LAHORE: Around 9,000 cricketers from 675 schools (government and private) will be seen in action when the first Abdul Hafeez Kardar Under-16 Inter-school Cricket Tournament begins across the country on April 5.

PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, PCB Executive Committee chairman Najam Sethi along with Shahid Kardar, son of Pakistan’s first Test captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar, and game development director Aizad Saiyed launched the mega event at a press conference and also unveiled the main trophy donated by Shahid Kardar.

Overall, 348 teams will compete for the top honour. Some schools will field joint teams while others place their separate teams.

The PCB chairman said that was a mega event which would yield positive results.

He added that A.H. Kardar had rendered tremendous services to Pakistan and the tournament was just a little gesture by the PCB to thank him.

Shaharyar further said the teams would first compete at the regional level and then the top team would play at the national level.

Sethi said the initiative was continuation of PCB’s commitment of spreading cricket far and wide besides uncovering talent at early stage.

Shahid thanked the PCB for acknowledging the services of his late father and announced a cash prize of Rs100,000 for the best player of the tournament besides donating the main trophy.

Earlier, Aizad briefed the media about tournament’s structure, format and schedule.

The tournament begins on April 5 with regional matches across Lahore followed by other regions.

“By April 21, all 21 cities will be engaged with simultaneous matches all across the country,” he said.

Approximately, Rs60 to 70 million are likely to be spent on the entire exercise which will end in July-August.

A player had to be a student of the given school and the age of the player should be 16 years and 4 months in August.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017