Hotel fire causes HBL-UBL match to be abandoned

Several UBL players injured while jumping out

KARACHI: The Super Eight match of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy between UBL and HBL had to be abandoned when many players of the former were injured in a fire at their hotel early Monday morning.

This meant HBL qualified for the final, which will be played here at the National Stadium from Saturday.

The players had to jump to avoid getting caught in the fire. Nine players of the UBL team were at the second and the fifth floors of the hotel.

Yasim Murtaza, a left-arm spinner, fractured his ankle. Karamat Ali sustained minor injuries in his arm and foot as he had to break his room’s windowpanes to jump out.

Wicket-keeper batsman Gulraiz Sadaf, who was staying with Yasim, and international all-rounder Hammad Azam also received minor injuries.

Left-arm spinner Mohammad Asghar and fast bowler Sameen Gul were the others who jumped from their rooms, UBL manager Nadeem Khan told ‘The News’.

Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Amin, Sadaif Mehdi, Umar Siddiq and Adil Reza managed to get out of the hotel without any injury. Sohaib also rescued a family.

The fire, which killed 12 people and left scores of others injured, happened between 2am and 3am. Nadeem said the injured players were shifted to Jinnah Hospital around 6am.

Injured Yasim told ‘The News’ at the Pearl Continental after the incident that he was happy that he and his colleagues were safe. “Thanks God we are all safe. Such minor injuries are nothing in such cases,” strongly-built Yasim said.

“I and Gulraiz Sadaf were in the same room at the second floor. I felt a smell around 2:30am and switched on the light. I awakened Gulraiz and told him that there was some smell. When we came out there was smoke everywhere and we could not see anything. I lifted a table and broke the window and jumped to the first floor,” Yasim said.

“There I found myself helpless as I received a serious injury, but I had to ignore my pain. We saw a rope on one side. We used that and reached the ground. Then we were taken to the hospital,” Yasim narrated.

“Had the rope not been there I would have had to jump to the ground floor from the first floor despite fracture. But it’s good that we are alive,” Yasim added.

Yasim, also a good batsman, has been playing a solid role in UBL’s domestic achievements.

Gulraiz said that he had not any problem. “There was a little bit of pain in my hip but it is not an issue,” Gulraiz said.

The UBL medical team treated Yasim. He will miss the One-day Cup which begins from December 17.

“Yes, I will miss that because it will take time to recover,” said Yasim, whose leg was plastered. All the UBL players from other cities will fly back to their home towns on Tuesday night (today), Nadeem said.

Meanwhile, after discussing the matter with match referee Ishtiaq Ahmed and UBL manager Nadeem, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) cricket committee decided to abandon the match, giving the teams one point each. HBL qualified for the final with 16 points. UBL finished their Super Eight campaign with ten points.

Ishtiaq told ‘The News’ that the PCB rules allowed such decisions in such situations.

HBL scored 486 all out in their first innings. In response UBL were 20 without loss at stumps on the second day on Sunday.

In the Group I game at Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad, Adil Amin (90) and Maqbool Ahmed (57*) did a fine job to enable Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to reach 298-7 in their first innings after resuming at 127-4 in response to WAPDA’s total of 353.

The duo scored 109 for the sixth wicket to put SSGC in sight of a much-needed lead.

Adil struck ten fours from 214 balls. Maqbool, who struck five fours from 250 balls, scored 48 runs for the seventh wicket unbroken stand with Mohammad Irfan, who was batting on 30.

Irfan hit three fours from 109 balls.

Earlier, Asif Zakir (42) fell after adding only one run to his overnight total. Naseer Akram and Zahid Mansoor got one wicket each.

In the Group II show here at UBL Sports Complex, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) were folded for 184 in their second innings to set NBP a target of 142.

NBP were 54-4 at stumps in their second innings. Mohammad Yasin hit 55 in KRL’s second innings. Paceman Atif Jabbar got 5-50, for 10-93 match haul. Both the sides are already out of contention.