Published in The Nation on Aug 29th, 2020,
LAHORE-The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday announced the squads of six Cricket Association (CA) for the 2020-21 domestic cricket season, which will commence on 30 September with the National T20 Cup. The first round of the event will be played in Multan, while the final round will be held in Rawalpindi. Complete season schedule will be announced in due course.
The 12-month contracts will run from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021. The squads were finalised by the six Cricket Association coaches who took into consideration performances of the last two seasons, retained maximum players from the 2019-20 season without reshuffling the squads too much and, where possible, provided opportunities to the centrally and emerging contracted players to represent their Cricket Associations.
This has been done to ensure sense of ownership and pride amongst the players representing their Cricket Associations, which, in turn, will further enhance the involvement of the fans and cricket followers, and provide more balance to the six sides to make the forthcoming season more competitive than 2019-20. As such, the selectors have retained 158 players who were offered 2019-20 domestic contracts and have included 34 new players, including some who represented Pakistan in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020.
Each Cricket Association squad will comprise 45 players – 32 players with domestic contracts, supported by 13 additional players – and the PCB centrally and emerging contracted cricketers, belonging to their respective regions. The coaches will finalise the playing lineups for the events proper (National T20 Cup, Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and Pakistan Cup One-day Tournament) in due course following discussions with captains and vice-captains, who will also be confirmed at that stage. The players with the seasonal contracts will be eligible to receive match fee, daily allowances and other related benefits, wherever applicable.
The six head coaches have also finalised their squads with the vision of nurturing up and coming cricketers. In this relation, 11 teenagers who participated in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup earlier this year, have been selected. They are Abdul Wahid Bangalzai (Balochistan); Irfan Khan Niazi, Qasim Akram and Fahad Munir (all three Central Punjab); M Wasim jnr, M Haris, M Amir Khan and M Abbas Afridi (all four Khyber Pakhtunkhwa); M Huraira (Northern) and Aamir Ali and Arish Ali Khan (Sindh). The coaches, who are also members of the national selection committee, have also followed the PCB’s policy of investing in the future as average age of the Balochistan side is 27, followed by Central Punjab 26, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 26, Northern 25, Sindh 25 and Southern Punjab 26.
[ads1]
BALOCHISTAN CRICKET ASSOCIATION: Abdul Rehman Muzammil, Abdul Wahid Bangalzai, Adnan Akmal, Akbar-ur-Rehman, Akhtar Shah, Akif Javed, Amad Butt, Awais Zia, Azeem Ghumman, Bismillah Khan, Gohar Faiz, Gulraiz Sadaf, Hayat Ullah, Hidayatullah, Imran Butt, Imran Farhat, Jalat Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Khurram Shehzad, M Junaid, M Talha, Najeebullah Achakzai, Rameez Raja jnr, Sami Aslam, Shehbaz Khan, Shehzad Tareen, Taimur Ali, Taimur Khan, Taj Wali, Umaid Asif, Umar Gul and Usama Mir. ADDITIONAL PLAYERS: Abdul Nasir, Ali Rafiq, Ali Waqas, Ayyaz Tassawar, Atif Jabbar, Azeem Dar, Azizullah, Dawood Khan, Israr Ahmed, M Ibrahim, Nazar Hussain, Salahuddin and Zainullah. CENTRALLY-CONTRACTED PLAYERS: Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Sohail and Yasir Shah.
CENTRAL PUNJAB CRICKET ASSOCIATION: Abdullah Shafiq, Ahmed Bashir, Ahmed Safi Abdullah, Ahmed Shahzad (subject to fitness), Aitzaz Habib Khan, Ali Zaryab, Anas Mehmood, Bilal Asif, Bilawal Iqbal, Ehsan Adil, Fahad Usman, Faheem Ashraf, Farhan Khan, Hasan Ali, Irfan Khan Niazi, Kamran Akmal, M Ali, M Imran Dogar, M Saad, Muhammad Akhlaq, Nisar Ahmed, Qasim Akram, Rizwan Hussain, Saad Nasim, Salman Butt, Shahid Nawaz, Suleman Shafqat, Usman Qadir, Usman Salahuddin, Waqas Maqsood, Zafar Gohar and Zohaib Amanat. ADDITIONAL PLAYERS: Ali Shan, Asfand Mehran, Atiq-ur-Rehman, Fahad Munir, Hammad Butt, Haseeb-ur-Rehman, Junaid Ali, Kamran Afzal, M Faiq, Noman Anwar, Raza Ali Dar, Sohaib Ullah and Zubair Khan. CENTRALLY-CONTRACTED PLAYERS: Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam and Naseem Shah.
KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA CRICKET ASSOCIATION: Adil Amin, Ahmed Jamal, Arshad Iqbal, Asad Afridi, Ashfaq Ahmad, Asif Afridi, Imran Khan snr, Irfanullah Shah, Israrullah, Junaid Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Khalid Usman, Mehran Ibrahim, M Abbas Afridi, M Amir Khan, M Asad, M Haris, M Irfan Khan, M Mohsin, M Mohsin Khan, M Naeem snr, M Sarwar Afridi, M Wasim jnr, Musadiq Ahmad, Nabi Gul, Rehan Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan, Sajid Khan, Sameen Gul, Samiullah jnr, Saqib Jamil and Zohaib Khan. ADDITIONAL PLAYERS: Gohar Ali, Haris Khan, M Arif Shah, Maaz Sadaqat, M Ali, M Hafeez, M Imran, M Khayyam, Nasir Faraz, Salman Khan jnr, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz and Waqar Ahmad. CENTRALLY-CONTRACTED PLAYERS: M Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan Shinwari, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
N0RTHERN CRICKET ASSOCIATION: Ali Imran, Ali Sarfaraz, Asif Ali, Athar Mehmood, Faizan Riaz, Hammad Azam, Jamal Anwar, M Amir, M Ismail Khan, M Nawaz, Munir Riaz, Musa Khan, Nasir Nawaz, Nauman Ali, Naved Malik, Nihal Mansoor, Raza Hasan, Rohail Nazir, Salman Irshad, Sarmad Bhatti, Shadab Majeed, Shiraz Khan, Shoaib Ahmed Minhas, Sohail Tanvir, Sohail Akhtar, Umair Masood, Umar Amin, Umar Waheed, Waqas Ahmed, Zaid Alam, Zeeshan Malik and Ziad Khan. ADDITIONAL PLAYERS: Aamer Jamal, Amad Butt, Babar Khaliq, Farhan Shafiq, Kashif Iqbal, M Aamer Shah, M Huraira, Raja Farhan, Raja Farzan Khan, Sadaf Hussain, Sohail Akhtar, Syed Tauseeq Shah, Taimur Khan and Taimur Sultan. CENTRALLY-CONTRACTED PLAYERS: Haider Ali (emerging contract), Haris Rauf (emerging contract), Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan.
SINDH CRICKET ASSOCIATION: Adeel Malik, Ahsan Ali, Ammad Alam, Anwar Ali, Ashiq Ali, Fahad Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Ghulam Muddasar, Hasan Mohsin, Jahid Ali, Khurram Manzoor, Mir Hamza, M Asghar, M Azam Khan, M Hasan, M Suleman, M Taha, M Tariq Khan, M Umar, Omair Bin Yousuf, Rameez Aziz, Rameez Raja jnr, Saad Ali, Saad Khan, Saifullah Bangash, Saud Shakeel, Shahnawaz, Sharjeel Khan, Shehzar M, Sohail Khan, Tabish Khan and Waleed Ahmed. ADDITIONAL PLAYERS: Aamir Ali, Arish Ali Khan, Asad Raza, Ashir Qureshi, Azizullah, Danish Aziz, Faraz Ali, Hassan Khan, Ibrar Ahmed, Ibtisam Sheikh, M Makki, Rumman Raees and Syed M Tahami. CENTRALLY-CONTRACTED PLAYERS: Asad Shafiq, M Hasnain (emerging contract) and Sarfaraz Ahmed.
SOUTHERN PUNJAB CRICKET ASSOCIATION: Aamer Yamin, Ahsan Baig, Ali Shafiq, Ali Usman, Anas Mustafa, Bilawal Bhatti, Dilbar Hussain, Hussain Talat, Imran Rafiq, Khushdil Shah, Maqbool Ahmed, M Basit, M Ilyas, M Irfan, M Irfan jnr, M Rameez jnr, M Umair, Muhammad Imran, Mukhtar Ahmed, Naved Yasin, Rahat Ali, Saif Badar, Salman Ali Agha, Sohaib Maqsood, Tayyab Tahir, Umar Khan, Umar Siddiq, Waqar Hussain, Zahid Mahmood, Zain Abbas, Zeeshan Ashraf and Zia ul Haq. ADDITIONAL PLAYERS: Ahmar Ashfaq, Hamza Akbar, Haris Bashir, Haris Javed, Mehboob Ahmed, M Ali Khan, M Irfan Sr, M Junaid, M Mohsin, Rameez Alam, Sadaif Mehdi, Salahuddin and Zohaib Afridi. CENTRALLY-CONTACTED PLAYERS: M Abbas and Shan Masood.