Pakistan Cup begins from April 16

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cup 2017, carrying five teams, will explode into action at the Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi, on April 16.

In the 14-day one-day competitions, 11 matches will be played.

The slots will be held on a single league basis with the leading two sides progressing to the final, to be held on April 29.

The teams contesting in the event are Sindh, Punjab, holders Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federal Areas and Balochistan.

In the previous edition, held at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa crushed Punjab by 151 runs in the final, played on May 1, 2016.

The squads were formed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) last month through a draft system.

As many as 131 top players had been kept in the draft.

International all-rounder Anwar Ali will lead Sindh, Imad Wasim will be the skipper of Federal, wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan will captain Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Umar Akmal will lead Punjab and left-handed opener Fakhar Zaman will lead Balochistan.

The winners will receive a purse of Rs2 million whereas the runners-up will get Rs1 million. The best batsman, the best bowler, the best all-rounder and the-man-of-the-final will get Rs50,000 each.

Besides, the man-of-the-match of the round matches will be given Rs25,000.

There will be only three day matches. The rest will be day-night matches.

The day matches will begin at 10am. The day-night clashes will start at 2pm.

The opening game will be played between Punjab and Balochistan.

All the available players, who are not part of the Pakistan team for the Test series against the West Indies, will play in the event.

The on-field, television and reserve umpires for the tournament are: Zameer Haider, Ahsan Raza, Ghaffar Kazmi, Rashid Riaz, Asif Yaqoob, Shozab Raza, Riazuddin, Khalid Mehmood Senior, Imtiaz Iqbal, Mohammad Sajid and Aslam Bareach.

The match referees are: Nadeem Arshad, Javed Malik, Iqbal Sheikh, Mohammad Anees and Aziz-ur-Rehman.

Fixtures: April 16: Punjab v Balochistan (day-night), April 17: Federal Areas v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (day-night), April 18: Balochistan v Sindh (day-night), April 19: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v Punjab (day-night), April 20: Sindh v Federal Areas (day-night), April 21: Rest day, April 22: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v Balochistan (day match), April 23: Punjab v Federal Areas (day match), April 24: Rest day, April 25: Sindh v Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (day match), April 26: Federal Areas v Balochistan (day night), April 27: Punjab v Sindh (day-night), April 28: Rest day, April 29: Final.