Quaid Trophy Cricket from 14th

LAHORE: Pakistan’s premier first class cricket tournament, Quaid-i-Azam Trophy will roll into action from September 14 at nine venues of the country.

Quetta’s Bugti Stadium is back as one of the first-class venues after 11 years to host 31st Quaid-i-Azam Trophy 2019-20 fixtures.

While scheduling Quaidie-Azam Trophy 2019-20 fixtures, the Pakistan Cricket Board has taken ground availability and readiness as well as expected weather conditions at the backend of the year into consideration. Balochistan will feature in all the four matches at Bugti Stadium – second round fixture against Southern Punjab (September 21-24), third round fixture against Central Punjab (Sept 28-Oct 1), fifth round fixture against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Oct 28-31) and sixth round fixture against Southern Punjab (Nov 4-7).

While Bugti Stadium will host four matches, other venues to grace the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy matches are: Abbottabad Stadium Abbottabad (6), Gaddafi Stadium Lahore (3), Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad (3), Jinnah Stadium Sialkot (1), KRL Stadium Rawalpindi (3), National Stadium Karachi (5), State Bank Stadium, Karachi (1), UBL Sports Complex Karachi (5).

In the opening round from September 14-17 Sindh and Balochistan will go head to head at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi while Gaddafi Stadium will be the venue of match between Central and Southern Punjab. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will lock horns with Northern at the Abbottabad Stadium. After the first four rounds, the red ball cricket will come to a halt to make window for T20 cricket. This is being done to provide the selectors with the opportunity to select in-form T20 players ahead of the crucial three-match T20I series against Australia Down Under. The first and second XI T20 tournaments, running simultaneously, will also help the Pakistan Super League franchises to spot players ahead of the player draft for the next year’s edition.