LAHORE, Sept 14: The Pentangular tournament has been revived after a long gap of 10 seasons when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the 2005-06 domestic schedule on Wednesday. The Pentangular, which was last contested in 1995-96, is one of the four first-class competitions in the 11-tournament season. The three remaining three championships are the blue riband Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, which for the first time will be held in two leagues, and Patron’s Trophy Grade-I.
The 2005-06 domestic season, which began with the Inter-district under-19 tournament, carries a record prize-money of Rs8.350 million. Altogether 645 matches are scheduled as compared to 720 staged last season.
The Pentangular will bring down curtains on the season with five top sides competing for a prize-money of Rs1 million from March 24 to April 20. The qualifiers for this event will be the winners and runners-up of the Quaid Trophy Gold League and Patron’s Trophy Grade-I and the champions of the Quaid Trophy Silver League. All matches will be played at Lahore and Faisalabad.
Throughout the first class season, a player is set to receive a fee of Rs3,000 per match.
The Quaid Trophy Gold League will be contested by seven regional teams — Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Multan, Karachi Urban, Peshawar, Lahore Shalimar. The Silver League will consist of Lahore Ravi, Karachi Harbour, Hyderabad, Quetta, Islamabad and debutants Abbottabad.
The format of the Quaid Trophy has been changed with the bottom team of the Gold League, carrying a purse of Rs1.1 million, to be relegated to Silver League for the 2006-07 season. The winners of Silver League, which has Rs550,000 in prize-money, will be promoted to the top tier for the next season.
There is more cash incentives for the Quaid Trophy players in the shape of win bonus with Gold champions set to get Rs700,000 and the Silver winners Rs250,000.
The Patron’s Trophy Grade-I will be contested by 11 teams divided into two pools. The Pool ‘A’ outfits are PIA, ABL, Customs, KRL and Sui Gas while HBL, NBP, Wapda, ZTBL, PTCL and Service Industries make up the other group.
Unlike least season, the second edition of Twenty20 Cup will be played in Lahore and Karachi.
Schedule of the 2005-06 domestic season with prize-money:
Sept 5-24: Inter-district Senior (two-day matches): Rs825,000.
Oct 11-Dec 6: Inter-region Under-19 (three-day and one-day matches). Rs600,000.
Oct 16-Dec 7: Quaid Trophy Gold League. Rs1,100,000.
Oct 16-Nov 25: Quaid Trophy Silver League. Rs550,000.
Dec 10-Jan 28: Patron’s Trophy Grade-I. Rs600,000.
Dec 11-Jan 9: Patron’s Trophy Grade-II. Rs200,000.
Feb 1-17: Patron’s Cup one-day tournament. Rs350,000.
Feb 21-March 8: ABN-Amro Gold Cup one-day tournament. Rs500,000.
Feb 21-March 4: ABN-Amro Silver Cup one-day tournament. Rs300,000.
March 11-19: Twenty20 Cup. Rs700,000.
March 24-April 20: Pentangular tournament. Rs1,000,000.
Win bonus: Quaid Trophy Gold League (Rs700,000) and Quaid Trophy Silver League (Rs250,000).
Note: Inter-district Under-19 was contested from June 1 to July 14 with a prize money of Rs675,000.
