Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Mohali Mystery

Pakistan News & Features Services

Mohali Mystery, authored by Ehsan Qureshi, revolves around the semifinal match between Pakistan and India in Mohali which the hosts managed to win after an absorbing contest which generated as much interest after the event as before it. 

The entire book, in which the author has described in detail about his journey and stay in India in his typically fluent style, is in four colour to captivate the readers. 

Book Details: 
Title: Mohali Mystery 
Subject: Cricket 
Pages: 260 
ISBN: 978-969-8893-10-1 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 1,000 
Year of Publication: 2013

Asian Glory

Pakistan News & Features Services

Asian Glory, authored by Syed Khalid Mahmood, has chapters dedicated to the various aspects of the tournament besides a brief history of the sub-continental teams in the past nine editions of the World Cup. Light has been thrown on the side issues of the richest sports event to be held in this part of the world. 

Book Details: 
Title: Asian Glory 
Subject: Cricket 
Pages: 164 
ISBN: 978-969-8893-09-5 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 600 
Year of Publication: 2012

Crash of the Titans

Pakistan News & Features Services

Crash of the Titans, authored by Ehsan Qureshi, is an account of the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket Tournament 2010 which was held in the West Indies. It is acclaimed as the first book on T20 cricket to be published in Pakistan. The scorecards, match reports and statistics make it a complete package about the event. 

Book Details: 
Title: Crash of the Titans 
Subject: Cricket 
Pages: 164 
ISBN: 978-969-8893-08-8 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 600 
Year of Publication: 2011

Reflections

Pakistan News & Features Services

Reflections is a collection of Syed Khalid Mahmood’s top 50 articles on posted on his famous blog www.skmsports.com during its first 15 months, starting from October 2008 to December 2009. Not surprisingly the majority of articles are on cricket but there are features on other sports as well like bridge, chess, hockey, table tennis, karate and tennis. 

Book Details: 
Title: Reflections 
Subject: Sports 
Pages: 144 
ISBN: 978-969-8893-07-1 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 500 
Year of Publication: 2010

Cricket Milestones

Pakistan News & Features Services

Compiled by Shahzad Ali Khan, one of the globally acclaimed statisticians, Cricket Milestones offers value for money to the followers of the game as this handy book contains a lot of records which are never to be broken. The feature of the book is the section of the first-timers to the various landmarks in all formats of the game, including Twenty20 Internationals. 

Book Details:
Title: Cricket Milestones
Subject: Cricket
Pages: 102
ISBN: 978-969-8893-06-4
Price in Pakistan: Rs 200
Year of Publication: 2009

Fiasco

Pakistan News & Features Services

Ehsan Qureshi authored Fiasco upon his return from the Caribbean where he had witnessed unprecedented chaos, drama and tragedy during the course of the Cricket World Cup 2007. It is an eye-witness account of the tragic death of Pakistan’s coach, Bob Woolmer in which the author was falsely implicated. The book reveals a lot of stories which were not published earlier elsewhere.

Book Details:
Title: Fiasco
Subject: Cricket
Pages: 280
ISBN: 978-969-8893-05-7
Price in Pakistan: Rs 800
Year of Publication: 2008

Monday, December 30, 2013

Cricket Fever

Pakistan News & Features Services

Cricket Fever, authored by Syed Khalid Mahmood, recaptures the thrill and excitement of 16 bilateral series between arch-rivals Pakistan and India from 1952-53 and 2007-08 when the last Test tour had taken place. Every tour, having generated enormous interest on both sides of the border, has been analyzed separately and the eye-catching action photographs of the historic matches add value to the book. 

Book Details: 
Title: Cricket Fever 
Subject: Cricket 
Pages: 144 
ISBN: 978-969-8893-03-3 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 300 
Year of Publication: 2008

Mission Caribbean

Pakistan News & Features Services

Mission Caribbean, authored by Syed Khalid Mahmood, was brought out on the eve of what was intended to be the biggest sporting extravaganza in the Caribbean. The book has highly useful resource material for the students of the game as there are brief profiles and photographs of all the 240 participating cricketers from 16 countries. It also chronicles the performance of all the participating teams in the past editions of the tournaments. 

Book Details
Title: Mission Caribbean 
Subject: Cricket 
Pages: 124 
ISBN: 978-969-8893-02-6 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 200 
Year of Publication: 2007

Top of the Charts

Pakistan News & Features Services

Top of the Charts is Jumbo Publishing’s second book on the mega event of the World Cup 2003 which was hailed to be the greatest-ever sporting show to have been staged in the continent of Africa. Authored by Syed Khalid Mahmood, the book contains profile and photographs of the top 25 performers of the tournament. 

Book Details: 
Title: Top of the Charts 
Subject: Cricket 
Pages: 188 
ISBN: 969-8893-01-6 
Price in Pakistan: Rs 500 
Year of Publication: 2005

Spotlight on World Cup 2003

Pakistan News & Features Services

Spotlight on World Cup 2003, authored by Syed Khalid Mahmood, was the first book to be published by Jumbo Publishing. It contains contributions from other renowned personalities as well, besides the bulk of the narration from the author. There are write-ups on the various aspects of the high-profile event which had taken the African hosts, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe by storm. 

Book Details:
Title: Spotlight on World Cup
Subject: Cricket
Pages: 188
ISBN: 969-8893-00-8
Price in Pakistan: Rs 500
Year of Publication: 2005

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Brief Profile: Amna Farzand Ali

Pakistan News & Features Services

Amna Farzand Ali has been hailed as one of the most promising and highly talented library professionals of the new generation, having already announced her presence in the field.

Having graduated in arts, she did her Masters in Library and Information Science from the prestigious University of Punjab, Lahore, in 2012. She already has the plans for higher studies with automation and digital libraries being her subjects of particular interest. 

She is currently serving as a librarian at the University of Central Punjab in Lahore. She had previously worked, also as a librarian, at the British Education & Training Systems (BETS), Lahore. 

Amna Farzand is a proactive library professional who regularly attends workshops and seminars besides contributing articles. She is fond of accepting challenges and she is determined to make her way to the top. 

She came into prominence by securing first position in the short article competition of Info@PULISAA 2013 and she received the best author award for her article titled: The rise of Fluffy Computing and Libraries. 

*** Amna Farzand Ali has reviewed Mohali Mystery

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Book Review: Mohali Mystery

By Amna Farzand Ali

Cricket is the game that has become a source of enthusiasm, happiness and sorrow among the lovers of this sport not only in Pakistan but around the world. Although it is an intellectual challenge to document something on this sport.

Gideon Haigh, an Australian journalist, who writes about sports especially cricket, had once remarked that the appearance of a completely fresh and unpredictable cricket book was a rare event. Indeed there are only a few worthy writers who continue doing it for decades with passion and dedication. 

Ehsan Ali Qureshi is one of those prolific authors of Pakistan, having done a series of World Cup books with ‘Mohali Mystery’ being the latest publication. His eye-witnessed accounts of the most prestigious global cricket event, held after every four years, are worthwhile addition to the literary world of sports books. 

The foreword of this book has been penned by a superstar cricketer, Rashid Latif, who was also a former Pakistan captain. He has summarized Pakistan’s journey in the World Cup, sharing his thoughts on glories and agonies in the marquee cricket event. 

Actually this book ‘Mohali Mystery’ is based on the author’s own travelogue experience of the Indian cities of Mohali and Mumbai. Mohali’s Punjab Cricket Association Stadium was the venue where the Indian cricket team defeated our national cricket team in the World Cup 2011 semifinal.

The writing style of the author is smooth and elegant. He has shared his experiences about his stay in India during both the big matches in such a way that the readers can derive the similar feeling by going through it. He has also highlighted the different ‘tourist attraction places’ of the Indian cities and the open-arms hospitality of his Indians companions. 

The inclusion of Shahid Khan Afridi’s interview seems the best addition to the content. Ehsan Qureshi conducted this interview in which the then Pakistan captain has tried to clear all the controversies regarding the match-fixing and the suspicious dropped catches of Sachin Tendulkar in the all-important semifinal. 

Shahid Afridi has also mentioned the political aspect in a light mood. Because the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, along with some state dignitaries was also there to attend this ‘cricketing debacle’ at the Mohali’s Punjab Cricket Association Stadium. 

The readers of this book will also find the comparative analysis of previous World Cup matches and the performance charts glimpses of the cricket stars of the Pakistani and Indian teams. It also contains the profile of the players from other countries who performed well in the mega event. 

Last but not the least, Mohali Mystery also contains detailed score sheets of all the matches of the World Cup 2011. While browsing the score sheets the readers would find some interesting commentary about the super players of winning teams who influenced the matches significantly. 

The inclusion of statistical analysis of the previous World Cup matches offers a source of handy information for quick referencing of historical records for the ease of cricket lovers. Besides the informative contents of the book; layout design, paper quality, the lively captured pictures of the semi-final and the final matches along with pictorial coverage of the public places of India are eye-catching. 

Keeping in view the cricket-mania within Asia, this book should be a part of personal collection as well as acquired by the libraries because it will attract cricket-loving readers. 

***For further details about Mohali Mystery, please write to jumbopublishing@yahoo.com or call Asad Raza at 0333-2304024