LAHORE: Pakistan’s 2012-13 first-class domestic cricket season will commence with the beginning of the President’s Trophy Grade-I tournament on Oct 3.

Javed Miandad, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Director General as head of the PCB Domestic Cricket Committee, announced the domestic programme along with other members of the committee at a news conference here on Thursday.

“Best possible efforts were made to arrange the domestic season with consensus. I hope it would better serve the purpose of producing talented players for national team in the future,” Miandad said at the news conference.

Miandad said though dates of other domestic tournaments had also been finalised, some changes might be made in order to adjust national twenty20 tournament and the proposed Pakistan Premier League (PPL).

“Work on the PPL is on and if the PCB succeeds in chalking out a complete domestic cricket plan it will be incorporated in the season for which the dates of some other [coming] domestic tournaments will be adjusted accordingly,” the former Pakistan captain stated.

Miandad emphasised that anti-doping laws and other regulations of the PCB, which were made to keep cricket clean from all wrong and illegal practices, would be implemented strictly in all the matches.

He further said the PCB would assist the departmental teams which do not have trainer, analyst and other staff, in order to take care of the players’ essential needs.

In the President’s Trophy, only departmental teams — PIA, National Bank of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited, ZTBL, State Bank, Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), Wapda, UBL, SNGPL and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) — will take part.

The Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, featuring 14 regional teams, would start in December.

Miandad said every regional team would be allowed to include maximum of four Test cricketers in their playing XI as it would be helpful for the seven local players to play more competitive cricket. “The inclusion of Test cricketers will boost the standard of domestic competitions significantly,” the former Pakistan captain added.

Meanwhile, no increase was made in the players’ match fees in the first-class cricket. The final of the President’s Trophy will be held from Dec 3 to 7.

The inter-region and departments under-19 tournament, featuring three-day matches, will commence from Oct 6. Hyderabad, Quetta, Karachi Whites, Karachi Blues, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Lahore Shalimar, Lahore Ravi, Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad and Sialkot will compete in the regional block of the event. In the departments group of the event, PIA, State Bank, ZTBL, KRL, NBP and PQA will participate.

Later, two top teams from the regional event and one from the departments will play a triangular league. The one-day match at the end of the three-day game will also be played. The first one-day match will be held on Oct 10.