Quetta Gladiators sign title sponsorship deal with Jubilee Life

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Quetta Gladiators, a Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise, has signed title sponsorship deal with a leading private insurance firm for the second edition of the tournament starting in less than a couple of weeks time. 

The signing ceremony between the two parties was witnessed by capacity crowd in the hall of Movenpick Hotel, Karachi, where it was held on January 30. The top management of the PSL franchise alongwith some of their players and coach Moin Khan, who is also a former Pakistan captain. 

The Quetta Gladiators skipper, Sarfraz Ahmed, who is also the Pakistan T20 skipper and tipped to become the leader in all three formats in not too distant future, however, was unable to make it due to personal reasons. 

Nadeem Omar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Omar Associates (Pvt) Ltd, which owns Quetta Gladiators, was particularly pleased at signing the title sponsorship deal with Jubilee Life Insurance. 

�Jubilee Life is a dynamic young corporate entity which takes pride in long term relationships. Our successive meetings with them over the past few weeks to finalize the matters reflected their positive approach,� he noted.

�Our squad has a lot of young faces who make up for their inexperience with their aggression and high level of commitment. We may have entered the inaugural PSL as the underdogs but our boys excelled in the field to storm into the final. Now our aim will be to bring home the trophy,� Nadeem Omar remarked. 

He paid glowing tributes to Moin Khan, the coach of Quetta Gladiators, for having put the acts together so nicely, also acknowledging the services of Azam Khan, the manager besides complimenting Sarfraz Ahmed for leading by example.

Javed Ahmed, Managing Director, Jubilee Life Insurance, lavished Quetta Gladiators for emerging as a popular brand right away with their brilliant craftsmanship. 

�Your team has worked wonders in a short span of time and we appreciate your brilliance. We look forward to working with you for a long time to achieve our mutual objective of putting Pakistan cricket on top of the world,� he observed. 

The ceremony was also attended by the President of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), Prof Ejaz Ahmed Farooqui, and the Chairman of the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA), Fawad Ijaz Khan.

Jubilee National Junior Snooker Championship 2015 from Jan 5

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Quite a few newcomers will be trying their luck in the seventh edition of the Jubilee Insurance National Junior (Under-21) Snooker Championship 2015 which cues off at the Movenpick Hotel in Karachi on January 5.

According to the draws released by the Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association (PBSA), the 30 participating cueists, representing all the four provinces and the federal capital, have been divided in eight groups. 

The Group A comprises of Abdul Rahim (Punjab), Khushi Mohammad (Balochistan) and Sanaullah Sattar (Sindh) while the Group B contains Ali Zaman Khan (Sindh), Junaid Babar (KPK) and Haris Tahir (Punjab). 

The quartet of Ahsan Wakeel (KPK), Mohammad Ibrahim (Balochistan), Sameer Khan (Sindh) and Mohammad Ali (Punjab) constitute the Group C while Nouman Iqbal (Islamabad), Hazratullah (KPK), Mohammad Afzal (Punjab) and Junaid Ali (Sindh) feature in the Group D. 

The Group E is composed of Taimoor Aftab (Balochistan), Sameer-ul-Hassan (Sindh), Mohammad Azam (KPK) and Mohammad Saqib (Punjab) while the Group F has the presence of Fahad Khan (Sindh), Saifullah (Punjab), Athar Ali (Balochistan) and Umar Javed (KPK). 

Mohammad Fahim (Punjab), Mohammad Hassan Anwar (Islamabad), Tanvir Baloch (Sindh) and Rabi-ul-Hasan (Balochistan) have been drawn in the Group G while Mohammad Kashif (KPK), Mohammad Adil (Balochistan), Aamir Tariq (Punjab) and Gawish Khan (Sindh) are included in the Group H. 

The qualifying round matches will be best-of-five frame encounters while the pre-quarter-finals and the quarter-finals will be best-of-seven frame contests. The semifinals will be best-of-nine frame fixtures while the final will be best-of-11 frame clash. 

The league matches, starting on January 5, will be spread over three days at the end of which the top two cueists from each groups will be qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition, starting with the pre-quarter-finals on January 8 The six-day event will be concluding with the final and the prize distribution ceremony on January 10. 

The championship, being sponsored by the Jubilee Insurance Group, offers prize money of Rs 130,000 with the winner to collect Rs 50,000 and the runner-up to get Rs 25,000. The losing semifinalists will be receiving Rs 15,000 each and the losing quarter-finalists will be compensated with Rs 5,000 each. The highest break award will earn a purse of Rs 5,000. 

The PBSA has declared that both the finalists of the event will qualify to represent the country in the Asian Under-21 Championship 2015 to be staged in China in April, as well as in the World Under-21 Championship to be held in the second half of the year. 

The PBSA, pursuant to its policy of encouraging the promising youngsters, has also decided to let the four semifinalists of the National Junior Championship to compete in the all the four national ranking tournaments of the year.