January 06, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 15, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE, Jan 5: A few prominent cricketers will be representing Faisalabad and Lahore Shalimar in their four-day opening match of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Gold League, starting at the Gaddafi Stadium from Saturday.

Led by Test discard, Misbah-ul-Haq, last year runners-up Faisalabad, have another prominent cricketer in Ijaz Ahmed Jr.

The Test players playing for Lahore Shalimar, are opener Salman Butt and Humayun Farhat with little-known Junaid Zia, an One-day international player.

The main reason for the absence of the country’s top Test cricketers from the premier domestic event is because most of them are touring South Africa with the Pakistan team.

Interestingly, another prestigious first class event, the Patron's Trophy Grade-I had also clashed with the home series against the West Indies last November.

The tournament started from Nov 6, the day when the West Indies team arrived in Pakistan to play three Test and five ODIs.

Teams:

Faisalabad:

Ali Raza, Imran Ali, Asif Hussain, Misbah-ul-Haq, Naveed Latif, Usman Arshad, Ijaz Ahmed Junior, Muhammad Zahid, Muhammad Salman, Ammar Mehmood, Faisal Afridi, Asad Ali, Ahmed Hayat, Saeed Ajmal, Imran Khalid.

Lahore Shalimar:

Aamir Sajjad, Salman Butt, Sohail Ahmed, Arsalan Mir, Jahangir Mirza, Ashraf Ali, Muhammad Hussain, Junaid Zia, Muhammad Khalil, Fahad Masood, Usman Malik, Muhammad Jamshed, Humayun Farhat, Khaqan Arsal Raja.