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The
Desert Camels off to play Rugby in England
Bahawalnagar team set to play in Tullow Oil Touraid U13 Cup 2008
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Bahawalnagar team set to play in Tullow Oil
Touraid U13 Cup 2008
Over the Eid weekend a Camel caravan
assembles in
the heart of the deserts of Southern Punjab.
This week the caravan weaves
its way to the Lahore International Airport,
boards a plane and heads off
for merry old England to play rugby!
Sound like a dream inspired by Iqbal's
Bang-e-dara gone wild? The truth
actually gets dreamier. The caravan is
composed mainly of nine village boys
from Fort Abbass, Bahawalnagar, who have
hardly ventured outside the
precincts of their district but are now
heading off to England to
participate in the 2008 Tullow Oil Touraid
U13 Cup.
Aside from the invaluable cultural exposure
the tour promises the boys, in
the tournament they will get to play with
teams from Tanzania, Namibia,
Madagascar, South Africa, Uganda, Trinidad
and Tobago, Ghana, India and Côte
d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast).
This dream is coming to life under the
auspices of the Pakistan Rugby Union
(PRU), the efforts of the Punjab Rugby
Association (PRA), logistic and
financial support of British charity Touraid,
and monetary contribution from
KPMG England.
The touring party will be accompanied by
Sulman Waine, member and former
captain of the Pakistan national rugby team,
and Muzammil Khan Waziri, who
established rugby in the desert district
three years ago.
Waziri, a hulk of lad with a background in
sports education, chanced upon
the Lahore Rugby Football Club at the
Gaddaffi football stadium five years
ago. He fell in love with the sport and
played with the club side for a few
years. When he moved back to his home
district, the PRA drafted him as a
development officer in the Punjab District
Rugby Development Programme.
In a short span of time Waziri has
introduced the sport in the villages and
government schools and colleges in
Bahawalnagar, and the previously
unthinkable is happening: rugby is taking
off in the Pakistani desert! The
Desert Camels Rugby Club now boasts over 200
boys and men playing at the
U14, U19 and men's level.
The club has already met with success,
particularly at the U14 and U19
level. In 2008, the Desert Camels won the
3rd Annual Punjab Coca Cola
Interschool Championship. A member of the
club was also declared Player of
the Tournament, and took away a cash prize
of Rs 5,000 donated by Rizwan
Khan, Regional Head of Coca Cola
International.
Players from the club have also represented
Southern Punjab in All-Pakistan
National Rugby Championships, and at the
rate at which they are progressing
it won't be long before some go on to
represent the national side.
Commenting on the "dream tour," PRU
President Fawzi Khawaja said: "We are
ecstatic about this tour. It will give rugby
development a tremendous boost
where it's already started to flourish. This
is great incentive to inspire
children and to help them understand that
through rugby anything is
possible-self development, projection,
exposure, education."
He appreciated the efforts of Servis
Industries, which has supported the
development of the game since its inception
in the country, and Coca Cola,
which has helped spread the game at the
school level. Both organizations are
pitching in this time as well, providing
uniforms and rugby boots to the
touring team.
"We are also especially grateful to the
British High Commission for
appreciating all this and issuing visas,"
Khawaja added, recalling also that
the very first All Pakistan Rugby Sevens
tournament was held at the British
High Commission grounds in Islamabad back in
1991.
and most of all fawzi wanted to thank all
the staff at tour aid who put in
all this effort to bring about this change
it is small gestures like this
that make will make or a better
undserstanding and bring about change
In terms of the Desert Camels team, the PRU
president said former Hong Kong
national coach Rambo Leung had helped with
the initial selection a few
months ago. "Rambo felt there was definitely
talent and potential here, but
the boys in our country badly needed
exposure and match-play to develop."
Khawaja stressed, however, that the cultural
bridging and exposure the tour
would provide to underprivileged kids was
much more important than the sport
itself. "The boys will be immersed in the
culture, staying with British
families at the host Hawthorns School in
Surrey. They will get to visit the
famous London Eye and other tourist spots,
and will get to mix with boys
from all over the world. I am sure it will
be a life-changing experience for
all of them."
At the press confrence Coca cola chairman MR
rizwan khan also annoused a
year monthly scholoship/stipend for each of
the students to play rugby and
to promote the game on his return from the
tour
What is Touraid?
Touraid is a children's charity that
establishes sustainable relationships
between schools and clubs in the UK with
similar organisations around the
globe that support disadvantaged children.
touraid sees rugby as the
catalyst for these partnerships with the
resulting educational, cultural and
social benefits to the visiting teams and
host children being immeasurable.
Touraid believes that an essential element
of any long-lasting relationship
is time spent together engaged in
activities, which give rise to shared
experiences. Time spent by tourists with
host families provides unique
opportunities for friendships to be built
and for personal commitment to be
developed towards sustaining the
relationship.
It is hoped that tourists will have the
opportunity to leave behind (if only
temporarily) the disadvantages of their home
or other normal daily
circumstances and that they will experience
travel, a different culture, and
a sense of a wider world which is interested
in them and which has something
to offer them.
Hosting children will experience new
friendships and many children at the
hosting school will obtain an insight into
the lives and circumstances of
others who are less fortunate than
themselves and are culturally different.
From the Touraid website. For more
information, please visit:
http://www.touraid.co.uk/
Muhammad Yasin ,Hasnain Adil
,Muhammad Yasin ,Ghulam Mustafa ,Muhammad Waqas ,Ali Raza , Hamid
Raza ,Aftab Qamar , Qamar Rizwan , Muhammad Saleem Nawaz
Develpment Officer:
M.Muzammal Khan Wazeeri
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TEAM |
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Trinidad & Tobago –
Rainbows |
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Namibia –
Namib Desert Warriors |
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Uganda –
Banunule PS Kadogos |
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Tanzania –
Mkombozi |
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Pakistan –
Desert Camals |
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South Africa –
Mogale Warriors |
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Madagascar –
Ecole de Vie |
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India –
Guru Nanak |
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Ghana –
Little Golden Stars |
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Ivory Coast –
Tigers |
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