LAHORE: A two-day trials to select the first Central Punjab squad for the upcoming the National U-19 cricket tournament began at the LCCA Ground here on Saturday.

Overall 80 players, who have already been selected to represent Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot regions in the upcoming event under the previous regional based domestic season’s structure, appeared in the trials.

They are once again made to appear in the trials despite being selected in their respective regional teams some two months back, because the PCB has revamped the domestic season by introducing provincial-base formula in which only six teams will feature instead of the previous 16 regional sides.

But as the Lahore High Court on Friday issued a stay order against the newly amendment made in the PCB constitution under which new system is also being introduced, it was expected that the trials will not be held as per scheduled on Saturday.

But the PCB announced a selection panel headed by Rao Iftikhar with Akram Raza, Saood Khan, Talat Mirza and Mohammad Ashraf as members to conducted the trials.

After the first day, the selectors cut short the number to 40 from 80 and the final 20-member squad will be finalised on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2019