KARACHI: Prospects of two Karachi outfits competing in the National T20 Cup next month received a major boost on Wednesday when seasoned Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi was announced as skipper for the qualifying tournament which precedes the main competition.

Basit Ali, chairman of the national junior selection committee, who was part of the two-man selection panel that also included Karachi region head coach Azam Khan, named a star-studded Karachi Zebras squad which will compete in the eight-team qualifiers starting at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi from Sept 1.

Normally, the practice followed by Karachi region selectors in the past was to put the best players in the senior Karachi side to maximise their chances of winning the major national tournaments.

But since the Dolphins are guaranteed a place in the 10-team main tournament this time round, the selectors, in a shrewd and well-calculated move, have opted to bolster the second-string Zebras with all major Pakistan players belonging to the city.

Apart from the veteran Pakistan T20 skipper, the Zebras will have the services of current national one-day and T20 vice-captain Sarfraz Ahmed as Afridi’s deputy as well as Anwar Ali, Fawad Alam, Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hasan, Asad Shafiq, Khalid Latif and Mohammad Sami. All these stalwarts have represented the country.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, will be led by long-discarded Test batsman Faisal Iqbal for the main tournament which will be also held in Rawalpindi from 8 to 15 after the qualifiers conclude on Sept 5.

And although none of the two Karachi teams have ever won the national T20 title, it has become a matter of prestige for the once powerful Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) which is arguably the biggest cricket nursery in the country.

By naming the squads, which were officially announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) through the usual media release, the KCCA has all but call truce after its executive committee last week had vowed to lodge a strong protest over the board’s decision to allow just one team from Karachi and Lahore participating in the main events of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy as well as the National T20 Cup in the forthcoming domestic season.

The KCCA was also placed in a quandary whether to protest or accept the revamped domestic format as the cut-off date for submission of squads to the PCB’s Domestic Cricket Operations Department ends on Saturday (Aug 15).

Meanwhile, the qualifying rounds of the premier first-class event, the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy were scheduled to begin from Aug 1 but the PCB was forced to reschedule it and it will now start from Sept 17 — two days after the National T20 Cup ends.

The 12-match Inter-region competition, which will be participated by six regional outfits, will conclude on Oct 2, while the 15-match event for the six-team departmental segment would end on Oct 14.

Squads:

For National T20 Cup:

KARACHI DOLPHINS: Faisal Iqbal (captain), Rameez Raja (vice-captain), Fazal Subhan, Ahsan Ali, Shaharyar Ghani, Saud Shakeel, Babar Hussain Agha, Saifullah Khan Bangash, Mir Hamza, Tabish Khan, Babar Rehman, Azam Hussain, Tariq Haroon, Mirza Ahsan Jamil, Junaid Ilyas, Rameez Aziz, Mir Adnan Baig, Majid Khan.

For T20 qualifying event:

KARACHI ZEBRAS: Shahid Afridi (captain), Sarfraz Ahmed (vice-captain), Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hasan, Khalid Latif, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Sami, Rumman Raees Khan, Faraz Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Waqas, Fawad Khan, Abdul Ameer, Shahzaib Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Hasan, Saad Ali, Tahir Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2015

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