Zainab Abbas ( Punjabi, ; born 14 February 1988) is a Pakistani television host, sports presenter, commentator, and former makeup artist.

Personal life

Zainab Abbas was born in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

to domestic cricketer Nasir Abbas and politician

Andleeb Abbas Andleeb Abbas is a Pakistani politician who has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till January 2023. Political career She ran for the seat of the Senate of Pakistan as a candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ...

. Her father played in the

Faisalabad Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur ( Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pak ...

and

Hafizabad Hafizabad (Urdu and pa, ) is a city and capital of Hafizabad District located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 31st largest city of Pakistan. It is also a Tehsil. Ancient history Hafizabad is an old city in Punjab, Pakistan. In 327 BC, duri ...

cricket teams as a bowler and went to the same college as

Ramiz Raja Ramiz Hasan Raja ( ur, ; born 14 August 1962) is a Pakistani cricket administrator, commentator, YouTuber, and former cricketer who served as the 35th Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board between September 2021 and December 2022. As a pla ...

. On the other hand, her mother is a senior member of the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

party, elected to the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

on a reserved seat for women from

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, and was appointed as the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs. She also covered a few cricket events as a journalist, including the 1999 World Cup. In November 2019, Abbas married Hamza Kardar in

. Hamza is the son of former finance minister and former governor of

State Bank of Pakistan The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) ( ur, ) is the Central Bank of Pakistan. Its Constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until 1 January 1974, when the bank was Nationalized and ...

Shahid Hafeez Kardar Shahid Hafeez Kardar is a Pakistani economist and former provincial finance minister. He served as the 16th Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan from September 2010 to July 2011. He was the acting Punjab Minister for Finance, Planning & Devel ...

, himself the son of

Abdul Hafeez Kardar Abdul Hafeez Kardar PP, HI ( ur, ) (17 January 1925 – 21 April 1996) was a Pakistani cricketer, politician and diplomat. He was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team. He is one of the only three players to have played Test crick ...

, Pakistan cricket team's first captain. Her younger brother Hussain Abbas Mirza is a fitness trainer, who in February 2023 joined

Multan Sultans Multan Sultans (Urdu: ) is a Pakistani professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team representing the city of Multan in southern Pakistan in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The team was founded in 2017 as an additional sixth team added to the P ...

as their strength and conditioning specialist for the 2023 PSL.

Education

She studied at

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and then earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in Marketing and Strategy from the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

. She then spent two years working for

Dolce & Gabbana Dolce & Gabbana (), also known by initials D&G, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The house specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, accessories, and cosmetic ...

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

Career

Abbas used to work as a makeup artist with her own studio until 2015, when she successfully auditioned to appear as a guest on a show on

Dunya News Dunya News is a 24 hours Urdu language news and current affairs television channel from Pakistan. It is governed and operated by the National Communication Services (NCS) Pvt. Ltd. Its head office is situated at Lahore. Dunya News was founded an ...

for the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

alongside former national team players

Saeed Ajmal Saeed Ajmal SI ( Punjabi, ; born 14 October 1977) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer, who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who bats right handed. At domestic level in Pakistan he represented Fai ...

and Imran Nazir, which launched her career as a cricket presenter and commentator. She then went to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as a correspondent for

to cover the

Pakistan national cricket team The Pakistan national cricket team or Pak cricket team, often referred to as the Shaheens (), Green Shirts, Men in Green and Cornered Tigers is administered by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The team is a Full Member of the International C ...

on their 2016 tour. There, she appeared as a guest on

BBC's #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW ( ...

''. Upon her return, she earned a full-time contract to present her own show C''ricket Dewangi'' on

, which she did from 2016 to 2018. During this time, she also wrote sports pieces for Pakistani independent news outlets

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

and Dunya News. Abbas has been one of the presenters of the

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league contested during February and March of every year by six teams representing six cities of Pakistan. The league was founded on 9 September 2015 with five teams by the Paki ...

from 2016 onwards, as well as for the

Abu Dhabi T10 T10 League or Abu Dhabi T10 is a Ten10 cricket league in the United Arab Emirates launched and owned by T Ten Sports Management. The league is approved by the Emirates Cricket Board. Matches are 10-overs-a-side and the duration of each match ...

. She has also worked with

TEN Sports Sony Sports Network, formerly Sony Pictures Sports Network, and also known as Sony TEN, is a group of Indian pay television sports channels owned by Culver Max Entertainment (formerly Sony Pictures Networks India). The original TEN Sports chan ...

Star Sports Star Sports refers to several current or former Asian sports networks owned by The Walt Disney Company: * Star Sports (East Asian TV channel) * Star Sports (Indian TV network) * Fox Sports (Southeast Asian TV network) Fox Sports (formerly ESPN ...

, and Sony for a while. In late 2017, she hosted a

web-series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single ins ...

talk show titled ''Sawal Cricket Ka,'' which had seven episodes. From May 2018 to May 2019, she hosted 14 episodes of the web-series talk show ''Voice of Cricket'' on Cricingif. In both these shows, she interviewed various Pakistani cricketers. In May 2019, Abbas became the first woman sports reporter and commentator to cover the ICC 2019 World Cup from Pakistan. In July 2021, Abbas made her debut on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

as part of the broadcasting team for the inaugural season of The Hundred, thus becoming the first Pakistani female presenter to do so.

Recognition

In 2019, Abbas was awarded the Sports TV Host of the Year award at the first Pakistan Sports Awards. In July 2020, she was included in the 100 most influential list of people in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

/ UK/ EU by the New York Press Agency. In October 2020, she was invited to the TedxLahoreWomen event to give a talk.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbas, Zainab Living people 1988 births Pakistani television hosts Pakistani Muslims Pakistani women television presenters Pakistani make-up artists Pakistani sports broadcasters Alumni of Warwick Business School Pakistani cricket commentators Punjabi people