New-look Quaid-i-Azam Trophy gets under way today
The 44th edition of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy cricket championship begins Wednesday with 18 teams vying for top honours in the premier first-class national competition
Khalid H. Khan
02-Jan-2002
The 44th edition of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy cricket championship
begins Wednesday with 18 teams vying for top honours in the
premier first-class national competition.
For the first time, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has
taken a giant step by fielding provincial teams which gives
definite exposure to players from remote areas across the
country against the 14 district associations, including last
season's Grade-II champions Sialkot.
Three Rest XIs from Punjab, Sindh and NWFP and a Balochistan
XI will compete against the likes of Karachi Whites, Karachi
Blues, Lahore Whites, Lahore Blues, Peshawar, Rawalpindi in
the round robin league phase of the competition which
concludes on Feb 22.
The winners of the two groups will contest the five-day
final from March 1. Whichever side wins the coveted trophy
also stands to claim the cash prize worth Rs 1,00,000 while
the runners-up will be richer by Rs 50,000.
Lahore Blues, who won last year's final by a solitary wicket
over Karachi Whites at National Stadium with Wasim Akram and
Abdur Razzaq playing crucial roles, start the defence of
their title against their senior string Lahore Whites at the
LCCA Ground.
In another important move, the PCB has decided to ensure
that only one team from either Karachi or Lahore (which is a
foregone conclusion) make the final by grouping both cities'
teams in one pool. Both Karachi's outfits, Whites and Blues,
have been placed in Group I while Lahore Whites and Blues
are in Group II.
In all 17 venues will be used for the 72 league matches. Two
of the venues, Country Club Ground (Muridke) and Gymkhana
Club (Okara), will be staging first-class fixtures for the
first time. Meanwhile, the Karachi City Cricket Association
named their squads for the opening match.
Teams are:
Moin Khan (captain) Shahid Afridi, Ghulam Ali, Saeed bin
Nasir, Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Javed, Tabish Nawab,
Mohammad Hasnain, Tanvir Ahmed, Iftikhar Ali, Aqeel Sharif,
Atif Maqbool, Imranullah, Ahmed Shafi, Mohammad Farooq and
Ahmed Zeeshan Malik.
Mohammad Javed has been nominated to lead Karachi Blues in
place of current Test stumper Rashid Latif, who leaves for
Bangladesh with the national squad Wednesday.
The other members of the Karachi Blues squad are Agha Sabir,
Asim Kamal, Atiq-uz-Zaman, Naumanullah, Zeeshan Pervez,
Farhan Adil, Ali Mohammad Madni, Rizwan Saeed, Rajesh
Ramesh, Haaris Ayaz, Fahim Ahmed Senior, Tariq Haroon, Adnan
Kaleem, Mir Rashid and Ashraf Ali.
Hyderabad, which was embroiled in a dispute over selection
matters, managed to announce their squad at the last minute
only after the PCB intervened to resolve the differences
between the HDCA officials.
First round schedule (Jan 2-5):
Group I:
*Karachi Whites v Karachi Blues at KCCA Stadium, Karachi
(Umpires: Sadiq Mohammad and Afzaal Ahmed. Match referee:
Naeem Ahmed).
*Bahawalpur v Hyderabad at Bahawalpur Stadium (Umpires:
Salim Badar and Islam Khan. Match referee: Ilyas Khan)
*Sargodha v Faisalabad at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad
(Umpires:Iftikhar Malik and Asad Rauf. Match referee:
Ehteshamuddin).
*Rest of Sindh XI v Rest of Balochistan XI at National
Stadium,Karachi (Umpires: Shakeel Khan and Masroor Ali.
Match referee:Mohinder Kumar).
Group II:
*Lahore Whites v Lahore Blues at LCCA Ground, Lahore
(Umpires: Mian Aslam and Nadeem Ghauri. Match referee:
AzharHasan).
*Sheikhupura v Sialkot at Country Club, Muridke
Umpires:Feroz Butt and Siddique Khan. Match referee:
AliZia).
*Rawalpindi v Islamabad at KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi (Umpires:
Iftikhar Malik and Rasheed Bhatti. March referee: Khateeb
Rizwan).
*Rest of Punjab XI v Rest of NWFP XI at ArbabNiazStadium,
Peshawar (Umpires: Z.I Pasha and Iqbal Butt. Match referee:
Ishtiaq Ahmed).