LAHORE, Feb 18: Defending champions Sialkot and Karachi Urban will vie for supremacy in the five-day final of Quaid-i-Azam Gold League which will begin at the Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan from Monday.

Karachi Urban qualified for the final as top team of the league stage with 33 points. The leaders had three wins, two lost and one draw in the league stage.

Sialkot grabbed 24 points from six matches, with three wins, no loss but three draws.

The reigning champions, however, will be playing without their main players including Imran Nazir, Rana Navid-ul-Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Rehman. As the first four had been included in the 15-member squad of Pakistan announced for the World Cup, the absence of left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman from the final is a mystery.

There are reports that Abdul Rehman had also given the urine sample, which is being collected by the PCB before the World Cup.

According to a report reaching from Multan, the weather is cloudy and it also rained in the morning. In the evening the sky was partly cloudy but chances are still bright for the start of the final.

Nadeem Ghouri and Zameer Haider, two umpires on the ICC Panel, will supervise the final with Taslim Arif as referee.

The winners will receive Rs. 600,000 while runners Up Rs. 300,000.

The Man-of-the-Final will be honoured with a cash prize of - Rs. 40,000. Besides it, the best bowler, best fielder, best wicket-keeper of the tournament will also get Rs. 40,000, each, making the total cash prize of Rs 1.1million.