Sports presenter Zainab Abbas graces cover of Khaleej Times' weekend magazine
June 11, 2021
Pakistan’s popular television anchor and the foremost female sports presenter Zainab Abbas has graced the cover of wknd — the weekly lifestyle magazine owned by the Khaleej Times.
One of the premier English-language newspapers of the United Arab Emirates, Khaleej Times introduced the 33-year-old television sports personality as “Pakistan’s most recognised female sports presenter” in its Instagram announcement for the June 11 issue of the magazine.
The newspaper interviewed Zainab Abbas and discussed different aspects of her life, especially her ‘inspiring journey’ for the weekly magazine.
The Khaleej Times captioned the post: “We speak to Pakistan’s most recognised female sports presenter, Zainab Abbas (@zabbasofficial), who is in the UAE for the ongoing Pakistan Super League.”
Later, Zainab Abbas shared the same post by the Emirati publication on her social media feed as well.
The newspaper outlined her early life and then her foray into sports broadcasting that led her to a full-time career. Later in 2019, she became Pakistan’s first female presenter to be part of an ICC World Cup broadcasting team.
Zainab Abbas brought her early-career hardships into focus. “When I started, I got a culture shock because sports presenting was very much male-dominated,” she said.
“I now feel times have changed for the better. But when I started, I didn’t really know anybody around who I could take help from. There was no female idol that I could really look up to because, at that time, there was nobody. So I was kind of thrown in at the deep end, and trying to find my own path. I feel, at that time, you are always challenging perceptions of our society. There are lots of prejudices, there are lots of preconceived notions about women talking about sports because there’s always that mentality that ‘how can a woman be talking about sports?’.”
Zainab is currently in Abu Dhabi for the Pakistan Super League matches. She is excited about her upcoming big project in England as she has been roped in by Sky Sports for England's new league to be played in the newest format - The Hundred. In this format, every team will play 100 balls each.
Some of the biggest cricket stars will play in the league.
With ever-increasing popularity on social media, Zainab Abbas is expected to cross the mark of 600,000 followers on Instagram in a couple of days.
