All set for revamped domestic one-day tournament

Punjab pick Butt, Sindh opt for Amir as Asif snubbed in player draft

KARACHI: Disgraced former Pakistan captain Salman Butt took a big stride towards his ambition of returning to national duty on Tuesday when he was picked by Punjab to open for them in this month’s Pakistan Cup One-day Tournament to be played in Faisalabad.

The left-handed batsman was the ring leader of the 2010 spot-fixing controversy that resulted in three of Pakistan’s top players including Butt getting banned and later imprisoned in Britain over corruption.

Sindh opted for Mohammad Amir, who was one of the two pacers who bowled deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test against England in 2010.

But none of the five participating teams picked Mohammad Asif, the third member of the infamous spot-fixing trio.

The revamped Pakistan Cup has been introduced to replace the existing Pentangular Cup. The tournament will be played between five provincial teams, starting April 19 in Faisalabad.

The format will remain the same as the Pentangular Cup, but the process of picking players has been altered — the traditional selection process has been replaced with a draft system. It will allow a pre-announced captain and coaches to pick their 15-man squads from a list of 150 cricketers in 15 rounds. There was no reason given for the selection process being changed.

The five teams from the five provinces — Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a team from Federal Capital of Pakistan — will remain the same. The PCB announced Azhar Ali will lead Balochistan, Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq will lead Federal Capital, Younis Khan will take the reins of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shoaib Malik will captain Punjab and Sarfraz Ahmed will lead Sindh.

The draft took place in Lahore on Tuesday.

Mohammad Hafeez, who is suffering from a knee injury, remained unavailable for selection. In order to promote young cricketers, each team had to pick one regional Under-19 player in their 15-man squad.

The Pakistan domestic structure has been inconsistent for decades with changes occurring every two years. Their domestic season starts in August with Grade-2 tournaments, and ends with the limited-overs tournaments by March. The PCB had introduced a completely new first-class system in 2015 and the announcement of the Pakistan Cup reflects the varying nature of planning in the domestic set up. It was understood that there were commercial reasons behind the timing of the event.

Speaking about this new initiative, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said: “Our aim is to ensure that our domesic cricket becomes more competitive and the Cool & Cool presents Haier Pakistan Cup 2016 is a key step on this journey. Top cricketers of Pakistan will take part in this tournament and the youngsters will have the perfect opportunity to learn from their seniors.”

Following the teams:

Punjab: Salman Butt, Shan Masood, Asad Shafiq, Asif Ali, Akbar-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saad Nasim, Amir Yameen, Shoaib Malik (captain), Ehsan Adil, Amad Butt, Adnan Ghaus, Zulfiqar Babar, Saif Badar

Sindh: Khurram Manzoor, Sami Aslam, Mohammad Waqas, Shoaib Maqsood, Khalid Latif, Fawad Alam, Saad Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Amir, Sohail Khan, Ruman Raeez, Hassan Khan

Balochistan: Azhar Ali (captain), 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 (captain), 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 (captain), Rameez Aziz, Naveed Yasin, Musadiq Ahmed, Bismillah Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Rahat Ali, Azarullah, Sadaif Mehdi, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Asghar, Zohaib Khan, Hayatullah.