Punjab Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti, on Thursday, has announced Rs 5 lakh cash prize for Pakistan’s national wheelchair cricket team on winning Wheelchair T20 Cricket Asia Cup in Nepal. Punjab Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti, while talking to media, said national wheelchair cricket team won the hearts of whole nation by defeating arch-rivals India in the final match of Wheelchair T20 Cricket Asia Cup. “Our national wheelchair cricket team lived up to the expectations in the T20 Cricket Asia Cup and now we are quite hopeful that our team will also offer similar excellent performance in Wheelchair World Cup”.
Replying a question, Punjab Sports Minister Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti said Punjab govt is taking appropriate measures for the welfare of special sports persons. “We have made a revolutionary announcement a couple of days ago that all the special players of the province will be provided free of cost sports facilities. All the Divisional Officer Sports have been directed to let special people use Sports Board Punjab’s all sports facilities without any charges throughout the province,” he elaborates. Answering a query about Pakistan cricket team’s chances in ICC World Cup, Punjab Sports Minister Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti expressed his hope that national cricket team will not disappoint the nation in the grand event. “Our cricket players have ability of defeat any team of the world and they have exhibited their overwhelming performance on several occasions in the past,” he opined. Earlier, national wheelchair cricket team had a meeting with Punjab Minister for Sports Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti in his office. During the meeting, the Minister lauded the performance of national wheelchair cricket team. The captain of national wheelchair cricket team Zeeshan Taqi thanked Punjab Minister for Sports Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti for awarding cash prize and encouraging the national wheelchair players. “We are quite upbeat to demonstrate equally good performance in the Wheelchair World Cup scheduled to be held next year”.