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Balochistan cricket team

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Baluchistan cricket team, representing the province of Baluchistan, are a first-class cricket team in Pakistan.

Cricket in Baluchistan

In his history of Pakistan cricket Peter Oborne notes that Baluchistan province "has been wracked by insurgencies for many years" and cricket "has (for understandable reasons) never made much headway. No Baluchi cricketer has ever won international honours." Owing to the security situation, no first-class cricket matches have been played in Baluchistan since 2008.[1]

Cricket teams of Baluchistan province

In the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy and other first-class tournaments in Pakistan, Baluchistan province has usually been represented since the 1957-58 season by the Quetta cricket team, except for two matches in 1969-70 when a team from Kalat also played (losing both their matches). There were no first-class teams at all from Baluchistan province between 1987 and 2002, when Quetta's first-class status was in abeyance.

Baluchistan have played seven matches in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy (one in 1954-55, six between 1972-73 and 1978-79) and 18 matches in the Pentangular Cup between 2007-08 and 2011-12. Of their 25 matches they have won 4, lost 17, and drawn 4.

A Rest of Baluchistan team played at first-class level in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy in 2001-02. Their name distinguished them from Quetta, although Quetta at the time were playing only at the sub-first-class level of the Trophy.[2] Rest of Baluchistan won 1 match, lost 3, and drew 4.

Altogether, at the end of 2013, the four Baluchistan province teams – Quetta, Kalat, Baluchistan, and Rest of Baluchistan – had played 168 matches, with 24 wins, 99 losses, and 45 draws.

Baluchistan's playing history

1950s

In 1954-55 Baluchistan played one match in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, losing to Sind by 53 runs at the Racecourse Ground, Quetta. They were captained by Athar Khan,[3] who made 36 and 57 and took two wickets.[4]

A combined Railways and Baluchistan team played the MCC in Multan in 1955-56, losing by an innings. None of the team had played for Baluchistan in the 1954-55 match.

1970s

Each season from 1972-73 to 1978-79 (except for 1975-76 when they conceded without playing) Baluchistan played one match in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. They lost all six matches, five of them by an innings and the other by 259 runs. They were dismissed for under 100 seven times. Their lowest total was 53 (followed by 77 in the second innings) against National Bank of Pakistan (476 for 6 declared) in 1974-75. They dismissed their opponents only once.

In 1973-74 they conceded a total of 951 for 6 declared to Sind, Aftab Baloch scoring 428. He made 200 not out for National Bank against Baluchistan in 1974-75, giving him a career average of 628.00 against Baluchistan.[5] Sind's victory margin in the 1973-74 match, an innings and 575 runs, is one of the highest in the history of first-class cricket.

Shahid Fawad[6] was Baluchistan's most successful batsman in this period. He played four matches, scoring 32 not out (top score) and 25 (top score) in 1972-73,[7] and 33 (second-top score) and 94 (top score, and Baluchistan's top score in the 1970s) against Sind in 1978-79.[8]

In 1978-79 a "North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan" team played the touring Indians in a drawn first-class match in Peshawar. The team actually included no players from Baluchistan teams or from Baluchistan province.[9]

1980s

Three first-class matches between a Baluchistan Governor's XI and visiting international teams were held in the late 1980s at the Ayub National Stadium in Quetta: the West Indians won by an innings and 89 runs in 1986-87; the Australians drew in 1988-89; and Sri Lanka B drew later the same season. In each case the Baluchistan Governor's XI consisted mostly of local players, augmented with some prominent players from other parts of Pakistan.

A team of Pakistan international players played as the Baluchistan Governor's XI in a 40-over match against the touring Indians in 1982-83, also at the Ayub National Stadium. The Indians won.[10]

2001-02

Rest of Baluchistan began their only season of first-class cricket reasonably well, drawing their first three matches and winning their fourth. In the first match the captain, Nasim Khan, scored the team's only century, 104[11] and he finished the season as the highest run-scorer, with 471 runs in the eight matches at an average of 31.40. He later captained Quetta.

In the fourth match, a victory by 24 runs over Hyderabad,[12] the opening bowler Waqas Chughtai[13] took 7 for 75 and 4 for 45, the best innings and match figures for Rest of Baluchistan. Chughtai was the team's leading wicket-taker, with 21 at 31.76 in six matches.

Of Rest of Baluchistan's last four matches, three were lost by an innings and one drawn.

Rest of Baluchistan's third notable player was the all-rounder Naseer Khan,[14] who made his first-class debut in the first match. He led the team's batting averages with 393 runs in seven matches at 39.30 and came second in the bowling averages with 16 wickets at 32.75. Like Nasim Khan, he was born in Quetta.

2006-07

In 2006-07 a combined North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan team was one of the three provincial teams that played in the annual first-class pentangular tournament. They won one match, lost two and drew one, finishing last. Of the 19 players, six – Arun Lal, Shoaib Khan, Jalat Khan, Sabir Hussain, Umar Javed and Faisal Irfan – were from Baluchistan province.

2008 to 2012

The pentangular tournament was revamped in 2007-08 as a competition for the four provinces and the Federal Areas around Islamabad. In order to make the competition even, "the Pakistan Cricket Board selected the top 75 Quaid-e-Azam players plus 20 juniors and divided them [among the five teams], mostly on a regional basis but reallocating some to strengthen the weaker sides."[15] The competition has so far been conducted in this format four times, in 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11 and 2011-12. Most of Baluchistan's players in this tournament have actually come from Punjab province.

In 2007-08, of the 20 players Baluchistan fielded, only five – Nasim Khan (the captain), Shoaib Khan, Jalat Khan, Nazar Hussain and Faisal Irfan – were from Baluchistan province. The leading player was Saeed Bin Nasir, who scored 409 runs in the four matches at an average of 58.42, with two centuries.[16] But Baluchistan lost all four matches, three of them by an innings.

In 2008-09, with only three players from Baluchistan province – Nasim Khan, Shoaib Khan and Nazar Hussain – but an otherwise largely unchanged side, Baluchistan finished second after the preliminary rounds and played off in the final. They lost their first match by an innings, but then defeated Sind by six wickets, drew against Punjab, and scored 393 for 8 in the second innings to beat Federal Areas by two wickets.[17] North-West Frontier Province then beat them in a close final by 28 runs.[18]

After a season in which the pentangular tournament was played by different teams, it reverted to an inter-provincial competition in 2010-11. Baluchistan won one match, drew two and lost one, and again played off in a closely fought final, losing to Sind this time by six wickets,[19] the captain, Abdur Rauf, scoring 45 and 19 and taking 6 for 143 and 4 for 91. Once again only three players were from Baluchistan province – Jalat Khan, Shoaib Khan and Nazar Hussain.

In 2011-12 Baluchistan won one match, lost two (both by an innings) and drew one, and finished third. Arun Lal and Bismillah Khan were the only players from Baluchistan province. The pentangular tournament has not been played since 2011-12.

A 50-over provincial pentangular tournament was also held in 2008-09 and 2009-10. The Baluchistan Bears came fifth in 2008-09 with one win and three losses. They rose to second in 2009-10 with three wins and one loss, and played off in the final, losing to the Sind Dolphins. In 2009-10 Rameez Alam won two man-of-the-match awards, and Zulfiqar Babar one, when he took 6 for 10 from eight overs to enable the Baluchistan Bears to defend a total of only 149 against the Punjab Stallions.[20]

Grounds

Baluchistan played two Quaid-i-Azam Trophy games at the Racecourse Ground, Quetta, and have played one home game in the Pentangular Cup, at the same ground under its current name, Bugti Stadium. The Rest of Baluchistan team did not play any home games. The Baluchistan Governor's XI played all their four games at the Ayub National Stadium in Quetta.

Current Squad

References

  1. ^ Peter Oborne, Wounded Tiger: The History of Cricket in Pakistan, Simon & Schuster, London, 2014, pp. 418-20.
  2. ^ Wisden 2003, pp. 1504-05.
  3. ^ Athar Khan at Cricket Archive
  4. ^ Baluchistan v Sind 1954-55
  5. ^ Aftab Baloch batting by opponent
  6. ^ Shahid Fawad at Cricket Archive
  7. ^ Pakistan International Airlines v Baluchistan 1972-73
  8. ^ Sind v Baluchistan 1978-79
  9. ^ North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan v Indians 1978-79
  10. ^ Baluchistan Governor's XI v Indians 1982-83
  11. ^ Rest of Sind v Rest of Baluchistan 2001-02
  12. ^ Hyderabad v Rest of Baluchistan 2001-02
  13. ^ Waqas Chughtai at Cricket Archive
  14. ^ Naseer Khan at Cricket Archive
  15. ^ Wisden 2009, p. 1231.
  16. ^ Pentangular Cup 2007-08 Baluchistan batting
  17. ^ Federal Areas v Baluchistan 2008-09
  18. ^ North-West Frontier Province v Baluchistan 2008-09
  19. ^ Baluchistan v Sind 2010-11
  20. ^ Baluchistan Bears v Punjab Stallions 2009-10
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