News

Team Outlook: Damascus

Damascus:

In our second BSL season, we’ve seen the league become more popular as people are jumping over each other for a chance to play. As a result, we’ve decided to introduce an expansion team bringing our total to 6 teams. Captain Safwan Khan who just came off a championship run with Medina in the inaugural BSL Nights season was entrusted with the responsibility of leading team Damascus.  He did a great job in nabbing BSL Veteran Tanseer Khawaja as his AGM/Trusted sidekick who has a very impressive Resume as one of the top pitchers and a rock-solid bat!

The first overall pick was a toss-up between Istanbul and Damascus. With Damascus edging out Istanbul for the first overall pick, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind who would go first. Ahmad “Crazy” Ammad would be the first to be taken off the board as Captain Safwan didn’t hesitate for a second. With the first pick, team Damascus was sitting pretty with 3 solid batters, 2 solid infielders and an all-star pitcher. Their next pick would be 11 picks later which would really test the depth of their draft strategy. Damascus chose to go with a big man Shahid Saya who has massive potential but a lot to prove this year. He had a mediocre first season with Cordoba last year and is on a mission to prove that he did, in fact, deserve to be picked so early. Unfortunately for Shahid, Damascus gave him his walking papers and shipped him off to the pind (Lahore) in exchange for Imran “The Quintessential” Qureshi. Don’t be fooled by his kind/calm demeanour. This man is an absolute beast who gives Damascus a solid 1stbasemen and a lefty who can show massive power when provoked… so don’t poke this kind-hearted bear.

Abdul Sattar Murad aka "Sunny" and Akif “The Commiss” Waheed went quite early and will add to this quality batting lineup. The top 5 batters on this team are looking good.  Shane Worthington will look to rejoin forces with Safwan Khan and Imran Qureshi as the 3 played together in the winter dome league and developed some great chemistry playing for team Snow Jays. Damascus also got lucky and found a gem in the late rounds with Neal Irfan, a quality outfielder, was surprisingly still available. He is solid at bat and holds down that outfield as good as anyone in the league. Zaki Bhatti had a decent season last year and will look to improve his batting average as he showed massive potential in a few games. Talal Hayat will look to improve on his rookie campaign, proclaiming his status as one of the best second basemen in our league.

Awais and Muzamil are all new to the league and although we haven’t seen them play yet, nobody would be surprised if they burst on to the scene and took everyone by surprise. The play of these 3 guys will make or break team Damascus. There are some questions going into the regular season as there are a lot of new faces on this team. A lot of teams are sleeping on Damascus this year but they have a team which could surprise and looks like they’re still not done wheeling and dealing. Regardless of what everyone says or what roster changes are yet to come, one thing is for sure, it is up to Captain Safwan Khan to take his band of brothers and lead them to victory. Time to put in work Damascus! LET’S GO!