LAHORE: With the ambition of creating a strong talent pool at the domestic level and further strengthen its pathways programme, the Pakistan Cricket Board will hold the first of its kind Under-19 T20 Tournament for Women from Saturday (today).The Under-19 T20 Women’s Tournament will be competed by six Cricket Association teams, comprising 84 players, from August 13 to 22 at the Lahore Country Club inMuridke.The 10-day tournament will be conducted on round-robin basis, meaning each team will play at least five matches. The league stage will be followed by semi-finals and final on August 20 and August 22.The U19 Tournament serves a perfect opportunity for the players to stake a claim in the national U19 side ahead of the maiden ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa next year and the top performers are also guaranteed places in the senior sides, which will come into action when the senior women domestic season commences from November. To further incentivise the players to bring out their best performances, the PCB has also introduced financial awards to encourage the players to bring out their best. The winning team will receive PKR400,000 along with the silverware and the runners-up will get PKR200,000.The player of the tournament will be awarded PKR20,000 and each player of the match will receive PKR10,000. The tournament’s top performers — best player, best batter, best bowler and best wicketkeeper – will be gifted kit bags to encourage them to enhance their skills and pursue their cricketing ambitions.The PCB has also finalised the six squads, which consist of 14 players each. These squads have been nailed down after country-wide open trials and subsequent practice games amongst the selected players across the PCB-run women regional academies.Fifteen players have been placed in reserve pool and they can be called up based on a team’s requirement. Only players born on or after 1 September 2003 are eligible to play in the tournament. Squads: Balochistan: Humaira Ghulam Hussain (Captain), Alisha Aslam, Aman Fatima, Amina Javed, AzraHabibullah, Dura-E-Nayab, Fakhra Abdullah, Fiza Noor, KalsoomKakar, MadhurMoolani, Misha Kareem, RuqiaNazar, Shakira Ahmed and ShamimAmirullah. Coaching staff:Aqil Khan (coach) and Rizwan Qureshi (assistant coach). Central Punjab: Shawal Zulfiqar (captain), Areesha Noor, Eyman Fatima, Farah Imran, HaleemaAzeem Dar, HaleemaDua, Jaweria Ali, Komal Khan, Laiba Nasir, Noor Fatima, QuratulainAhsen, Rida Aslam, WardaYousaf and Zamina Tahir Chugtai. Coaching staff: Mohsin Kamal (head coach) and ShahidMehmood (assistant coach). Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: ZaibunisaNiaz (captain), Aleesha Khan, Aliza Khan, BakhtawarArifullah, GuleNayab, HansaZair Gul, Humaira Husain, Jalwa Anwar, JaveriaQamar, MahnoorAftab, MalaikaAfridi, SumbalLiaquat, TayyabaImdad and Tehzeeb Shah. Coaching staff: HajraSarwar (coach/manager), Rehmat Gul (coach) and RiazKail (assistant coach). Northern: MahamAnees (captain), Fatima Sardar, HadiaMushtaq, KainatRiasat, LaibaMubashar, Maheen Irfan, Malaika Noor, MariyamShehzadi, MuskanAbid, Noor Fatima, RidaAshfaq, Sarah Jan Peter, SyedaHaniaZehra and Tahira Malik. Coaching staff: WasimYousafi (head coach) and IntikhabAlam (assistant coach). Sindh: Aroob Shah (captain), AbeeraKaleem, Aliza Sabir, Anosha Nasir, Dina Razvi, EmanAdeel, FarhiaFahim, HaniahAhmer, KainatEman Shah, Khizra Rani, Sara Fatima, Taskeen Fatima, Tooba Khan and Wasfa Hussain. Coaching staff: Tahir Mehmood (head coach) and Nazim Khan (assistant coach). Southern: Aqsa Hafeez (captain), Anam Bibi, Aqsa Yousaf, Eman Fatima, JaveriaAsharaf, Javeria Siddique, Laila Manzoor, Muqadas Bukhari, RimshaShehzadi, Sahar Fatima, Sana Khan, SaniaMazhar, ShameerRajpoot and Uzma Iqbal. Coaching staff: Kamran Hussain (head coach) and ShakirQayyum (assistant coach). Reserve players: AreeshYasin, Ayesha Shahzad, Bushra Bibi, Fatima Ghafoor, Fatima Nadeem, Hasnat Ibrahim, Jennifer Chaudhary, Kiran Akram, MalaikaShahzadi, MemoonaMazhar, MisbahZaheer, RamamaNazir, RidaSajid, SimraMehboob and Tooba Zafar. Tournament schedule (all matches at Lahore Country Club, Muridke) Aug 13: Central Punjab v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Northern v Sindh; Balochistan v Southern Punjab Aug 14: Balochistan v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Central Punjab v Northern; Southern Punjab v Sindh Aug 16: Southern Punjab v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Central Punjab v Sindh; Balochistan v Northern Aug 17: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v Northern; Central Punjab v Southern Punjab; Balochistan v Sindh Aug 19: Sindh v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Balochistan v Central Punjab; Southern Punjab v Northern Aug 20: Semi-finals Aug 22: Final.