Pakpassion
Encyclopedia
PakPassion.Net is a website, forum and accredited cricket media founded in 2000 and dedicated principally to the sport of cricket and more specifically to the Pakistani cricket team
Pakistani cricket team
The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....

.

PakPassion has recorded a peak Alexa
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...

 ranking within the top 15,000 (August 2010). Furthermore in Alexa's regional ranking PakPassion is ranked within the top 2,000 and 10,000 in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 respectively. It has a Big Board ranking inside the top 900, making it amongst the most frequently visited cricket forums. In November 2009 PakPassion was voted the fourth most popular cricket websites by readers of the Telegraph newspaper

History

PakPassion began in June 2000 on the Rivals group of sports sites, starting as purely a cricket forum. In May 2001, it moved from the Rivals to the Sportsnetwork sports forum.

January 2005 saw PakPassion go independent with domain name found at www.pakpassion.net. Template and features had by now advanced to include things such as 'Post of the Week', 'Quote of the Week'.

In September 2005, PakPassion officially announced their first exclusive interview, that of former fast bowler and cricket coach Aaqib Javed
Aaqib Javed
Aaqib Javed is a Pakistani cricketer and coach. He was a right-handed medium-fast pace bowler with the ability to swing the ball both ways. He played 22 Tests and 163 One Day Internationals for Pakistan between 1988 and 1998.He was educated at Islamia College Lahore.Aaqib's best performances in...

. April 2007 saw PakPassion staff appearing on Venus Television discussing Pakistan's participation in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

There was numerous reporting of interviews in major press agencies in 2008 such as Cricinfo
Cricinfo
ESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...

 and Yahoo. In March 2009 The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 described PakPassion forum as "hugely popular", whilst obtaining a quote from PakPassion manager in regards of Pakistan test matches being held in England.

PakPassion has not looked back since, as they have cemented an effective network of contacts not only in England, but all over the world including Pakistan, Australia, the Emirates and Canada. This has meant that PakPassion has always been at the forefront of Pakistan Cricket news, often being quoted not only by major press agencies such as Cricinfo, but also appearing in mainstream online newspaper websites such as The Herald Sun of Australia, The Nation, Daily India, Yahoo Cricket, Daily Times (India) etc.

With the ongoing tour of England in the 2010 cricketing calendar, PakPassion has managed to provide fans worldwide leading edge news and intereviews, as well as provide the Pakistan Cricket Team a platform to view and understand what is on the minds of the fans worldwide with many prominent Pakitani cricketers logging on the website. This ability to provide a two-way communication link between the players and the fans has possibly been at the apex of PakPassion's achievements to date.

PakPassion's coverage has continued to grow going with facebook and twitter accounts established to provide further reporting streams and fan contact.

Live Reporting and Editorials

PakPassion.Net has been granted media accreditation for major ICC tournaments and bi-lateral series involving Pakistan. PakPassion also has a column in UAE paper The National
The National (Abu Dhabi)
The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi. The editor-in-chief since June 8, 2009 has been Hassan Fattah. Prior to this, and from the launch of the newspaper Martin Newland was editor-in-chief. Mubadala Development Company, an investment company...

 in which it discussed relevant cricketing issues of the time

Gallery

The gallery feature allows members to upload their own pictures within either the cricket or an off topic category. The photos, exclusive to PakPassion often are in game or training captures of Pakistani and other international players.

Columns and blogs

Columns and blogs are written by long established members, cricket journalists and included frequent contributions from late Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer
Bob Woolmer
Robert Andrew Woolmer was an international cricketer, professional cricket coach and also a professional commentator...

. PakPassion receives regular blog updated from former Pakistani cricketers Mohammad Akram
Mohammad Akram
Mohammad Akram is a Pakistani right arm fast-medium bowler in cricket, he plays for Surrey County Cricket Club. He played in 9 Test matches and 23 One Day International matches for Pakistan between 1995–1996 and 2000-2001.He is 6'2 tall and Akram is nicknamed Haji...

 and Mohammad Zahid
Mohammad Zahid
Mohammad Zahid is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast bowler. Zahid is the first Pakistani cricketer to take ten wickets on his debut, scoring an eleven-wicket two-innings haul against New Zealand.-Career:Having suffered a back injury and subsequently having to...


Interviews

PakPassion.Net has an exclusive interviews section which has claimed forum member participation in the interview questions process. This has led to some many widely featured interviews with renowned cricket personalities and many other interesting figures related to the world of cricket. Often the interviews have been sourced for news articles by prominent press agencies such as Cricinfo
Cricinfo
ESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...

. Notable PakPassion interviews include the following

Interview List

  • Geoff Lawson
    Geoff Lawson (cricketer)
    Geoffrey Francis Lawson, OAM is a former Australian cricketer and the former coach of the Pakistan cricket team....

  • Imran Khan
    Imran Khan
    Imran Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former Pakistani cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century. After retiring, he entered politics...

  • Bob Woolmer
    Bob Woolmer
    Robert Andrew Woolmer was an international cricketer, professional cricket coach and also a professional commentator...

  • Wasim Akram
    Wasim Akram
    Wasim Akram is a former Pakistani left arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman in cricketer and model. who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International matches....

  • Wasim Bari
    Wasim Bari
    Wasim Bari is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 81 Tests and 51 ODIs from 1967 to 1984. Bari was a wicket-keeper and right-handed batsman...

  • Mohsin Khan
    Mohsin Khan
    Mohsin Hasan Khan is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 48 Tests and 75 ODIs from 1977 to 1986 mainly as an opening batsman.-Life and Career:...

  • Aaqib Javed
    Aaqib Javed
    Aaqib Javed is a Pakistani cricketer and coach. He was a right-handed medium-fast pace bowler with the ability to swing the ball both ways. He played 22 Tests and 163 One Day Internationals for Pakistan between 1988 and 1998.He was educated at Islamia College Lahore.Aaqib's best performances in...

  • Michael Holding
    Michael Holding
    Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...

  • Hanif Mohammad
    Hanif Mohammad
    Hanif Mohammad is a former Pakistan cricketer. He played for the Pakistani cricket team in 55 Test matches between 1952/53 and 1969/70 and averaged 43.98, with twelve hundreds....

  • Mohammad Asif
  • Umar Amin
    Umar Amin
    Umar Amin is a Pakistani international cricketer. Amin made his One Day International debut in the opening match of the 2010 Asia Cup against Sri Lanka. Amin made his international debut using the bat of Sachin Tendulkar...

  • Aamir Sohail
  • Rameez Raja
    Rameez Raja
    Rameez Hasan Raja is a former Pakistani right handed batsman in cricket, who represented the Pakistan cricket team during the 1980s and 1990s. He also worked as captain of the national team...

  • Shahid Afridi
    Shahid Afridi
    Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi , popularly known as Shahid Afridi , is a Pakistani cricketer. Between 1996 and 2011, Afridi played 27 Tests, 325 One Day Internationals, and 43 Twenty20 Internationals for the Pakistani national team...

  • Damien Fleming
    Damien Fleming
    Damien William Fleming is a former Australian cricketer who played in 20 Tests and 88 ODIs from 1994 to 2001....

  • Misbah-ul-Haq
    Misbah-ul-Haq
    Misbah-ul-Haq Khan Niazi is a Pakistani cricketer and the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team for s and s...

  • Azeem Ghumman
    Azeem Ghumman
    Azeem Ghumman is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman, who also played as a Pakistan Under-19s....

  • Usman Khawaja
    Usman Khawaja
    Usman Khawaja is an Australian cricketer. He was awarded player of the Australian Under 19 Championship in 2005 and also played for Australia in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka as an opening batsman. His club side is Randwick-Petersham....


  • Popularity

    PakPassion has been quoted and been featured on Cricinfo
    Cricinfo
    ESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...

    , The Times
    The Times
    The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

    , The Independent
    The Independent
    The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

    , ESPN Star and several other publications. PakPassion staff and members have also represented PakPassion with appearances on Chicago Radio and on a televised cricket show in the UK on Venus TV on DM Digital
    DM Digital
    DM Digital is a British Pakistani television network that is available in United Kingdom, Europe, Pakistan and the Middle East. Most programmes cater to the needs of South Asians, especially the Pakistani Punjabi, but also Mirpuri and Kashmiri phone in programmes, Lollywood, bollywood movies and...

     in February 2009. They have also featured regularly on BBC Radio
    BBC Radio
    BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

     including on BBC Test Match Special
    Test Match Special
    Test Match Special is a British radio programme covering professional cricket, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 , Five Live Sports Extra and the internet to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world...

     and BBC Asian Network
    BBC Asian Network
    BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London...

    . A prominent recent feature is continued articles, quotes and short interviews with Pakistani players from grass root levels to current and past administrators.

    Mohammad Irfan

    Pakpassion featured prominently in the emergence of 6'10" fast bowler Mohammad Irfan
    Mohammad Irfan
    Mohammad Irfan is a Pakistani left-arm medium-fast bowler, hailing from Punjab. In an interview with Pakpassion, Irfan has confirmed his height is indeed 7'1 inches, after speculations...

     to first class cricket in 2009. Originally languishing without a contract and contemplating giving up the game, but through the regular PakPassion interviews, on this occasion with Nadeem Iqbal, the Multan coach, PP were able to find out the existence of the Irfan, supposedly the tallest bowler to play first class cricket. Trials were arranged by National Cricket Academy coach Aquib Javed and Irfan made his first class debut in October 2009. Mohammad Irfan enjoys cult-status popularity on PakPassion without yet even walking out in Pakistani colours, so much so that there is a blog set up specifically on Mohammad Irfan updates. Mohammed Irfan's remarkable story was also mentioned in a Sky News report on cricket in Pakistan whilst the security threats plagued the country

    External links

    The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
     
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