The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has introduced a new Domestic One-Day tournament called the ‘Pakistan Cup’.
Pakistan Cup will replace the existing one day tournament called Pentangular Cup and it will be played between the five provinces of the country. The five teams for the tournament will be Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a team from the Federal Capital of Pakistan.
Source:- https://www.pcb.com.pk/
Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq, will lead Federal Capital, ODI skipper Azhar Ali, will lead the Balochistan side, senior batsman Younis Khan, will take charge of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all-rounder Shoaib Malik, will lead Punjab and recently appointed T20 Captain Sarfraz Ahmed, will lead Sindh.
When and how it will be played
The first edition of the tournament will start on April 19th and it will be played in Faisalabad.
Despite the introduction of this new tournament, the playing format remains the same as the Pentangular Cup, but the process of selecting players has been modified.
Source:- PCB Facebook Page
The traditional selection process has been replaced with a draft system method. This draft system will allow the pre-announced captain and coaches to pick their 15-man squad from a pool of 150 cricketers in 15 rounds.
It is understood that there are commercial reasons behind the timing and introduction of the tournament, but it is a fact that the Pakistan domestic structure has been inconsistent for decades and thus, required a complete revamp.
Source:- PCB Facebook Page
While addressing at the draft function, Najam Sethi, the Chairman of the PCB executive committee, said: “Our public loves cricket and we are trying to further elevate our product.”
Sethi urged the fans to come and watch these matches in the stadiums so the Pakistani stadiums can come back to live.
The squads for the tournament are
Punjab: Salman Butt, Shan Masood, Asad Shafiq, Asif Ali, Akbar-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saad Nasim, Amir Yameen, Shoaib Malik (capt), Ehsan Adil, Amad Butt, Adnan Ghaus, Zulfiqar Babar, Saif Badar.
Source: Twitter
Sindh: Khurram Manzoor, Sami Aslam, Mohammad Waqas, Shoaib Maqsood, Khalid Latif, Fawad Alam, Saad Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Amir, Sohail Khan, Ruman Raeez, Hassan Khan.
Balochistan: Azhar Ali (capt), Owais Zia, Ramiz Raja (junior), Babar Azam, Umar Akmal, Shahid Yousaf, Mohammad Hasan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sohail Tanvir, Junaid Khan, Bilawal Bhatti, Umar Gul, Imran Khan, Osama Mir, Saeed Ajmal.
Federal: Sharjeel Khan, Nasir Jamshed, Iftikhar Ahmed, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Asif Zakir, Hammad Azam, Sarmad Bhatti, Arsal Sheikh, Imran Khalid, Zafar Gohar, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Irfan, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas.
KPK: Ahmed Shahzad, Fakhar Zaman, Younis Khan (capt), Rameez Aziz, Naveed Yasin, Musadiq Ahmed, Bismillah Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Rahat Ali, Azarullah, Sadaif Mehdi, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Zohaib Khan, Hayatullah.
