KARACHI, Jan 1: The 44th edition of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy cricket championship begins Wednesday with 18 teams vying for top honours in the premier first-class national competition.

For the first time, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken a giant step by fielding provincial teams which gives definite exposure to players from remote areas across the country against the 14 district associations, including last season’s Grade-II champions Sialkot.

Three Rest XIs from Punjab, Sindh and NWFP and a Balochistan XI will compete against the likes of Karachi Whites, Karachi Blues, Lahore Whites, Lahore Blues, Peshawar, Rawalpindi in the round robin league phase of the competition which concludes on Feb 22.

The winners of the two groups will contest the five-day final from March 1. Whichever side wins the coveted trophy also stands to claim the cash prize worth Rs 1,00,000 while the runners-up will be richer by Rs 50,000.

Lahore Blues, who won last year’s final by a solitary wicket over Karachi Whites at National Stadium with Wasim Akram and Abdur Razzaq playing crucial roles, start the defence of their title against their senior string Lahore Whites at the LCCA Ground.

In another important move, the PCB has decided to ensure that only one team from either Karachi or Lahore (which is a foregone conclusion) make the final by grouping both cities’ teams in one pool. Both Karachi’s outfits, Whites and Blues, have been placed in Group I while Lahore Whites and Blues are in Group II.

In all 17 venues will be used for the 72 league matches. Two of the venues, Country Club Ground (Muridke) and Gymkhana Club (Okara), will be staging first-class fixtures for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Karachi City Cricket Association named their squads for the opening match.

Teams are:

Moin Khan (captain) Shahid Afridi, Ghulam Ali, Saeed bin Nasir, Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Javed, Tabish Nawab, Mohammad Hasnain, Tanvir Ahmed, Iftikhar Ali, Aqeel Sharif, Atif Maqbool, Imranullah, Ahmed Shafi, Mohammad Farooq and Ahmed Zeeshan Malik.

Mohammad Javed has been nominated to lead Karachi Blues in place of current Test stumper Rashid Latif, who leaves for Bangladesh with the national squad Wednesday.

The other members of the Karachi Blues squad are Agha Sabir, Asim Kamal, Atiq-uz-Zaman, Naumanullah, Zeeshan Pervez, Farhan Adil, Ali Mohammad Madni, Rizwan Saeed, Rajesh Ramesh, Haaris Ayaz, Fahim Ahmed Senior, Tariq Haroon, Adnan Kaleem, Mir Rashid and Ashraf Ali.

Hyderabad, which was embroiled in a dispute over selection matters, managed to announce their squad at the last minute only after the PCB intervened to resolve the differences between the HDCA officials.

First round schedule (Jan 2-5):

Group I: 

*Karachi Whites v Karachi Blues at KCCA Stadium, Karachi (Umpires: Sadiq Mohammad and Afzaal Ahmed. Match referee: Naeem Ahmed).

*Bahawalpur v Hyderabad at Bahawalpur Stadium (Umpires: Salim Badar and Islam Khan. Match referee: Ilyas Khan)

*Sargodha v Faisalabad at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad (Umpires:  Iftikhar Malik and Asad Rauf. Match referee: Ehteshamuddin).  

*Rest of Sindh XI v Rest of Balochistan XI at National Stadium,  Karachi (Umpires: Shakeel Khan and Masroor Ali. Match referee:  Mohinder Kumar).

Group II:

*Lahore Whites v Lahore Blues at LCCA Ground, Lahore (Umpires: Mian Aslam and Nadeem Ghauri. Match referee: Azhar  Hasan).  

*Sheikhupura v Sialkot at Country Club, Muridke Umpires:  Feroz Butt and Siddique Khan. Match referee: Ali  Zia).  

*Rawalpindi v Islamabad at KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi (Umpires: Iftikhar Malik and Rasheed Bhatti. March referee: Khateeb Rizwan).

*Rest of Punjab XI v Rest of NWFP XI at Arbab  Niaz  Stadium, Peshawar (Umpires: Z.I Pasha and Iqbal Butt. Match referee: Ishtiaq Ahmed).