Quaid-i-Azam Trophy to begin from 11th

Karachi, Oct 2: The commencement of the 2000-01 domestic first-class cricket season has been delayed because the draws of the prestigious Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I could not be prepared and released in time.

The tournament which was scheduled to begin from Oct 6 will now get under way from Oct 11. The tournament will continue during Ramazan which are likely to begin in late November.

The teams taking part in the competition are:

Karachi (2), Lahore (2), Rawalpindi, Islamabad, defending champions Peshawar, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Sargodha.

However, the dates and draws of the Patron's Trophy contested by the departmental teams have still not been finalized.

Zakir Khan, manager cricket operations, said from Lahore that the delay in the start of the season was due to the addition of two teams. He said initially 10 teams were drawn in the competition but will now have 12 with Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) and Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) allowed to field one extra team each.

He said the availability of umpires was also one of the reasons.

He said the draws of the competition will be released on Tuesday and the event would be played on single-league basis. He added that there would be no prize money as the board was without a sponsor.

"But we are in the process of negotiating with a couple of multinational companies to sponsor the season. If a deal is struck, we might announce cash incentives. But at the moment, there is no cash award," the former Test pacer said.

He said each association would be entitled to field three guest players. "The associations can field as many local professionals in the lineup as they like. But they are restricted to just three guest players.

"If Lahore imports three Karachi players, they were entitled to do so. But that doesn't mean that the guest players will be restricted to playing for the adopted team for three years as was the rule a couple of seasons back," he said.

He said the players are not being restricted because the board is in the process of reshaping the domestic structure. He said the firstclass cricket next season will be played on regional basis with the local associations required to hire players on contract.

Zakir Khan said although three stadia would be equipped with floodlights, the facility would not be availed to complete the overs in the day as it was not feasible. "We might consider the operation of lights or a couple of first-class matches under lights on experimental basis next season but not this time."

Zakir also said a pool of umpires for the first-class season have been finalized. He said all the umpires would get even number of matches.

Afzal Ahmad, Aleem Dar, Asad Rauf, Akbar Khan, Ehtishamul Haq, Feroze Butt, Iftikhar Malik, Islam Khan, Iqbal Butt, Ijaz Ahmad, Kamal Merchant, Mian Aslam, Masroor Ali, Nazir Junior, Nadeem Ghauri, Riazuddin, Rasheed Bhatti, Salim Badar, Shakeel Khan, Siddique Khan, Sadiq Mohammad, Sajjad Asghar, Waqar Mughal, Z.I Pasha, Zameer Haider and Athar Zaidi.