The World Cup comes to Karachi

It’s been a year of planning and finally this month the IMC Over-40’s T20 Cricket World Cup 2025 launches in Karachi. It’s being organised by Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association led by its Chairman Fawad Ijaz Khan who two years ago conceived and organised the first ever Over-40s ODI Cricket Global Cup also held in Karachi in 2023. That was a 45-over an innings event whereas this time the format is T20.

The teams will start arriving from the 17th of this month, four days before the opening ceremony on Nov 21 to be held at the Governor’s House, which also hosted the opening ceremony two years ago. The Sindh government has offered its full support with Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah assuring full security for the teams throughout their two weeks stay. Governor Sindh Kamran Khan Tessori has given the Governor House as venue for the opening ceremony. Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab has also arranged for a dinner for the teams during the tournament, likely to be held at the historic Frere Hall.

The number of teams participating has increased from two years ago which saw eight teams competing for the trophy that was lifted by Pakistan. Now there are 12 including two teams made up from the Rest of the World and the other from the Gulf. The other 10 sides are national teams from Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, USA, Canada, Hong Kong China, UAE and host Pakistan.

All the matches, 42 in total including the final, will be held across five grounds in Karachi and will be live streamed to global audience. The Pakistan matches will all be played at the National Bank Stadium (formerly known as National Stadium) which will host a total of 15 matches including the final. All games at the National Bank Stadium will be shown live on Geo Super.

The availability of one of Pakistan’s premium cricket grounds is largely due to the interest shown by PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi. In a meeting with PVCA’s Fawad Ijaz Khan he promised that the ground would be available even during peak domestic cricket season.

The other grounds are DHA Sports Club (Moin Khan Academy), Southend Club Cricket Stadium, NBP Sports Complex and Karachi Gymkhana Cricket Ground. Pakistan starts as favourites with Abdul Razzzaq captaining the side. Last time he was vice-captain to Misbah Ul Haq and had led the side in the group games before Misbah returned from injury in the semi-final and final. Shahid Afridi will be playing some matches in the World Cup. Jalaluddin, the former Pakistan fast bowler who has the distinction of taking the first hat-trick in ODIs, will be the coach as in 2023. This time Pakistan’s legendary batsman and former captain Javed Miandad with over 8000 Test runs and vice-captain of the 1992 World Cup winning team will be the team mentor. Azam Khan will be the Manager of the team.

The full Pakistan squad is Abdul Razzaq (captain), Fawad Alam (vice-captain), Shahid Afridi, Zulfiqar Babar, Humayun Farhat (wicketkeeper), Sohail Khan, Tabish Khan, Shaheryar Ghani, Nadeem Javaid, Irfan Mushtaq, Adnan Baig, Muhammad Ali, Atif Maqbool, Javed Mansoor, Amjad Ali, Muhammad Suleman, Tariq Mahmood and Imran Ali.

The tournament may not be an ICC event as it comes under the purview of International Masters Cricket, the organization of the event has the same level of finesse. There will be neutral umpires to the extent that the umpires for each group will be from countries whose teams are not placed in that group. For Play Off games to decide positions, there will also be neutral umpires. In fact, this is for the first time in a multination men’s cricket tournament in Pakistan that a woman umpire – Wilma Jones from South Africa -- is officiating. Even ICC men’s events have not seen this happen anywhere in the world. A total of six umpires are coming from other countries.

Live scorecard of all matches will be available on phone apps and PVCA website, complete with player and match stats with social media integration. There will be on-screen live graphics as the matches are broadcast through 8-camera + drone coverage with a full commentary team describing the game. In the semi-finals and the final, school children will be invited to walk out with the players and stand with them as the two countries’ national anthems will be played.

All this is because veterans’ cricket has transformed from a societal get together of former club, first class and even international players to a serious league/amateur system that compete with full passion and professionalism. Of course, Pakistan started it all in 1997 with the formation of Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association by Fawad Ijaz Khan.

Watching its success especially when PVCA organised a bi-lateral series in 2005 with Pakistan led by Rashid Latif Pakistan and Mohammad Azharuddin leading India, other countries began forming their own country associations. Now there is a global governing body, International Masters Cricket, that coordinates multi-nation events for players in older age groups from over-40s to Over-50s, Over-60s and Over-70s.

The organisation of every event remains the responsibility of the host association though and the veterans associations of the world have all acknowledged that no event has been held with so much fanfare and side entertainments than what PVCA organised in 2023 with beach parties and golf tournament on the rest days and lavish dinners. The World Cup this month promises to be even bigger with more teams, more matches and even more celebration and fanfare with Pakistan once again the favourites being the No.1 ranked team in the world in all age groups. It is the only country that has won all the age group tournaments: the Over 60’s World Cup in Brisbane where the team was led by Chairman PVCA Fawad Ijaz Khan, the Over-40s Global Cup in Karachi and earlier this year the Over-50s World Cup in Colombo.