Week One - February 13th

- The draft was completed and there are always surprises in a pressure filled draft for GMs to try and build a winning team.  So here are some draft notes:

• Yousuf Sowdagar went first overall to Sabr as expected, despite the ankle injury that will keep him out to start the season, Sowdagar was the best player available in the draft so a no brainer here.
• Aazar Zafar was picked second overall, a bit of a surprise but a solid pick nonetheless as his speed and tenacity will serve Haya well
• Nauman Abbasi went third overall much to the pleasure of Ihsan GM Salman Khalid who wanted the speedy ball carrying style that Abbasi brings and planned to build his defence core around
• Khalid Mufti went fourth overall to Shukr who grabbed one of the top goalies available in the draft, never a bad strategy to start building from the net out
• Emaan grabbed Adeel Awan fifth overall in a solid move, giving them experience and scoring from the back
• Ikhlas picked Amir Multani with the sixth pick, many were surprised to see Multani fall this far in the draft but to the pleasure of Ikhlas GM Wakaas Khan he was able to grab a scoring forward
• Emaan surprised some (well maybe only me) by selecting Sadiq Rehman as their goalie, Rehman is solid but after all the friendly trash-talking from last season it was a surprise to see them grab him
• Ihsan was able to bring back many pieces from the team that made the finals last Spring and likely would have won if not for all the injuries that limited them in the finals
• Haya stayed true to expectations and grabbed anyone with the surname Malik; it worked well for them as they were able to grab some solid pieces along the way
• Emaan grabbed Kashif Taqiuddin in the fifth round, he is coming off a serious knee injury so difficult to predict how he will perform but if he is given a chance to coach, then "Coach K" may be able to get this team on a roll early
• Sabr lost out on a few of their desired players as their GM group had volume control issues, specifically Zaid Toorawa seemed unaware that in a draft you should be discrete on who you are planning to take next when your pick is not next.  Mustafa Alam tried to move their group away into a corner of the draft room before telling his Co-GM to stop talking
• Sabr also had some outside help for the draft as Waseem Bangash gave them a hand with identifying some of the newer players available; it will be interesting to see if Bangash shows up and tries to help coach the team he helped put together
• The plan was to give away a car to the player taken last in the draft, Rayhan Taqiuddin has reportedly been looking forward to taking possession of said car but due to tax implications the transfer has been delayed; to his credit Taqiuddin said he will donate the car to charity

- Week One has some interesting match-ups, particularly the Ikhlas vs Emaan game pitting the two Cambridge groups against each other, or as one Ikhlas player referred to it: Ikhlas vs Cambridge Two

- Emaan may reportedly be without Sadiq Rehman so securing a goalie from the list of available back-ups will need to happen quickly