Red Bull brings street cricket to prominence in Karachi

Karachi Sports won the inaugural Red Bull Street Cricket tournament that took place at Hill Park in Karachi.

Street cricket offers a momentous occasion for young Pakistani cricket followers. Red Bull took an initiative for such enthusiasts by arranging street cricket in a bid to showcase national talent.

The tournament arranged by Red Bull got massive response from Karachi’s street denizens because of the popularity of the sport.

The event had 32 teams representing all corners of Karachi including Defence, Clifton, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, PECHS and North Nazimabad.

To make the matches more exciting the rules of the tournament were tweaked in accordance with the ground dimensions. The rules included one runs by hitting leg side boundary, two runs for hitting the off side boundary, batsman was dismissed if the ball goes directly over the boundary on the off side, fours and sixes were given for hitting the ball towards the straight boundary.

In the duration of the innings both sides were given two super-balls each. If the bowling team took a wicket on a super ball, the team on the batting side would lose five runs. On the other hand the batting side doubled the amount of runs scored, when they chose the option for the super ball.

In the final match Karachi Sports defeated Model Sports by six wickets. Best bowling award was presented to Muhammad Zohaib from Karachi Sports whereas best batsman award was snapped up by Asad Shah from Model Sports.

Former Pakistan cricket team captain Moin Khan appreciated the initiative taken by Red Bull and was glad to see a people turn up in numbers to support the event.

“Red bull had chosen a very good and secure place. We should appreciate Red Bull for the way they have organized this tournament for boys. I think this activity should be continued because it’s a very healthy activity in Ramadan,” said Moin Khan.

He added: “Night cricket in Karachi has always been a trend whether its hard ball or tennis ball. We must appreciate this initiative and I am delighted to see such an amazing crowd here,’ he said. “I am also here because even my cricket initially started with tape ball and tennis ball.”