Shoaib Malik announces retirement from Tests

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✹ Veteran Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik has announced his retirement from Test cricket and now will
play only in the One-Day International (ODI). Malik wanted to focus more on ODIs and is willing to play the 2019 World Cup.

✹ Malik, 33 made a spectacular comeback to Test cricket at the beginning of the three-match series in the United Arab Emirates, marking his comeback with a career-best 245 in Abu Dhabi.

Cricket Career of Shoaib Malik:-

✹ Malik made his One-Day International debut in 1999 against the West Indies and his Test debut in 2001 against Bangladesh.

✹ Shoaib Malik has taken over 100 ODI wickets, and has a batting average in the mid 30s in both Test and ODI cricket.

✹ Malik has played 35 Tests for Pakistan where he has scored 1898 runs at an average of 35.14

✹ His bowling action has come under scrutiny (particularly his doosra) but he has had elbow surgery to correct this.

✹ Malik was ranked second, behind teammate Shahid Afridi, in the ICC ODI all-rounder rankings in June 2008.

Taiwan and China to hold historic meet for the first time

✷ Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Singapore in the first ever meeting between leaders of the two sides since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, coinciding with rising anti-China sentiment on Taiwan.

✷ The talks come at a politically sensitive time in Taiwan weeks ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in January which the pro-China Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), is likely to lose.

✷ Ma Ying-jeou, the President of Taiwan will steps down next year due to term limits. He has made improving economic links with China a key policy since he took office in 2008. He has also signed landmark business and tourism deals with China although there has been no progress on resolving their political differences.

✷ Pro-China Nationalist Party, known as the Kuomintang (KMT), is trailing in opinion polls behind the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which traditionally favours independence. Tsai Ing-wen is the presidential candidate for Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Background of Taiwan :-

✷ After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong. By 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the defeat of the Nationalist army, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.

✷ Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to Taiwan following their defeat by Mao Zedong's Communists at the end of the Chinese civil war. Since then Taiwan has been self-ruled, but China deems the island a breakaway province to be taken back - by force if necessary - particularly if it makes moves toward independence.