KARACHI: Four matches will be played on the opening day of the six-day ICRC National Disabled T20 Cricket Championship here on Monday.

Multan take on debutants Islamabad at the UBL Sports Complex while at the RLCA Gulberg Ground Rawalpindi meet Sargodha in the first of two matches starting at 10:00am.

The other two fixtures will begin at 2:00pm with defending champions Lahore playing Quetta at the UBL Sports Complex and last championship’s runners-up Karachi facing Peshawar at the RLCA Gulberg Ground.

Meanwhile, the trophy unveiling ceremony was held at the National Stadium on Sunday in which captains of all 12 participating were present for a photo session.

Saleem Karim, president of Pakistan Disabled Cricket Association (PDCA), along with Aezaz-ur-Rehman senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is sponsoring the tournament this year attended the ceremony.

Also present on the occasion were Arshad Khan, PCB’s general manager of National Stadium, Nasim Yousuf, tournament director Javed Amin, tournament secretary Amiruddin Ansari and media manager Mohammad Nizam.

The skippers of participating teams — Abdullah Ijaz, (Lahore), Arif Richard (Karachi), Peshawar (Peshawar), Mohammad Nauman (Sargodha), Abdullah Khan (Quetta), Marghoob Alam (Bahawalpur), Altaf Ahmed (Rawalpindi), Shafiq Khan (Islamabad), Matloob Qureshi (Multan), Wasif-ur-Rehman (Faisalabad) Salman Askari (Hyderabad) and HafIz (Sialkot) — while briefly speaking on behalf of their teams collectively pledged to put up a decent show.

PDCA chief Saleem Karim urged the competing cities to exhibit camaraderie and play each match in the true spirit to make the tournament a resounding success.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015