MA Shah, Ahmed Mustafa receive ICC awards

KARACHI Sindh Sports Minister Dr Muhammad Ali Shah and Ahmed Mustafa, the man who ran free of cost first cricket coaching centre in the city for over 20 years, were among 19 individuals of Quetta and Karachi/Sindh region who were awarded ICC Centenary Volunteers medals here on Thursday at a simple ceremony held at the National Stadium. Under the scheme launched, the ICC has given volunteers awards in connection with his centenary celebrations to those individuals who had contributed to the promotion and development of the game in their respective regions. A number of individuals including one who had just done nothing but sold sports gear was also awarded. This has happened because the ICC involved respective national cricket boards who in turn advised their regional bodies to suggest the names of persons who deserved the award. The regional bodies forwarded the names of some of the individuals whom they wanted to favour. The award was also given posthumously to Gul Hameed Bhatti (late), an established cricket statistician association who also served as sports journalist and Alamgir Ahmed, a local businessman who was actively involved for years in organising and promoting inter-school cricket. Dr Muhammad Ali Shah constructed Muhammad Ali Shah Cricket Stadium named after his late father. The facility was later selected to host PCB organised domestic first class matches. Ahmed Mustafa, a contemporary of great Hanif Muhammad, established countrys first cricket coaching centre on a plot of land given free by his family friend Nazar Alam in Soldier Bazar area. The coaching centre remained active for over 20 years and during that period, it produced two Test stars Faisal Iqbal and Owais Shah (England). These two players attended the classes supervised by Ahmed Mustafa as young under-12 lads. As many as 14 players who attended Cricket Coaching Centre went on to play first class cricket for Karachi. Other prominent players produced by the centre were Azam Khan and SM Hasnain who led Pakistan under-19 cricket team in New Zealand. He did not charge a single penny from those who came to his academy. He provided them with playing kits. His well do friends provided him support in kind by providing balls and cricket bats which were distributed amongst the young trainees between the age of 12 and 14. He had to discontinue the centre because of bad health. Alamgir Ahmed was actively involved in organising national inter-school championship for a number of years. As many as 50 individuals from all over Pakistan recommended by the PCB and its regional associations had received the awards. An award giving ceremony was held at Lahore some time in the past in which 29 persons of Punjab and NWFP were given the awards. The second function to give away ICC awards was held here on Thursday. PCB COO Wasim Bari and member of PCB executive board Wazir Ali Khoja gave away the awards. Following person were awarded on the occasion: Mrs Tahira Hameed (Karachi) Yawar Aziz (Quetta) Muhammad Khair (Quetta) Babu Muhammad Hassan Jamaldini (Naushki) Ghulam Hussain (Naseerabad) Abdur Raheem (Turbat) Pervaiz Ahmed Chandio (Dadu) Agha Javed Ahmed (Sukkur) Nissar Ahmed (Hyderabad) Syed Sirajul Islam Bukhari (Karachi) Dr. Muhammad Ali Shah (Karachi) Muhammad Ishaq Patel (Karachi) Ahmed Mustafa (Karachi) Mahboob Shah (Karachi) Alamgir Ahmed (Karachi) Aftab Ahmed (Karachi) Zafar Ahmed (Karachi) Kamil Bhatti S/o Gul Hameed Bhatti Late Karachi Saleem Karim (Karachi).