LAHORE: Pakistan Cup on Wednesday gets underway at different venues in Abbottabad, Rawalpindi and Mirpur. The 31-match Pakistan Cup will have games with 45 over a side.
The Pakistan Cup will see a departure from the previous domestic structure as per which the tournament was held last season. This iteration of the Pakistan Cup is being held in accordance with the revived 2014 PCB Constitution featuring eight teams namely Faisalabad Region, FATA Region, Karachi Region Whites, Lahore Region Blues, Lahore Region Whites, Multan Region, Peshawar Region and Rawalpindi Region.
The first-round fixtures will be: Lahore Whites vs Lahore Blues at Pindi Cricket Stadium, Peshawar vs Karachi Whites at Mirpur Cricket Stadium, AJK, Faisalabad vs Multan at Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi and FATA vs Rawalpindi at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.
The tournament will be played on a round-robin basis with each team playing the other once after which the top four teams will progress to the semi-finals.
The first semi-final will be played between the No.1 team and the No.4 team on 16th November and the second semi-final involving the second and third-placed team on the points table will take place on 17th November.
The final will be played on 19th November. All these knockout matches will be staged at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.
It may be noted that in the Pakistan Cup 2022-23 final, Central Punjab defeated Balochistan by 50 runs at State Bank Stadium, Karachi.
Hanif Mohammad Cup 2023-24, which is the one-day tournament also started on Wednesday in different venues including Faisalabad, Multan and Rahim Yar Khan. Like the non first-class Hanif Mohammad Trophy, the ten teams participating in the Hanif Mohammad Cup have been divided into two groups of five teams.
The teams set to feature in the Hanif Mohammad Trophy include Abbottabad Region, AJK Region, Bahawalpur Region, Hyderabad Region, Islamabad Region, Karachi Region Blues, Larkana Region, Dera Murad Jamali Region, Sialkot Region and Quetta Region. Top two teams from each group will advance to the Super Four stage. The team then topping the Super Four stage will be declared winners of the Hanif Mohammad Cup.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023