The Hong Kong International Cricket Sixes, which captivated cricket fans from 1992 to 2017, is returning this November triumphantly after a seven-year gap. Hong Kong’s cricketing heritage dates back to 1842, when the first official game was played.
Cricket Hong Kong (CHK), an International Cricket Council (ICC) member, organizes the tournament. The event, scheduled from 1st to 3rd November 2024, will be held at Tin Kung Road Cricket Ground. Twelve countries will compete over three days.
Rules for the event:
Games are played between two teams of six players. Each game has a maximum of five six-ball overs for each team (eight-ball overs in the final match).
Each player on the fielding team, except the wicketkeeper, bowls one over. Wides and no-balls give two runs. If a team loses five wickets before finishing their five overs, the last batsman keeps batting, with the fifth batsman acting as a runner and always taking the strike. The innings ends when the sixth wicket falls.
Batsmen must retire when they reach 31 runs. A retired batter can return to bat after the lower-order batters are out or retire. A tournament point system gives two points for each match won.
The Hong Kong Sixes was put on hold in 2019 – and potentially cancelled forever – as Cricket Hong Kong (CHK) struggled to attract investors and considered shifting operations towards hosting tournaments that generate rankings for T20Is and ODIs.
Pakistan, England and South Africa are the most successful teams in this format, with five titles each.
Last time, in 2017, South Africa won the title, defeating Pakistan in the final.
The National Assembly on Tuesday approved a bill proposing amendments to the Elections Act 2017, to disallow lawmakers from changing their political party even as the opposition terms the legislation “unconstitutional”.
Last month, the Parliamentary Affairs Committee approved the bill tabled by Bilal Azhar Kiyani, a lawmaker from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
When it becomes a law, the bill might reverse the PTI’s return to the parliament after the party got significant relief from the Supreme Court’s verdict in the reserved seats case on July 12.
Since the landmark SC ruling, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has notified as many as 93 lawmakers from three provincial assemblies as PTI members.
‘We made Udaari and Mayi Ri in this country’: Rubina Ashraf defends Barzakh
The latest web series on Zee Zindagi, ‘Barzakh,’ directed and written by Asim Abbasi and starring Fawad Khan, Sanam Saeed, M Fawad Khan, and Salman Shahid, has generated heated debates on social media.
A possible queer character and bold storyline have not sat well with some viewers and artists. Veteran actress Rubina Ashraf has defended the show during an appearance on ‘Subh Saveray Samaa Ke Saath’ hosted by Madeha Naqvi. “We have made dramas on many topics that are considered taboos. We made Udaari and Mayi Ri in this country,” the A-lister said.
“We have even created dramas based on complex relationships. Dramas portray society as it is, not the other way around. Barzakh is a drama that also shows reality, with the characters having liberty to protect themselves from what is happening in this world,” Rubina added.
Famous singer Aima Baig has announced that she will start a nationwide ‘#MeToo’ campaign after her recent Umrah pilgrimage.
Aima shared her plans on Instagram, saying that her religious journey gave her new strength and purpose.
In her Instagram story, the songstress said that performing Umrah made her feel the need to help and protect women in Pakistan from harmful people.
“There are many people who have hurt young girls,” Aima said. “I stayed quiet before, but not anymore.”
Aima admitted she regrets not speaking up earlier, but now she is determined to lead a ‘#MeToo’ movement to give women a voice.
“I will speak up for women,” she declared. “We are not toys or jokes; we are important and deserve respect.”
Aima urged women to raise their voices against unfair treatment and abuse, pointing out that many girls suffer physically and mentally from mistreatment.
She promised to take action, saying, “I have a list of those who have wronged women. We will use evidence and support all women.”
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, resigned on Monday, fleeing the country as massive protests gripped the nation. The protests, that initially started as student protests against civil service job quotas metamorphosised into demands for Hasina to quit after more than 200 people were killed in violence.
Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, reacted to the developments by saying, “Bangladesh is going to become the next Pakistan.”
He also said that his mother is very disappointed in the people of Bangladesh “Because after all she’s done…after all the development.”
Siddhant Sibbal, correspondent at Wion News, asked Sajeeb whether his mother planned to return to power, to which he replied, “No, absolutely not. She is 77-years-old. This was going to be her last term, and she was going to retire after this anyway.”
The journalist asked Hasina’s son whether he had plans to join the politics of Bangladesh in future, to which he replied laughingly, “No. My family has been through this three times. After this, we are done. We are tired of saving Bangladesh. Bangladesh can handle its own problems now. It’s not our problem.”
Bangladesh’s military was in control of the country on Tuesday after mass protests forced longtime ruler Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee.
Hasina, 76, had been in power since 2009 but was accused of rigging elections in January and then watched millions of people take to the streets over the past month demanding she step down.
Hundreds of people died as security forces sought to quell the unrest, but the protests grew, and Hasina finally fled Bangladesh aboard a helicopter on Monday as the military turned against her.
Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Monday afternoon on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.
“The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed — it is time to stop the violence,” said Waker, shortly after jubilant crowds stormed and looted Hasina’s official residence.
“I feel so happy that our country has been liberated,” said Sazid Ahnaf, 21, comparing the events to the independence war that split the nation from Pakistan more than five decades ago.
“We have been freed from a dictatorship. It’s a Bengal uprising, what we saw in 1971, and now seeing in 2024.”
But there were also scenes of chaos and anger, with police reporting at least 66 people killed on Monday as mobs launched revenge attacks on Hasina’s allies.
Protesters stormed parliament and torched TV stations, while some smashed statues of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence hero.
Others set a museum dedicated to the former leader on fire, flames licking at portraits in destruction barely thinkable just hours before, when Hasina had the loyalty of the security forces under her autocratic grip.
“The time has come to make them accountable for torture,” said protester Kaza Ahmed. “Sheikh Hasina is responsible for murder.”
Offices of Hasina’s Awami League across the country were torched and looted, eyewitnesses told AFP.
The unrest began last month in the form of protests against civil service job quotas and then escalated into wider calls for Hasina to stand down.
Her government was accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
At least 366 people died in the unrest that began in early July, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.
Student protest leaders, ahead of an expected meeting with the army chief, said Tuesday that they wanted Nobel laureate and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus, 84, to lead the government.
“In Dr. Yunus, we trust,” Asif Mahmud, a key leader of the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) group, wrote on Facebook.
Waker said a curfew would be lifted on Tuesday morning, with the military set to lead an interim government.
Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin late Monday ordered the release of prisoners from the protests, as well as former prime minister and key opposition leader Khaleda Zia, 78.
Zia, who is in poor health, was jailed by her arch-rival Hasina for graft in 2018.
The president and army chief also met late Monday, alongside key opposition leaders, with the president’s press team saying it had been “decided to form an interim government immediately.”
It was not immediately clear if Waker would lead it.
Hasina’s fate was also uncertain. She fled the country by helicopter, a source close to the ousted leader told AFP.
Media in neighboring India reported Hasina had landed at a military air base near New Delhi.
A top-level source said she wanted to “transit” on to London, but calls by the British government for a UN-led investigation into “unprecedented levels of violence” put that into doubt.
There were widespread calls by protesters to ensure Hasina’s close allies remained in the country.
Bangladesh’s military said they had shut Dhaka’s international airport on Monday evening, without giving a reason.
Bangladesh has a long history of coups.
The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and installed a military-backed caretaker government for two years.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, warned that Hasina’s departure “would leave a major vacuum” and that the country was in “uncharted territory.”
“The coming days are critical,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the importance of a “peaceful, orderly and democratic transition,” his spokesman said. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed that call.
Former colonial ruler Britain and the United States meanwhile urged “calm.”
Renowned television host Mathira has many many years of work and life experience under her belt. She’s channeled all that into advise for men.
The mother of three, who has successfully balanced her career and single motherhood, talked about fitness, societal views on women, and the obsession with marriage in Pakistan. Mathira advised young men about the importance of personal growth and career stability before getting married.
“Our society is obsessed with marriages,” Mathira said during the podcast. “Men need to have a foundation first. Work on yourself and your career before you try to get married. Men should be able to provide for their wives when they get married.”
Protesters in Bangladesh have set fire to the house of Awami League MP and former cricket team captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
According to the local newspaper Daily Star, protesters also attacked the houses of Awami League parliamentarians and offices in other cities of Bangladesh. After a month of violent protests in the country and hundreds of deaths, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid resigned on Monday before leaving the country.
After her resignation, protesters set fire to her party headquarters in Gulistan, Dhaka. The incident took place at 4 p.m., during which time the protesters kept shouting slogans against Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League.
Around the same time, protesters set fire to 32 Dhaan Mandi, the personal residence of Bangladesh’s founder, Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman, which is now the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
Pictures of Italy’s swimming gold medalist at the Paris Olympics 2024, Thomas Ceccon, nicknamed ‘The Shark,’ sleeping in a park have gone viral.
There was a strange incident of malpractice by Olympic organizers when the gold medalist was forced to sleep in a park in Paris.
Thomas is seen lying on a towel on the grass next to a bench in search of a peaceful sleep shared by a fellow athlete from Team Saudi.
Saudi team member Husein Alireza shared the photo on his Instagram with the caption: “Rest today, conquer tomorrow” on Saturday and tagged the Olympic Village’s St. Denis location.
Husein wrote that Thomas came out after winning the gold medal in the men’s 100m backstroke.
The Bangladesh cricket team’s arrival in Pakistan has been delayed due to protests and the tense situation in Bangladesh. They were supposed to reach Islamabad on August 7, but this has now been postponed for 48 hours. There is a possibility of a change in the series schedule.
The spokesperson of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told DAWN, “PCB and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have been in contact for two consecutive days, and both the boards are working on the revision of the schedule.”
He said, “PCB has sent a message to the Bangladesh board that Pakistan’s law and order situation is much better than in Bangladesh, and the Bangladeshi team can train and practice extra before the Test series.”
However, the BCB has yet to respond to this offer.
