Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set to defend Quaid-e-Azam trophy title
The Quaid-e-Azam trophy, Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament, is set to start from Tuesday with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) defending their title in the 31-match event.
Five other teams – Northern, Central Punjab, Southern Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan – will be taking part in the tournament, which will kick off with three simultaneous games in three of the five venues: Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad. Karachi and Islamabad, which were initially slotted as venues, have been replaced by Multan and Lahore due to logistical challenges. The larger part of the tournament is slotted in the Southern and Central Punjab region with the final scheduled for November 26.
The Cricket Associations Championship, which is a non-first-class red-ball tournament consisting of second-XI players (Grade 2), will commence simultaneously at three different venues within Karachi. The majority of the Associations Championship will be played in Karachi – with UBL complex, NBP sports complex and KCCA stadium the designated venues – and three games are scheduled for Quetta’s Bugti Stadium.
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.
The tournament continues to be played on a double-league basis though the arrival of foreign coaches to lead a couple of teams will be worth following. Nottinghamshire assistant coach Paul Franks will be the head coach of Central Punjab while Leicestershire head coach Paul Nixon will take up the same role with Sindh.
The second XI Cricket Championship will also be played on a double-league basis, across formats. The three-day tournament that used to be played as a pathway to first-class cricket will now extend to a four-day league [though they will not be officially recognised as first-class fixtures.] And just like the T20s and the 50-over tournaments, each side will get a minimum of ten matches.
New and improved central contracts
Ahead of the tournament, the PCB has given an increment to the 192 domestic players in their monthly retainers and match fees – across all formats and levels – for the season. As per the new financial model, a player featuring in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy will now get a match fee of PKR 100,000 as opposed to the previous sum of PKR 60,000. Similarly, the match fee for the Cricket Associations Championship has been increased from PKR 25,000 to PKR 40,000.
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