RAWALPINDI-Satellite Town Princess won the 1st Rawalpindi Region Women Floodlight Cricket Tournament title, after thrashing Muslim Town Queens by 48 runs in the final played here at Viqar-un-Nisa Government College Stadium on late Sunday night.

Former MNA M Hanif Abbasi was supposed to attend the prize distribution ceremony, but due to domestic problem, he could not turn up, while Rawalpindi Region head coach Sabih Azhar, Sajid Shah, international cricketer Masood Anwar, Viqar-un-Nisa Principal Miss Mufti, Rawalpindi Women Wing coordinator Najma Anwar, DSO Rawalpindi Abdul Waheed Babar and a sizable crowd were also present on the occasion.

It was very for the very first time in the history that a female cricket tournament was organised under floodlights and that too at very first women cricket stadium of Rawalpindi, in which four teams including hosts Viqar-un-Nisa Malikas, Saddiqabad Mahranis, Muslim Town Queens and Satellite Town Princess participated.

Satellite Town opted to bat first in the 15-over-aside final, which was reduced due to hot and humid conditions. Satellite Town posted massive 125-5 on the board in the allotted overs. Badar-un-Nisa hammered unbeaten 52 with the help of two fours. Muslim Town started their run-chase in style, as openers slammed 54 runs in only six overs, but once both openers were removed in the seventh over, Muslim Town remaining batters failed to keep the momentum and were reduced to 83-5 in 15 overs.

Badr-un-Nisa was named player of the final and tournament, while Fatima was named the best bowler of the tournament. The chief guest distributed prizes among the players and teams.

Sharing his views, Rawalpindi Region head coach Sabih Azhar termed Hanif Abbasi as the godfather of Rawalpindi cricket. He was full of praise for Abbasi, who at a time, when Rawalpindi had only three cricket grounds including Pindi Stadium, KRL and Pasban, and were unavailable for youth, gifted for more cricket grounds, one international standard hockey stadium named after great Shahnaz Sheikh, one football stadium, one multipurpose ground and a number of other sports projects in the pipeline which also included international standard swimming pool at Rawal Road.

He added that now Rawalpindi youth had the a luxury of having three cricket grounds, which also included floodlights at Mulsim High School, Jamia High School and Satellite Town College, while Viqar-un-Nisa cricket ground was especially allocated for females.

“Abbasi deserves all the credit for taking massive amount of funds from Punjab Chief Minister just for sports purposes, which were badly ignored in the past. The stadium is already helping females a great deal, as the way females are turning up in such a number is quite heartening and parents also deserve credit for allowing their daughters to showcase their skills,” Sabih said.

“The basic aim of conducting the event was to provide females of Rawalpindi with an opportunity to showcase their talent and it would also help finding fresh talent for national women team. I am very happy to witness such a talent. Two or three players have the experience of playing cricket, while rest of the players hardly played in stadium in their entire lives. We have deputed top coaches with all the four teams and gave them proper training prior to the start of the tournament.

“After Eid, we have planned to conduct trials after inviting females from entire region, then we will shortlist 30 players and establish two teams, which will play against each other before the Rawalpindi Region team will be finalised for national women championship,” he maintained.

“The Viqar-un-Nisa Women Cricket stadium is in perfect shape and need minor changes, the dressing room is especially world class and ground is also level, while pitch is also very supportive for both batters and bowlers, grass need to be levelled and some work on up-gradation is also required. I must give credit to Viqar-un-Nisa principal for taking wonderful care of the stadium and bucking up girls to participate in healthy activities. I am sure very soon this venue can be utilised for hosting national women championships,” Sabih concluded.