic advertisement was implemented. Along with the sporting excellence on display during the last two games between these two sides, technological brilliance is also witnessed by the sponsors.
In the first two one day international games, virtual advertisements have been used in Australia. The main sponsors of the series were not painted or laid down on the ground. The technology was used by the broadcast team to virtual embed these logos. In the past, sponsors used to get visibility when their big logos were painted in patches across the ground. However, technological advancement has made sure that there is no need to paint or lay down the carpets on the ground.
Dream11, Hero, Sensodyne, Ebco, IIFL, Amazon, Volkswagen were some of the brands that had virtual logos embedded during the one-day games between Australia and India. They were found on either sides of the playing pitch.
Virtual 3D logos are not being implemented for the first time in cricket grounds. In the past, virtual 3D logos have also been seen during India’s games in New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Considering the exposure on the television is not affected during the use of virtual 3D logos, brands are unlikely to be against using this technology. In the stadium, LED boards on the boundaries have also given another avenue to sponsors to explore without making any physical changes to the field.
However, the physical presence of logos is essential for the crowds in the stadiums. As of now, most of the games are played behind closed doors, so it does not make a big difference. Fans have been let in during the ODI series between India and Australia. It will be interesting to see whether they continue to use this approach when fans are completely back in the stadium.
Reports/rumours are erupting that the Proteas are expected and interested in touring Pakistan before their tour to India, means after the conclusion of Bangladesh tour to Pakistan, there is a break of ten days where they have managed to include this series where they'd play a T20I series in Pakistan. But again as I included in my previous post, are our infrastructure capable of handling such ventures? Except of Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore a.k.a. GSL, none of the stadiums in Pakistan meet-up with the standard, because the major cricketing fraternity has gone towards electronic scoreboards and electronic advertisements, and here we're staging the tours on manual advertisements, thanks to the Almighty Allah at least we're using at-least Electronic Scoreboards for signaling outs from the third umpire panels, otherwise I remember during SL tour to Pakistan in 2009 which was actually the last tour before the 2019 tour of the same country few months ago, we were still using red, yellow and green lights at that time when even in Sharjah Stadium I remember the electronic and digital scoreboard was used to show the decision. Therefore in order to generate market interest for the production teams to have the Pakistan cricket as innovative and ambitious cricket production package, we require to take these steps seriously in order to rejuvenate the interest of the game in the country, because THIS is the responsibility of the PCB to make sure, because this is what they've been paid for.
