Former captain Mohammad Yousuf has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for holding the national T20 championship before the World Cup 2015.

“I don’t understand the logic behind having the national T20 event at this time when we are hardly going to play two or three T20 matches against Australia and New Zealand before the World Cup,” Yousuf said on Geo Super channel.

“It would have been more sensible to have a 50 overs one-day event at this stage instead of T20 cricket. Because we are going to play maximum one-day games before the World Cup,” Yousuf said.

The national T20 championship for regional teams is scheduled to be held from September 17 to 28th in Karachi after which the Pakistan team will fly to the UAE for its “home” series against Australia and New Zealand.

Pakistan will be playing eight ODIs against the two teams in the UAE.

Yousuf said that Pakistan was facing a real problem in its batting before the World Cup.

“All this talk about promoting youngsters has led to this problem in the batting department. I blame some of the former players and media who keep on stressing the need to have young players. My vision is clear that anyone no matter what age performs should be in the team,” he stated.

Yousuf pointed out that even in the ongoing Champions League in India, the batting had been exposed.

“Our batsmen are facing problems in staying at the wicket. For some time now our batsmen are struggling to play the full 50 overs and yet we have no one-day tournament before the World Cup,” the senior batsman noted.

Yousuf said that the youngsters had learnt nothing from their predecessors.

“In cricket you need to stay at the wicket and keep on scoring runs to do well in one-day cricket and our current form and approach in this format needs rapid improvement or we will face problems in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand,” Yousuf said.

“And I don’t think by making the players in contention for the World Cup play in T20 format the board is helping the cause of the team.”

Yousuf said at this stage it didn’t matter who the board appointed as captain of the national T20 side.

“Right now we just need to focus on one-day cricket and I think the board needs to just give Shahid Afridi this responsibility for both formats. Shahid should also I think now make it clear he plans to retire after the World Cup if given the captaincy,” he added.

He was also critical off the disorganized manner in which the domestic event was being organized.

“Sometimes you get the feeling that no one really cares in the board what happens to Pakistan cricket,” Yousuf said.

-IBN

Kumar Sangakkara has reached his 37th hundred  at the first test match, which is currently underway in Galle against Pakistan.

Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene came together for their 18th century partnership in Tests, moving two short of the record of 20 set by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.

Sangakkara made his 37th hundred, Jayawardene his 49th fifty. It was Sangakkara’s tenth century against Pakistan, making him the seventh batsman to do so against a team.

All this was squeezed into 20 overs as periodic showers ate into an extended second session, and a threatening dark cloud forced tea to be taken five minutes early.

Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene confidently took  Sri Lanka to 252 for two at tea on the third day of the first test against Pakistan.

In a press briefing, the UNHCR claims that a total of 36 Pakistani asylum seekers have been deported from Sri Lanka since last Friday, adding that more could follow, including women and children.

UNHCR Spokesperson Ariane Rummery said that they urge the authorities to stop the deportations and grant them access to refugees and asylum seekers still detained in Colombo.

The deportations reportedly took place between August 1 and 5 following two months of arrests and detentions of people of concern to UNHCR.

The refugee agency added that most of the deportees arrived in Pakistan and had been released, but noted that they were unable to monitor their return conditions.

They have therefore appealed to the Sri Lankan authorities to respect the principle of non-refoulement by not sending people back to a place where their lives could be in danger without the opportunity to assess their needs for international protection.

UNHCR meanwhile states that 205 Pakistani, Afghan and Iranian refugees and asylum seekers remain in detention in Sri Lanka.

Foreign media reports that the PIA passenger jet which was targeted was an Airbus A310 with 178 passengers on board

Gunmen fired on a Pakistan International Airlines flight Tuesday after it landed in Peshawar, killing one passenger and injuring a flight attendant, said airline spokesman Mashood Tajwar.

Flight 756 left Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with 170 passengers on board.

The plane was fired on after landing at Bacha Khan International Airport. Passengers were still inside the aircraft.

Police and security forces have cordoned off the area and are searching for attackers. The airport remained open, said Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abid Qaimkhan.

No one has claimed responsibility.

Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar is often targeted by militants.

Two rockets landed at the airport on April 28, damaging a runway. No one was killed in that attack.

Uncertainty looms over the planned tours by Ireland and Sri Lankan cricket teams to Pakistan this year following the terrorist attacks at the Karachi airport here.

“We were going to sign an agreement with the Ireland cricket body on the sidelines of the ICC executive board meeting in Melbourne this month. They had agreed to come and play three one-day internationals in Lahore in September,” a senior official of the board told PTI.

“We had also got positive vibes from Sri Lankan cricket authorities about the invitation we sent them last month to come and play a short one-day series anytime this year.”

“But now, after this attack, it would be fair to say these projects appear very dim,” the official added.

He said the idea to invite Ireland came about as the board was keen to have some sort of international cricket in Pakistan.

“The English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman Giles Clarke had played a part in helping us in this project and convincing Ireland it was safe to play in Pakistan and we would provide them top security,” he said.

“But now it appears everything has gone down the drain,” he said.

No Test team has played in Pakistan since March 2009, when militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in which six Pakistani policemen and a van driver were killed and some of the visiting players also wounded leading to abandonment of the tour.

PCB chairman Najam Sethi had in recent press interactions hinted at giving some good news to Pakistani cricket fans and supporters and insisted the board was making serious efforts to get international cricket back to Pakistan.

Another official said the Sri Lankans had also reacted positively to the invitation sent to them.

“Now we have to start afresh and this incident also means that now when we go to the ICC meeting to sign bilateral agreements with different boards for the next five to eight years it will be hard convincing them to keep the option of playing in Pakistan open,” the official said.

He said Pakistan had negotiated well with some boards who had agreed to play bilateral series as part of the new FTP calender.

PTI

Rescuers are trying to reach cargo workers who remain trapped inside a cold storage facility at Karachi’s international airport a day after a deadly militant attack there.

Authorities are working to rescue seven employees from a private cargo company, said Sindh province Gov. Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan.

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said at least five cargo workers were missing. An airport spokesman said two cargo worker’s bodies had been found in a cold storage compartment.

Families of the missing workers had reportedly blocked a busy road leading to the airport, demanding that authorities help find their relatives.

“We will work to investigate any negligence in rescue efforts by the authorities and those found guilty of negligence will be punished accordingly,” Khan said.

The rescue operation unfolded nearly a day after terrorists entered Jinnah International Airport at two spots with a plan to destroy a group of parked airplanes and “bring down our aviation industry,” according to the Pakistani government.

It was late Sunday night, and the militants were armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests. They went into the cargo area, about a kilometer (0.62 miles) from where commercial planes take off.

In a “heroic” effort, security forces “laid down their lives” to block the terminal and stop the attackers, surrounding them and killing all of them, the prime minister’s office said.

There were 10 terrorists, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said, and two of them detonated suicide vests.

By the time the attack was over, officials said 29 people were dead, including 10 militants. Another 24 people were injured, the military said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault on the country’s largest and busiest airport.

Speaking from an undisclosed location, Pakistani Taliban commander Abdullah Bahar said the attack was retaliation for the death of former chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November in North Waziristan.

Bahar warned more attacks will follow.

“As long as we are breathing, our attacks will be continuing ’til the end of our lives,” he vowed.

CNN

Sri Lankan Air Lines Flight UL 138 from Colombo to Karachi, Pakistan, that was due to depart at 1.00 p.m. Monday has been canceled following the attack on the Karachi Airport.

Sri Lankan Airlines Public Relations Manager Deepal Perera noted that they have been informed that the Karachi Airport has been temporarily closed, and that flights will resume once the airport reopens.

Pakistan’s security forces said Monday they have relaunched a military operation at Karachi airport as gunfire resumed several hours after they announced the end of a militant siege that left 24 dead.

“We have relaunched the operation and called in additional troops,” said Sibtain Rizvi, spokesman for the Rangers paramilitary force, adding that one police officer had been injured in the firing.

On Sunday night, heavily armed militants launched an assault on Pakistan’s busiest airport in the southern city of Karachi, leaving at least 24 dead including 10 militants in a six-hour siege that the army quelled at dawn today. (See pics)

Explosions and gunfire rang out as the attackers, equipped with suicide vests, grenades and rocket launchers, battled security forces in one of the most brazen attacks in years in Pakistan’s biggest city.

Authorities said all 10 militants had been killed and that the bodies of 14 victims, including security personnel and four airport workers, had been identified at the city’s main hospital.

“Update: Area cleared. No damage to aircraft, fire visible in pics was not plane but a building, now extinguished. All vital assets intact,” military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a tweet.

The attack will raise fresh concerns about Pakistan’s shaky security situation, and questions about how militants were able to penetrate Jinnah International Airport, which serves one of the world’s biggest cities.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but it came as talks between Pakistan and the Taliban, which began earlier this year, hit an impasse.

Officials said the gunmen entered from two sides of the airport at around 11:00 pm on Sunday — the terminal used for the hajj pilgrimage, and an engineering section close to an old terminal that is no longer in use.

NDTV

Twenty-three persons are reported to have died after heavily armed gunmen attacked Pakistan’s international airport, in Karachi.

According to foreign media, the siege is reported to be over.

Clashes at Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport left more than 20 people dead after militants armed with grenades stormed into a cargo area Sunday.

Violence erupted at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi around 11:30 p.m. Sunday and raged on for more than five hours as security forces fought off attackers, leaving some passengers trapped inside the airport.

Officials at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi said the dead included eight members of airport security forces, two Pakistan International Airlines employees and one ranger.

Ten militants were also killed in the clashes, said Niaz Abbasi, home secretary of Sindh province. The attack ended Monday morning, and authorities were securing the area, Abbasi said.

It was not immediately clear who the militants were or why they staged the assault.

Clashes broke out after attackers armed with grenades stormed the airport through three entrances, said Ahmad Chinoy, director-general of the citizen’s police liaison committee.

One militant blew himself up in front of an armored car, leaving some people inside the vehicle critically injured, Chinoy said.

A plume of smoke rose over the airport as fires raged in at least two locations. Dozens of ambulances were lined up as police and military troops swarmed the area.

A cargo plane was damaged and set ablaze in the fighting, Chinoy said. The airport’s cargo area is about a kilometer (0.62 miles) away from the area where commercial planes take off.

Foreign Media

Clashes at Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport left more than 20 people dead after militants armed with grenades stormed into a cargo area Sunday.

Two terrorists have been killed while three personnel from the Airport Security Force (ASF) and one each from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have been killed following an armed attack at the Karachi airport.

According to initial reports, four armed attackers hurled grenades and opened fire as they entered the tarmac from fokker gate. This led to an exchange of fire between ASF personnel and the gunmen.

Gunshots and blasts were being heard with intervals outside the airport and flight operations have been suspended.

Two planes were partially damaged in the terrorist attack. TV footage showed one of the planes had caught fire.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif contacted DG Rangers Rizwan Akhtar and directed him to ensure safety of all the passengers at the airport.

Pakistan Army personnel have also arrived to assist ASF and other Law Enforcement Agencies.

According to DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, Pakistan Army troops have started reaching the airport and taking positions. In a series of tweets the DG ISPR added that proper coordination has being ensured for optimum effect and the DG Rangers was present at the airport leading the operation. He added that the operation was being supervised by Corps Commander.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has ordered an inquiry into the attack.

Emergency has been declared at Jinnah, Civil and Abbasi Shaheed Hospitals.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah arrived at the airport after the reports of attack.

-GeoTV