Khalid H. Khan: Pakistan domestic first-class season commences from today (Oct 3 1997)

03 October 1997

Domestic first-class season commences from today

By Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI, Oct 2: The premier national first-class cricket championship for Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Grade-I begins from tomorrow (Friday) at five different centres across the country. Defending champions Lahore City start their campaign against Karachi Whites, who have been the runners-up in the previous two seasons under the captaincy of Iqbal Imam, in the 40th edition of the first-class competition. They clash at the LCCA Ground.

This time, however, Karachi's second string is being led by ex- Pakistan junior skipper Ahmer Saeed.

Pakistan all-rounder Wasim Akram is captaining Lahore City in a bid to test out his fitness before he makes himself available for the Tests against South Africa. He has already been ruled out of the first of three Tests, which starts from Oct 6 in Rawalpindi.

This season, already named the Pakistan Golden Jubilee Cricket Season, the championship will run concurrently with the Patron's Trophy Grade-I tournament for the departmental teams, which is set to start from Oct 17.

This time there are ten association teams in the fray as against eight last season and also unlike previous season, the top teams in the round-robin competition will play in the final in February next. The new format will also witness the first-class tournaments being carried on in the holy month of Ramazan, expected to begin by the end of December.

Two teams which have remained out of the first-class scene for a while meet in Gujranwala. Gujranwala, who won the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Grade-II championship last season, are making a comeback to the mainstream after a lapse of nine years against last year's runners-up, Multan, who are returning after a gap of four years.

Twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi face each other at the CRA Ground in Islamabad while Faisalabad entertain Peshawar in Faisalabad.

There is a bizarre situation here with the arrival of two outfits to represent Bahawalpur against the star-studded Karachi Blues at the Asghar Ali Shah Stadium.

Apparently, the reason behind such a hilarious episode seems to be the ongoing wrangle between Afzal Hussain Shah Bukhari and Ghulam Abbas. Bukhari has filed a writ in the court of a senior civil judge in Bahawalpur against his dismissal as honorary secretary of the Bahawalpur Divisional Cricket Association.

One of the two visiting teams consist of as many as 25 players and seven officials while the side, which should play tomorrow, has come here with 17 players and one official.

Karachi Blues are fielding a formidable side that includes seven Test players viz Asif Mujtaba (captain), Basit Ali, Rashid Latif, Shoaib Muhammad, Azam Khan, Nadeem Khan and Shadab Kabir. The remaining players in the squad are Sajid Ali, Manzoor Akhtar, Naeem Tayyab, Ali Raza, Lal Fraz, Mahmood Hamid, Zafar Jadoon, Sohail Jaffar, Muhammad Hasnain and Ali Moosa. Ali Hussain Rizvi, Javed Qadeer and Ali Naqvi, who are currently representing the PCB Combined XI against the touring South Africans in the three-day match here, and Asim Zaidi will be considered whenever available for selection.

However, all eyes will be on the discarded Test duo of Rashid Latif and Basit Ali. They are desperate to make a comeback to the international scene.

Former Test umpires Mahboob Shah and Feroz Butt will supervise the four-day opener with Iqbal Sikander acting as match referee.

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)