KARACHI: Sindh will defend their crown when the fifth edition of the NBP Disabled T20 Pentangular Cup starts in Multan on Monday, it was announced by a senior official of the Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association (PDCA) here on Friday.

Honorary secretary Amiruddin Ansari disclosed that the event, held under the auspices of the PDCA and which has become an annual feature, will be staged at three venues in the historic southern Punjab city which is famously known as the ‘City of the Saints’.

The competition opener, being sponsored for the fifth straight year by the NBP, takes place between Punjab and Balochistan at the District Sports Ground at 10:00am. The second game on Monday will see Khyber Pakhtunkhwa taking on Federal Areas at the same venue, starting at 2:00pm. The other league matches will be held at the Multan Cricket Club Ground, while the final is scheduled to be played next Friday at the Multan Cricket Stadium. Top two teams will qualify for the final at the conclusion of the preliminary phase.

The eventual champions would receive Rs50,000 with the runners-up set to pocket Rs25,000, The man-of-the-match in each fixture would be given Rs1,000 with Rs2,500 each to be awarded to the tournament’s best batsman, best bowler, best fielder and man-of-the-tournament.

Apart from the four provinces, a team from Federal Areas will compete.Amiruddin said that Jamil Kamran, who is the coordinator for Multan/Bahawalpur region and manager of the Pakistan disabled cricket team, has been appointed as the tournament secretary. The Sindh squad will leave for Multan by train on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, the PDCA selection committee, headed by Sabih Azhar with Javed Ashraf, Aslam Bareach, Jamil Kamran and Qambar Ali as members, has announced the five squads that would participate in the tournament.

Squads:

SINDH: Rao Javed (captain), Danish Ahmed (vice-captain), Arif Richard, Waheed Khan, Abdul Rehman, Ameer Ahmed, Mohammad Kalam, Iqbal Hussain, Ishaq Jr, Riasat Ali, Umar Ansari, Zafeer, Farhan Saeed, Salman Askari, Kashif Ahmed, Akhtar Abbas.

PUNJAB: Abdullah (captain), Kamran Butt (vice-captain), Ashiq, Bilal, Mohammad Ashfaq, Abid Hussain, Zulfiqar Ali, Shahbaz, Pervez, Safdar, Zeeshan, Sohail, Iftikhar, Mohammad Noman, Saifullah, Zafar Hussain.

KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA: Fayyaz Ahmed (captain), Abdullah Afridi (vice-captain), Wajid Alam, Sharerullah, Mohammadullah, Kamran Younis, Muhammad Asif, Abdullah, Mohammad Saeed, Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Imranullah Khan, Wajid Ali, Wazir Mohammad, Mohammad Nisar, Sabir Ahmed, Ayat Shah.

BALOCHISTAN: Jahanzaib Tiwana (captain), Abdullah Khan (vice-captain), Naseem Qadri, Umaiz-ur-Rehman, Marghoob Alam, Majid Hussain, Zubair Saleem, Mohammad Asif, Matloob Qureshi, Nusratullah, Ameer Mohammad, Mohammad Nizam, Mohammad Hafeez, Samiullah, Muhammad Zia, Adnan Waqar.

FEDERAL AREAS: Raja Qaiser Imtiaz (captain), Rehan Ghani Mirza (vice-captain), Altaf Ahmed Faisal Nadeem, Kashif Jawwad, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Jahanzaib, Mohammad Idrees, Wasif-ur-Rehman, Adnan Butt, Mohammad Waqas, Mohammad Abdullah, Mohammad Asif Jr, Mohammad Waris, Mohammad Wajid.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014