August 04, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 19, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 3: A good number of Test and seasoned first-class cricketers including Mohammad Hafeez, Asim Kamal, Misbah-ul-Haq will become ineligible to play in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy 2007-08, the country’s premiere domestic tournament, due to newly amended rules by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The PCB announced on July 27 through its website that “a player who wants to represent some department in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy [first class] or in the Patrons Trophy Grade-II is not eligible to take part in the forthcoming Inter-District Senior Cricket Championship [starting from Aug 24].

“The selection of regional cricket teams, which will take part in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy [first class], will be based on the performance of Inter-District Senior Championship.”

But the decision has closed the doors of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy on Test cricketers like Asim Kamal, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shadab Kabir and various other first class cricketers such as Khalid Latif, Samiullah Khan Niazi, Imran Khalid, Abdul Rauf because they have to represent their departmental teams, namely Port Qasim and Sui Gas, in the Patron's Trophy Grade-II.

This means that after playing in the Grade-II event the said players will be free and thus they will not have any platform to show their performance to claim a place in the national side.

The quality of the matches in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy can also be affected as, according to another amendment, the departments and regions will be playing jointly in it this year as opposed to the past practice of playing separately.

In the last three seasons, the regions/associations had been playing in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy while departments in the Patron's Trophy Grade-I.

But as almost all top professional players will be available for their departments, the regions cannot field strong teams. Thus the matches between the regions and departments may be one-sided, making the most prestigious event looking less competitive.

For Lahore Region, players like Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat, Humayun Farhat, Salman Butt and Zulqarnain Tahir are likely to prefer their respective departments.

Similarly, Karachi will not have the services of top players like Shahid Afridi, Aasim Kamal, Faisal Iqbal. For Islamabad, Shoaib Akhtar, Azhar Mahmood, Bazid Khan will not be available while in Multan, Shabbir Ahmed, Abdul Rauf, Saeed Anwar Junior, Bilal Khilji, Aamir Bashir have to represent their departments.

However, as the PCB has offered a financial package for the players of regional teams, it is likely that those cricketers who are getting meagre salaries from their departments may prefer the regional teams.

The situation in this regard will be cleared after Aug 24, a deadline which the PCB has set for each player to confirm their availability for any team (departmental/regional).