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KARACHI: While Pakistan’s southern Sindh province remains busy with safety precautions as it braces for floods heading downstream from Punjab, farmers in the province’s coastal district await the arrival of river water, saying it would prevent the sea from swallowing their lands and provide better catch for fishers. 

Devastating floods in Punjab have killed 43 and displaced more than 1.8 million people, authorities have said. Excess releases from Indian dams and heavy monsoon showers have destroyed crops in Punjab, caused rivers to swell and affected more than 3.6 million people.

Sharjeel Inam Memon, information minister of the Sindh government, said floodwaters are expected to enter the province at Guddu Barrage between September 5 and 6, adding that the administration was “fully prepared” to deal with the situation.

“All the arrangements have been made, the government has established relief camps and is evacuating the population along with animals and livestock,” he told Arab News, adding that he could not rule out the possibility of “super floods.”

The term is used by officials in Pakistan to describe exceptionally high flood levels that exceed normal seasonal flows, often overwhelming barrages and embankments.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) warns that floods heading downstream may cause similar devastation in Sindh, Gulab Shah, a 52-year-old farmer from Jhaloo village near the coastal town of Keti Bunder in Thatta district, waits for the river water to arrive. 

Seawater intrusion into the delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea in Sindh, has triggered the collapse of farming and fishing communities.

“Our ancestors have lived here for centuries,” Shah told Arab News. “There was a time when we owned thousands of acres of land, but due to the drying up of the delta, the sea has swallowed it all.”

Shah said his family of 100 people, comprising 12 brothers and two sisters, now makes do with only 350 acres. 

“Even on this land, rice no longer grows as it used to, and the banana crop has completely vanished,” he rued. 

Shah says flood upstream sometimes translates into survival for areas downstream. 

“We feel sorrow for those affected by floods in other regions, but whenever floods come, they bring water into the Indus River,” he said.

DYING RIVERS, INFERTILE PLAINS

Dr. Hassan Abbas, a hydrologist who earned his doctorate in water resources at Michigan State University, agrees the Indus Delta has shrunk and “almost died because the water did not reach there.”

“It’s just as important for the rivers to reach the sea as it is for the water to flow from your body,” Dr. Abbas explained. 

The hydrologist said Pakistan’s rivers have gotten smaller due to dams, saying that they have almost become almost dry. He said due to this, ecological services and environmental systems are “dying and under extreme stress.”

Dr. Abbas added that when floods halt upstream, salts that once washed into the sea remain on farmland, damaging the soil. 

“An estimated 60 million tons of salt, every year, used to be washed by the river into the sea,” he said. “Now, not even 10 million tons make it there.”

He noted that while floods cause destruction, they also make Pakistan’s plains fertile. 

“You have to adapt to the floods,” he said. “This system of floods, if it doesn’t exist, then your food basket will collapse.”

’MAJOR THREAT FROM THE SEA’

Along the coast, residents describe how the sea has encroached over the years as freshwater declines. Younus Khaskheli, chairman of the Sindh-based fisherfolk association MaHajjiri Samaji Sangat, recalled how dams built on rivers since 1960 have led to a decline in the mud and silt that flowed downstream. 

“So many islands have been cut off [now] that the sea is four to six kilometers ahead,” Khaskheli said. “From 1960 till now, about 1.2 million people migrated from there and came here.”

Khaskheli said 80 percent of the people who migrated were from the fishing communities. Mangrove forests, once spread over a million hectares in the province, had now shrunk to around 70,000 hectares due to the drying riverbed. 

“The people who say that the water of the river Sindh is wasted in the sea are not aware of the ecosystem,” he explained. “This is a natural process. The river brings silage and soil with it. The ecosystem circulates in this way.”

Memon shared Khaskheli’s concerns about the Indus Delta.

“The Indus Delta needs water every year,” he said, adding that it does not receive sufficient flows due to the decreased level of water in the Indus.

“This time there are chances, yes, that we will fulfill the requirement of the delta,” Memon added.

For others like Manzoor Ali Rind, who resides in Sindh’s Dadu district hundreds of kilometers away from the sea, previous floods wreaked havoc. Rind cultivates around 10 acres of farmland in Bux Ali Rind village in Dadu.

“When I hear the word flood, it takes me 15 years back when it wiped out my rice crops,” Rind told Arab News, recalling the devastation of the 2010 floods. 

“It took me years to stand on my feet again.”

But for farmers like Shah, who reside in coastal areas, the approaching sea serves as a stark reminder. He said his village used to be 25 kilometers away from the sea.

Now, it is only three kilometers away.

“We don’t know when the sea will swallow the little land we have left,” Shah said. “We want to be protected from the sea, and for that, it is essential that water flows in the river.”

After monsoon rains lashed Sindh in June, Shah saw something he hadn’t in a decade: the hilsa fish. 

“Now, whenever water comes, whether from rains or floods, we feel happy,” Shah said. “Because it brings prosperity for us and also protects us from a major threat from the sea.”

The Hundred is over for 2025. At Lords, last Sunday, the Oval Invincibles men’s team lived up to their name by winning the trophy for the third consecutive year.

The Trent Rockets, winners in 2022, were dispatched in the final. In the women’s final, the Northern Superchargers beat the Southern Brave.

After five years of getting used to the format, the team names and the garish branding, it has seemed that, whisper it softly, the tournament has gained wider acceptability.

Perhaps the determination, bordering on evangelism, of The Hundred’s proponents for it to succeed have browbeaten naysayers into submission. Even I have watched much more of it in person than in previous years.

Record attendances were recorded at four different grounds in 2025, including 22,542 at the women’s final. A total of 580,000 tickets were sold and issued.

The audience demographics were consistent with 2024, with 23 percent junior tickets, 41percent families and 30 percent female buyers. Viewing figures increased in 2025.

In the group stages, Sky Sports’ audience for The Hundred rose by an average of 38 percent compared with 2024. BBC Sport experienced 2.2 million online viewing requests in 2025, up from 1.6 million in 2024.

These metrics speak of success, of a sound base on which to build for the future. Yet, The Hundred’s future is going to be different to its past. How much so will play out over the coming months under the direction of a new board.

This will feature representatives of the England and Wales Cricket Board, the host clubs and investors. The ECB has delegated authority to the board relating to certain aspects of the strategic direction and commercial growth of The Hundred. These include sponsorship and licensing deals, player salaries, player draft and retention conditions.

It is in these areas that changes are anticipated, driven by the new investors. Their combined investment, so far of around $700 million, provides substantial influence.

Until this point, cricket in England and Wales has required the agreement of two-thirds of the constituent counties to implement change. It was always clear, from the beginning of The Hundred concept, that the ECB saw it as a mechanism for diluting the voting power of the counties.

This is now a reality. Even those counties which have retained a 51 percent equity share do not appear to be having things their own way.

A clear case is the Oval Invincibles. It is understood that the name is being consigned to history, replaced by MI London. The Ambani family owns the Mumbai Indians’ global portfolio of franchises. This began in the Indian Premier League and has been extended to MI Cape Town, MI Emirates, MI New York and, imminently, London.

There is disappointment amongst Surrey County members that the name could not retain Oval in its title. It is interpreted as the thin end of the wedge, a sign of things to come, in which a majority shareholding does not convey real power.

Less concern has been expressed about other name changes. The Manchester Originals name will change to incorporate “Super Giants” to bring it into line with the Lucknow and Durban franchises of the RPSG group. The Northern Superchargers name is likely to be adapted by the 100 percent owners, Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The influence of the India owners and part owners is likely to go far beyond name changes. Coaches and support teams may be changed to align with their teams in other franchise leagues.

There are rumors that The Hundred’s draft selection system, in which franchises take turns to pick players from a pool, will be replaced with the auction system favored by the IPL.

In turn, this may mean a change to the number of players which can be retained from the 15-person squads. The aim of these systems is to establish competitive balance between squads.

The auction system is more high profile and results in the top players being picked off for eye-watering amounts of money. Its adoption will disrupt the existing teams, a move likely to be unpopular.

The Oval Invincibles, for example, has built its success on its affiliation with the Oval. It has chosen a strong cadre of Surrey players to create a clear identity, retaining this core to generate team spirit and bonding. In recognition of this, supporters have responded by generating an in-match atmosphere that is regarded by commentators as the best on the circuit.

Yet this successful team is at risk of being ripped up. The prospect may please its rivals, but there is a risk of too much change creating confusion for audiences.

The Hundred has a one-month duration, unlike the IPL, which lasts for two months. By the time that people have begun to be accustomed to team compositions, The Hundred is almost over. How much heed the new board will take over warnings not to change too much too soon is unknown.

It has other weighty considerations. One is how it taps into the Indian market, which is four-and-a-half hours ahead of the UK. Currently, men’s matches, which follow the women’s, are scheduled to end around 9 p.m. BST.  

Another consideration is the number of overseas players who will be attracted or allowed. Currently, each squad is permitted three overseas players. It has proved difficult to attract the volume of top men’s players, largely because of competing T20 tournaments elsewhere or national commitments.

The big question centers on Indian players. If centrally contracted in India, they are not permitted to play in any franchise league, other than the IPL. The presence and influence of Indian owners in The Hundred may start to shift the debate.

In the short term, the example of Ravichandran Ashwin is the most likely model. He has retired from international cricket and declared an ambition to be an “explorer of the game around (the) various leagues.” It is rumored that his first exploration may be the Big Bash League in Australia.

August 2025 marks the end of the beginning for The Hundred. It has survived apathy, suspicion, ridicule and aggressive opposition, bordering on detest.

Despite the format being played nowhere else in the world, it has succeeded in what many thought to be its real purpose, that of attracting external investment into the English and Welsh game. The price to be paid for that outcome will now unfold at the hands of the new owners.

Undoubtedly, The Hundred 2026 will herald in a new era, with significant implications for both audience and player retention, not to mention its potential impact on the structure and shape of the domestic game.

Much depends on the power dynamics of The Hundred’s new board during this stage of transition.