KARACHI, Aug 9 The Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Cricket Festival will celebrate the silver jubilee of popular competition when it starts at the Karachi Gymkhana Ground from the first of the holy month later in the week.

As usual top 16 teams from clubs and departments of the city will be vying for honours in the tournament, to be played for the Bahria Town Trophy, which carries Rs700,00 in prize money this time with the champion team to receive Rs350,000 — a substantial increase of Rs125,000 from last year's edition when Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) pocketed Rs225,000 after defeating Ali Sports CC in the final.

While unveiling details of the forthcoming event here on Monday, Younus Rizwani, the president of Karachi Gymkhana, said “Since we are celebrating the silver jubilee of the tournament that has become very popular with the passage of time, we feel it is appropriate to enhance the prize money to mark the landmark. Therefore, our managing committee has opted to increase the amount to be given to the finalists.”

The runners-up were to get Rs150,000 according to details published in the official brochure, but now they would be getting Rs175,000, an increase of Rs25,000. The winning team was originally set to receive Rs300,000.

Favourites KESC are placed in Group 'A', but last year's runners-up Ali Sports, however, are not competing this time for unspecified reasons.

Also present at the media briefing were sponsors' representative Zain Malik, tournament director Mian Azmat Hussain, Karachi Gymkhana's convener sports Hanif Habib and cricket secretary Khurram Manoo.

Pools

Group 'A' Factdate Engineering, Ideal CC, KESC, Advance Telecom.
Group 'B' Sindh Police, Pak Korangi CC, A.O. CC, Tapal CC.
Group 'C' Medicam, Pak Gymkhana, Mohammad Hussain CC, UBL.
Group 'D' Karachi Gymkhana, Vital-5 Club, Omer CC, Malir Gymkhana.