KARACHI, Aug 30: The 23rd edition of Karachi Gymkhana Ramazan Cricket Festival, the leading cricket tournament of the holy month, will begin from the first of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak at the KG Ground.The details of the tournament were unveiled at a press conference here on Saturday.

This year State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLIC) are sponsoring the prestigious event by putting up Rs 407,000 in prize money. The winners will Rs 200,000, the runners-up Rs 100,000 and the losing semi-finals Rs20,000 each. The rest of the amount will be given to the best performers among the 16 participating outfits.

Speaking on the occasion, Shahid Aziz Siddiqui, the SLIC chairman, hoped the coming tournament will unearth young talent who could be part of mainstream of Pakistan cricket in the years to come.

“This tournament [at Karachi Gymkhana] is a celebration of this passion and aspires to motivate the young in the cricketing field, exploit new talent and give the youngsters a chance to become future heroes of our national team,” he remarked.

Abbas Saifuddin Valika, the KG convener sports and chairman of the tournament committee, said that Karachi Gymkhana have always been in the forefront of organising this popular event every Ramazan for the past 22 years.

Last year’s tournament was won by Medicam CC with KESC finishing as the runners-up.

Following are the pools:

Group ‘A’: Ideal CC, Medicam CC, Dewan Farooq Motors, Sir Syed CC.

Group ‘B’: Karachi Gymkhana, Qasmi CC, HBL Schoolboys XI, Star CC.

Group ‘C’: Mohammad Hussain CC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Dubai Islamic Bank, Sindh Police.

Group ‘D’: Delhi City Gymkhana, A.O. CC, Tapal CC, KESC.