07/05/2025
Very honored to have received this piece of commentary from Tahir Ali. The Dugout Corner hosted an indoor tournament last week which was a great success. Host your team building exercises with fun time, whether its a community event or private party or a corporate event, we provide the best environment in the whole New England with state-of-the-art technology/simulators.
Enjoy the read as our customers share their experience. Thank you again to Tahir Ali for sending us this note.
*Brotherhood in Motion at the DUGOUT, Indoor Cricket and sports Center In Northboro.*
*Northboro, MA. June 29th 2025:* Former Imam of WIC, *Asif Hirani* was visiting Boston. Although Asif Hirani has been tremendously missed here in Massachusetts, for his eloquent speeches, excellent Khutbahs', but as far as I and other Cricketers are concerned, we also missed Asif, not just for his scholastic and religious aptitude, his sense of humor but also as a key-team player in our Cricket Teams: *Shaheen-XI (A, B and C).*
'*The Dugout Corner*’- is an Indoor facility for the cricket and baseball lovers, where they practice the game(s) in a cage with bats provided by the Center, and the bowling balls are actually being bowled by a mechanical setup. The bowler's speed and strategy, are all programmable, and that's what makes the game more realistic, practical and competitive.
The three Dugout proud owners, are all Shaheen-XI Players: *Syed Faheem, Mukarram Hussain and Maqsood Mughal.*
When the news of Asif Hirani's visit in town fell on their ears, the local community quickly arranged an Indoor Cricket Tournament in his honor.
The following 4 Teams registered right away:
*TEAM 1:* Shaheen-XIC: Qaseem Chaudhry, Mujeeb Khan, Atif Rao, Saqib Zulfiqar, Tahir Ali(at-large)
*TEAM 2:* Sajjad Shah (SH-XIB), Mukarram Hussain (SH-XIA), Shaheer and Shanawaz (Borough Islamic Center - BIS)
*TEAM 3*:Saqib Syed (SH-XIB), Rafique Awan (SH-XIB), Syed Faheem (SH-XIA), Vajid Pathan(Imam WIC)
*TEAM 4:* Asif Hirani (Former WIC Imam), Syed Najeeb(SH-XIA), Maqsood Mughal (SH-XIA), Syed Naseer
Teams had to play against each other and the teams, winning the most matches, qualify for the Finals. Incidentally, only TEAM 1 won all their matches, the other three each lost a match. *Hence, only TEAM 1 (Shaheen-XIC) directly qualified for the Finals.* The winner from the rest of the 3 teams, would face TEAM 1 in the Finals. Ironically, Saqib Syeds' et al TEAM 3 even after losing matches, qualified (based upon their cumulative team score) to face Shaheen-XIC's TEAM 1 in the Finals. *Saqib Syed* initially a hard ball player, but joined Shaheen-XIB, and played good cricket. His sportsmanship and ever-Guidance has been instrumental in the Cricket Community, *and today he led his team to victory, as he did last year at the Dugout Corner.*
A few months back Shaheen-XI won the New England-Wide 'NEGL Tournament' and picked up the Runners-up trophy. AND here as well with the Guidance from the Teams captains: Qaseem and Mujib, *Shaheen-XIC picks up the Runners-up Trophy.*
*The 4 over final match has an interesting twist:*
*TEAM 1 Score board:* Mujeeb Khan 10, Atif Rao 0, Qaseem Chaudhry 0, Saqib Zulfiqar 15. Team Total 25.*
*TEAM 3 Score board:* Saqib Syed 4, Syed Faheem 17, Rafique Awan 0, Vajid Pathan 6
Team Total 27.*
Mujib Khan and Saqib Zulfiqar were the highest series scorers representing the Shaheen-XI C (TEAM 1)
Syed Faheem scored the highest for TEAM 3, and Saqib Syed managed his team well, but the highlight of the series was earned by Vajid Pathan when he hit the memorable winning 6 in the last over.
*A Tale of two Imams:* At the end of the third over TEAM 3 score was only 21 runs, the last batsman, Imam Vajid Pathan of Worcester Islamic Center had a tough challenge to get 5 runs in 6 balls. To the utter amazement, the Imam hit a 6 on the first ball and won the match. Even though the visiting former WIC Imam Asif Hirani scored and played well, but when he was bowled by the simulated *Bangladesh bowler, Shakib Hasan* on a spin delivery just like Asif Hirani used to bowl in Shaheen-XIB matches and got wickets, Qaseem and Saqib Zulfiqar got a kick out of that but the present WIC Imam will be remembered for hitting the 'Jawed Miandad's, match-winning SIXER in Sharjah.
In my opinion, the 'Dugout Corner' could also be dubbed as the '*Hangout Corner' - So, Hang in there.*
Respectfully Submitted by Tahir Ali
