Wasim Akram To Work In USA As Coach

[Pakistani_Tiger]

It would be great to see teams from North & South America participate in Cricket

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/ok.gif

SOURCE

HOUSTON: Cricket super star and former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has applied for H-2 Visa to work as coach after his retirement in 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

Wasim in consultation with local organizers has applied for visa with US Immigration & Naturalisation Services (INS) to work as professional with a local company, sources told APP Monday.

Wasim’s family is currently based in Lahore and Manchester and will have to move to Houston if he is able to secure working visa to serve as coach and coordinator for cricketing purposes.

Cricket organizers will go for another double wicket contest next year here despite suffering losses, a spokesman of organizing committee told APP Monday.

“We are planning to bring more popular players to attract the local public” he said adding that they will also contact players from Australia, England and New Zealand to feature in the competition.

He hoped that more players will be coming to USA because several players will be free after World Cup-2003 in South Africa.

Meanwhile, **the USA Cricket Association and Canadian Cricket Association have reconfirmed the plan to stage a 2/3 day Canada against USA cricket match on turf wickets in the Metro Toronto area on Sept 7-8, 2002. **

Manitoba joins Alberta and BC in starting to play two day cricket. Their first game was this past weekend.

Canada also will play a three-day game against the visiting West Indies ‘A’ team in August in Metro Toronto.

International Regional Under-15 cricket tournament will be held in Orlando (Florida) next week, a USA Cricket Association (USACA) officials said Monday.

USA will be among the five countries which include Argentina, Canada, Brazil and Bermuda to take part in the tournament. This event at this age group will be a step forward towards promotion and development of sport in those countries.-Agencies

Courtesy: Dawn

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/hula.gif

TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT AT ME

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/hula.gif

[This message has been edited by Pakistani Tiger (edited July 28, 2002).]

[An_American_Angel]

USA would be playing Cricket after 2003.

Sounds exciting!

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/rotato.gif

[Ali_R]

No we dont need America to ruin this game.

---

“meRe SoOnE kE joOtE naHi." -- ShiNoO*© ...*
"yoUr comManD iS mY wiSH." -- ShiNoO*© ...*
"mE tO hooN hI BurRA." -- Ali_R 'n SHuJ*©*

[Spock]

Originally posted by Ali_R:
**No we dont need America to ruin this game.

**

Why do you hate them so much? Sports is for everyone jaani… May I remind you how well they performed in the soccer cup this year.

Atleast we dont have a hitler sitting there who would shoot his entire cricket team after watching 5 days of a cricket match

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/wink.gif

[Xpress]

AOA

Ali_r
If a country like USA gets involved in professional cricket and just imagine how much cricket you will see on TV.

You might not live in US but people like me who are hungr for the sport don't get much cricket here so if cricket is familiarized to the American media just imagine how much cricket there will be on ESPN.

---

[Sadiaa]

I'm soooooo glad to hear that there'll be Cricket in Toronto (in Sept 7-8) inshAllah.

I wish they can start a series like Sahara Cup again in Toronto.

[This message has been edited by Sadiaa (edited July 29, 2002).]

[heart_beat_1]

sounds like good news!!! anything to promote cricket and consequently pak too!!!

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/ok.gif

it would be fun to see pak beating usa..canada…

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/biggrin.gif

---

***I dunno where I’m going. I dunno what for. But I’m making progress.

---

[Ali_R]

Relax all of you guyz was just meant different then.......it will be very good for that sport maybe it can become a world famous sport.

---

“meRe SoOnE kE joOtE naHi." -- ShiNoO*© ...*
"yoUr comManD iS mY wiSH." -- ShiNoO*© ...*
"mE tO hooN hI BurRA." -- Ali_R 'n SHuJ*©*

[SunnyBoy]

[quote]
Originally posted by Ali_R:
**No we dont need America to ruin this game.

**
[/quote]

I agree ALI

They Will ruine the game to be NO.1

---

Owner of Mehkama-e-Sharafat
ô¿ô
.~.
Rude Boyz Rulez

[An_American_Angel]

Originally posted by Ali_R:
**No we dont need America to ruin this game. **

http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/hehe.gif

Yes, you do

[Spock]

I dont think cricket will be popular in the US even if its players perform very well... I mean their soccer team was doing wonders, and most of them didnt know about it, and if told they'd go, who cares, it soccer... Thats not the case when they are watching basketball or baseball (frankly i dont like the two games much)...

[Xpress]

***Houston proposal is a difficult task

Zaheer Abbas

The double-wicket tournament recently held in the American state of Houston is yet another indication of cricket going places. It all started, if I remember it right, with six-a-side competition in Hong Kong, and then came the Sharjah spot which really took off-shore cricket to new heights.

In the process, neutral venues came to be accepted as a routine thing, and, in the course of time, the International Cricket Council (ICC) also accorded official status to such venues. Almost within no time venues like Canada, Singapore and Kenya cropped up on the international horizon. The most recent addition to the list is Morocco where Pakistan is due to take part in a triangular competition in the coming weeks.

Though the Houston event is not part of the annual ICC itinerary, I read it with much interest that the organizers are planning to go big time, following in the footsteps of the Sharjah-based CBFS. I found it interesting because the proposition has come in the wake of the controversy that has hit neutral venues in recent times. I tend to take Morocco as an exception because it is being managed, at least partially, by those running the show in Sharjah. But developing Houston on similar lines sounds like a risky business proposition, to say the least.

What might have interested the organisers in Houston, I guess, is the similarity between Sharjah and Texas, the state of which Houston is a part. The emirate of Sharjah and the state of Texas both have a large expatriate population from Pakistan and India. In the case of the latter, there may well be a lot of West Indians as well, and a reasonable population of people belonging by birth to countries where cricket happens to be a popular sport. So the love of the game is there. Agreed. But there the similarity ends.

That the required infrastructure could be made available is also not in doubt. Naturally, the organizers would not have gone public about their plans without having taken care of the costs involved, and how to cover such costs. What is also not in doubt is that the organizers would always find players - and, subsequently, national teams - who would love to play in the new environs. All this is perfectly manageable. But then comes the dicey part of the deal over which the organizers would have little say, if at all.

The way things have changed on the global platform in the last about twelve months, I guess the biggest hurdle would be visa and travelling arrangements. This is not for me to say whether it is appropriate or otherwise, but things on the ground suggest in ample measures that the United States of America is not particularly keen on having visitors from abroad, not from the subcontinent at least.

The double-wicket tournament in Houston itself was affected by such hurdles when not all the invitees could make it to the event as visa formalities could not be completed ahead of schedule.

Going by media reports, Pakistan’s Wasim Akram is set to take up the challenge once he decides to hang his boots. But, more than the game itself, it would be global politics and its various currents, under-currents and cross-currents that would determine the fate of the Houston proposal, or so I think.***

---