The Commentary Panel for PSL 6 is up, and though we wanna give a shout out to all the key off-field players, we can’t help but focus on the 3 women who’re redefining cricket in the 21st. century, and Zainab Abbas is on our list!
Have you heard of Zainab Abbas? When Beauty meets Brains, a star is born. And when that beauty happens to be a woman of Pakistani origin, commanding global influence, our hearts fill up with pride, or … or as we love to say, dil garden garden hogaya. It happened to me, when I watched Zainab on Jadoo TV Ten Sports, as she interviewed the Australian and Pakistani Cricket Captains ahead of the Pak vs Australia World Cup match.
Zainab Abbas, the makeup artist turned Dunya news host turned Cricket analyst is turning heads in the Cricketing World these days. For those who don’t know much about her, do you call yourself a serious cricket fan – really?
Zainab has worked for Ten Sports, her sports features have been acknowledged by well known cricket forums such as ESPN and she has also been called the ‘National Lucky Charm’ of Pakistani Cricket (throwback to 2017 Champions Trophy). Zainab hails from Lahore, Pakistan. She went for an audition for a world cup panel show, with no experience in broadcasting, but because of her in depth knowledge of cricket, she landed a job with a sports channel!
Here’s why we love her so much! And we think you should too!
1. Zainab is making waves on an International platform as the First Pakistani Female Cricket Presenter on a global level!
Zainab’s cricket analysis has been acknowledged world wide. 31 year old Zainab Abbas, the young Pakistani Sports analyst is making us proud as she hosts the Cricket World Cup 2019 by invitation from the ICC in England. She was hand picked by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as one of the presenters for the ICC World Cup 2019. How cool is that!
2. A Twitter following built around a genuine understanding of Cricket.
Zainab commands a whopping 1.9M followers on her Twitter Feed which is very close to Mahira Khan’s 2.6M and more than Mehwish Hayat’s 1.5M.
BUT, more importantly, Zainab seems to be matching up to the Cricket BIG WIGS and her Twitter numbers bear witness to that! (Just skimming popular Cricketer Waqar Younis’s 1.8M Twitter followers). Which just goes to show that Cricket is perhaps a Twitter sport, and when it’s a woman who joins in to support the cause intelligently, she is capable of amassing quite a following – and at 31 years – she’s just begun!
3. Making Intelligent Choices.
Zainab was first a makeup Artist but turned down multiple offers for the position of a political talk show host. We are so happy she did. So go ahead and join her band of followers to support her very astute move into a widely male dominated arena.
4. Zainab matches up to her male peers, and how!
Zainab in the commentators box, holding her own with the ‘boys’. How hard is it to gel well in a male-dominated fraternity and how well has she aced it!
Still pretty hard to get one past @GraemeSmith49!
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) June 7, 2019
The rain delay has allowed our commentators to stretch their legs and have their own little game 😀 😀 😀 pic.twitter.com/Oa7aLqLTGB
Watch her play cricket as they goof around in the commentators box, waiting for the rain to subside!
5. Finally, someone who can comment intelligently on the game, in both Urdu and English, and … she happens to be a woman!
Zainab has been covering a prematch analysis with our Cricket hero Wasim Akram at Cricingif. She takes on the Swing ka Sultan with expert comments and a panache that is admirable, and followed, by serious cricket fans.
6. Zainab Abbas is showing women that we don’t need to gain footage and followers by being objectified!
Zainab seems to be both humble and thankful in her move to global success. She holds Pakistan Super League (PSL) as one of the key stages in her career that helped her build her confidence.
“Mighty Oaks from little acorns do grow”, and we are so looking forward to the great things Zainab is accomplishing from very small beginnings. And perhaps you can too! Play on Zainab, the world is watching!
Follow Zainab on Twitter at @ZAbbasOfficial
Shazia likes to pen her thoughts when she feels passionately about a life experience, a person or an event. She is mother to 3 lively boys and along with her husband, attempts to settle in her new country by taking German lessons so she is able to soak in the culture, language and spirit of the region.
“Wake up in the morning, take a deep breath and exhale! Keep on living with a passion that inspires others! “
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