Pakistan: DTMC changes national cricket contest format (4 August 1999)

4 August 1999

Pakistan: DTMC changes national cricket contest format

Our Sports Correspondent

LAHORE, Aug 3: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ad hoc committee's Domestic Tournament Monitoring Committee (DTMC) made various changes in the domestic cricket set up, starting from Sept 1 with the National Under-19 Cricket Championship Grade-I and II.

The decisions were taken in the DTMC meeting which was held at the Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.

After presiding over the meeting DTMC chairman Javed Zaman told Dawn that all the associations and departmental teams would jointly participated in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Tournament starting from Oct 16. It would be the Grade-I fixture and all the matches would be of four-day duration, he said.

Twenty two departmental and association teams were likely to play in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Tournament, Javed Zaman said.

Similarly, the departmental and association teams would also play jointly in the Patron's Trophy Tournament, commencing from Feb. 7, 2000. It would be the Grade-II tournament and its matches would be limited to two day. Surprisingly, the DTMC, on one hand has reduced the playing number of days from three to two while on other has increased the number of overs per innings from 65 to 90, thereby reducing the chances of obtainimg results from matches.

The points for first innings lead have also been raised from two to three. Another one-day national tournament, in addition to the President One-Day Cricket Cup, is being introduced this season and it will begin from September 20. About 24 departmental and association teams will vie for the top honours in the tournament. The draws of all the tournaments will be finalised later.

In Under-19 competition, a one-day tournament will also run side by side with the Under-19 Grade-I tournament. Every participating team of Grade-I will play a one-day match firstbefore playing the three-day match of theGrade-I tournament. The Under-19 Grade-II tournament will also be played from Sept 1 and its matches have been cut to two-day duration.

The selection of the teams will be completed by August 25 after which the age verification of players will be carried out. The DTMC also announced its representatives to verify the ages of the selected team.

Iqbal Qasim will conduct the age verifications at Sindh and Quetta, Nawab Mansoor at Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Bahawalpur, Sarfraz Ahmad at Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Sargodha, NaumanButt at Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Farrukh Zamanand Maazullah Khan will do the job jointly at Peshawar and NWFP.

The DTMC representatives will also submit their reports about condition of grounds in their respective areas to thecommittee within one week.

The matters relating to playing conditions for various tournaments and fees for umpires etc were also discussed in the meeting.

All the DTMC members including Iqbal Qasim (Karachi), Nawab Mansoor Hayat (Lahore), Sarfraz Ahmad (Rawalpindi), Farrukh Zaman (Peshawar), Nauman Butt (Gujranwala) and Saqib Irfan (PCB) attended the meeting.

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