Daily Times

LAHORE: Fresh from successfully organising the Pakistan Super League Twenty20 Tournament in the United Arab Emirates, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced plans to hold the Pakistan Cup Cricket Championship from April 19 to May 1 in Faisalabad. “Pakistan’s 75 top cricketers will take part in the Pakistan Cup 2016, the country’s premier domestic 50-over tournament. The tournament will bring together teams representing Balochistan, Federal Capital, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh,” said a spokesman for the PCB.

Balochistan will be led by Pakistan ODI captain Azhar Ali while Ijaz Ahmad and Taimur Azam will form the coaching panel. Pakistan Test captain Misbahul Haq will lead the Federal side. Mansoor Rana and Sabih Azhar will form the coaching panel for the Federal team. Star batsman Younus Khan will lead Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Abdul Rehman and Kabir Khan forming the coaching panel. Punjab will be captained by Shoaib Malik while Atiq uz Zaman will join Mautashim Rashid on the coaching panel. Pakistan T20 skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed will lead Sindh. Tauseef Ahmed and Iqbal Imam will be part of the coaching panel for Sindh.

In an unprecedented move, the five captains and the coaches will be involved in selecting the teams through a player draft scheduled to take place on Tuesday (today). “Around 150 players will be eligible for selection at the draft. In order to provide top quality exposure to younger players, each team will be required to pick one regional Under-19 cricketer,” added the spokesman. Highlighting plans for the event, PCB chairman executive committee Najam Sethi pointed out that the tournament would help revive fan engagement in domestic cricket. “Our public loves cricket and we are trying to further elevate our product. There is greater involvement of senior cricketers with the draft process in place. Players will also receive a 100 percent increase in remuneration and the support staff is very experienced. We are celebrating unity in diversity and I urge the fans to come and watch these matches in the stadium,” added Sethi. The PCB also announced that the match fees in this tournament would be double as compared to a regular domestic one-day game. The Pakistan Cup will be the second one-day format domestic tournament to be organised by the PCB this year, the National One-day Cup being the first which was held in January and consisted of 16 sides – both from departments and regions. Cool & Cool will be the presenting sponsor of the tournament while Junaid Jamshed, Brighto Paints and Goldenpearl will be co-sponsors.