Daily Times

LAHORE: After the successful completion of the National Twenty20 and Cricket Associations Twenty20, the 2022-23 season enters into next phase with two red-ball tournaments —- the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and Cricket Associations Championship —- beginning from Tuesday (today). The squads for both tournaments have been finalised by national men’s chief selector, Muhammad Wasim, in consultation with the six Cricket Associations. Yasir Shah, Azhar Ali, Khalid Usman, Umar Amin, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Hasan Ali will lead their respective teams in the two-month Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, in which each team will play the other twice in the 10-round group stage. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) will be defending their Quaid Trophy title in the 31-match event. Five of the six teams will be led by Test players, the only exception being KP, who will be captained by veteran domestic allrounder Khalid Usman. Hasan Ali has moved from Central Punjab to South Punjab as captain while Azhar Ali will be leading Central. Sarfaraz Ahmed, who last played a Test for Pakistan in 2019, will take Sindh’s reins. Umar Amin will lead Northern while legspinner Yasir Shah will captain Balochistan.

“The first five round matches will be played at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, Abbottabad, Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi’s Pindi Cricket Stadium. Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan along with Abbottabad’s and Rawalpindi’s stadiums will be part of the remaining five round matches. The final of the tournament will be played from November 26 to 30. The venue for the final will be announced in due course,” said a spokesman for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday. The first eight-round matches from Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi will be captured by nine High-Definition cameras and beamed across the globe through PCB’s official YouTube channel. The live-stream schedule for the last two rounds will be shared in due course, while the final will be televised on PTV Sports.

The PCB that has recently increased the match fees for its players featuring in the domestic cricket as part of its efforts to incentivise and reward top-performing cricketers, has put PKR17million on offer for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with the champion side grabbing PKR10million and runner-up bagging PKR5million. The top-performers —- player of the tournament, best batter, best bowler and best wicketkeeper —- will pocket PKR500,000 each. The player of the final will be awarded PKR50,000. In last year’s Quaid Trophy, Northern and KP faced each other in the final in December 2021. KP’s 169-run win was fuelled by Iftikhar Ahmed’s hundred. Sindh finished third, despite having the same number of wins, losses, and draws as KP while Central Punjab (fourth) and Southern Punjab (fifth) had two and one wins respectively. Balochistan were winless and finished last.

Cricket Associations Championship: Meanwhile, the Cricket Associations Championship, in which the second XI sides of the six Cricket Associations feature, will also begin from September 27 and will be played on the double round robin basis. In order to bring more competitiveness, the PCB, has introduced four-day matches instead of the usual three-day for the tournament. The matches will be played from September 27 to November 23 at different venues of Karachi, while Bugti Stadium in Quetta will host three matches from sixth to eight round. Sindh — the defending champions will take on Central Punjab at the UBL Sports Complex, Karachi in their opening round match.