Pepsi-PCB trials for Future-11 kicked off across the country

KARACHI: Since the nostalgic 1980s when the national cricket team was making its mark all over the world under Imran Khan’s captaincy up to present times graced by the great victories of Mibah-ul-Haq and his team, a very historic partnership has existed between Pepsi and cricket in Pakistan.

 There is no doubt that an abundance of cricketing talent exists in Pakistan, however, what has been truly lacking is a platform to channel and nurture this talent for it to achieve greater things in the times to come.

To meet this demanding need of providing better opportunities to cricketing talent in the country, Pepsi and PCB have collaborated to launch the Future 11 program, a platform for the Pakistani youth where they can come and give the trials to represent Pakistan in the national Under –19 squad, and lead it to great victories in future international tournaments.

The trials kicked off across the country on 18th April, and the response to PEPSI-PCB FUTURE 11 campaign has been immense – thousands of aspiring youngsters have come forward to participate in the under-19 trials from all across Pakistan – not just from large urban centers like Islamabad/ Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta or Karachi, but also from places like Mirpur (Azad Jammu Kashmir), Sialkot, Multan, Gujranwala, Mardan, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Larkana and Dera Murad Jamali. Many experts firmly believe that this can yield exciting prospects for cricketing future in Pakistan.

Based on preliminary estimates, over 11,000 aspiring candidates have already shown up at the PEPSI-PCB Future 11 trails from across the country so far. Apart from conducting under-19 trials at the venues provided by PCB, PEPSI event management teams have set up recreational activities, fun and games, to keep aspiring youngsters engaged in  the cricketing fever which has gripped the nation by storm, ever since the initial launch of the PEPSI-PCB Future 11 campaign almost two months ago.**