KARACHI: Flamboyant Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi and discarded wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal will lead Sindh and Punjab respectively in the Taqreebat-e-Azadi (Independence Day celebrations) T20 Cup cricket tournament which is being organised on the directive of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
According to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) media release on Monday, the six-match series will start from Aug 6 and conclude on Pakistan’s 67th anniversary of independence on Aug 14.
The matches are scheduled to be played in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta. Barring the Punjab-Sindh clash at the Gaddafi Stadium, all other matches would begin at 3:00pm. The Aug 14 fixture is a day/night affair and starts at 6:00pm.
Pakistan pace spearhead Umar Gul has been designated to lead the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team, while Karachi batsman Rameez Raja would skipper Balochistan.
In the opening game Sindh take on Balochistan in what would be the first high-profile match at Quetta’s Bugti Stadium since March 1997 when Pakistan entertained Australia in an Under-19 one-day tie. Because of security concerns, Quetta have not been able to play their major domestic home fixtures in the Balochistan capital since Oct 2008.
A senior PCB official, who requested anonymity, told Dawn that there is still no word whether the upcoming event would be part of the regular domestic calendar.
“As far I know that the cricket board is staging the tournament on the directive of the Prime Minister and has been named as the Taqreebat-e-Azadi T20 Cup [some may call it the T20 Azadi Cup if they wish]. At this stage it would be obviously premature to say whether this is going to be a one-off thing,” he said.
“The matches have been spread to five cities so that all the provinces are represented. Quetta may not have had the chance to hold a game of this level before but the signs are encouraging with the success of a charity game held there recently where Shahid Afridi received a rapturous response from everyone present,” he added.
Six members of the Sri Lanka-bound Pakistan squad for the ODI series have been named in two of the four teams. Apart from Afridi, Sindh squad also includes Fawad Alam, Sharjeel Khan and Anwar Ali.
Of the Punjab 14-man squad Sohaib Maqsood and Zulfiqar Babar are in the Pakistan team for the three one-dayers against Sri Lanka on Aug 23 (Hambantota), Aug 27 (Colombo) and Aug 30 (Dambulla).
Former Pakistan T20 skipper Mohammad Hafeez (who is also in the squad for Sri Lanka one-dayers), Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Nasir Jamshed and Imran Nazir will skip the upcoming tournament since they are currently in the West Indies where they are participating in the second edition of Caribbean Premier League T20 event which started on July 11 and ends on Aug 16.
Squads:
SINDH: Shahid Afridi (captain), Fawad Alam (vice-captain), Faisal Iqbal, Mohammad Sami, Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Anwar Ali, Ahsan Ali, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Hasan, Shahzaib Ahmed Khan, Atif Maqbool, Azam Hussain, Mir Hamza; Shaukat Mirza (coach), Shafiq Kazmi (manager).
Reserves: Rumman Raees Khan, Zahid Mahmood, Faraz Ali.
PUNJAB: Kamran Akmal (captain), Babar Azam (vice-captain), Sohaib Maqsood, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Irfan, Bilawal Bhatti, Ehsan Adil, Zulfiqar Babar, Ali Waqas, Abid Ali, Asif Ali, Saad Nasim, Zia-ul-Haq, Karamat Ali; Sabih Azhar (coach), Nasir Iqbal (manager).
Reserves: Naved Yasin, Usman Salahuddin, Nayyar Abbas.
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA: Umar Gul (captain), Yasir Hameed (vice-captain), Hammad Azam, Israrullah, Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Yasin, Afaq Raheem, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Raza Hasan, Usman Khan Shinwari, Mohammad Imran Khan; Abdul Rehman (coach), Gohar Ali (manager).
Reserves: Azizullah, Khalid Usman, Adil Amin.
BALOCHISTAN: Rameez Raja (captain), Bismillah Khan (vice-captain), Sami Aslam, Taimur Khan, Faisal Mubashir, Shahzad Tareen, Naeem Anjum, Umar Siddique, Gohar Faiz, Ghulam Mohammad, Zafar Gohar, Asad Ali, Ataullah, Aamir Yamin; Wasim Haider (coach), Gul Mohammad Kakar (manager).
Reserves: Fariduddin, Mohammad Farhan, Shabbir Ali.
Schedule:
Aug 6: Sindh vs Balochistan (Bugti Stadium, Quetta).
Aug 8: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vs Punjab (Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar).
Aug 10: Sindh vs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (National Stadium, Karachi).
Aug 11: Punjab vs Balochistan (Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi).
Aug 13: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vs Balochistan (Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore).
Aug 14: Punjab vs Sindh (Gaddafi Stadium,
Lahore).
Published in Dawn, Aug 5th, 2014
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