This year PCB is experimenting with a brand new format of Pentagular Cup cricket tournament; and that is only provincial teams will take part in it. The tournament starts today.
The captains for the participating teams in Pentagular Cup are: Shahid Afridi (Sindh), Shoaib Malik (Punjab), Younis Khan (NWFP), Shoaib Akhtar (Federal) and Naseem Khan (Balochistan).
Vice Captains are also known names like: Faisal Iqbal (Sindh), Misbah-ul-Haq (Punjab), Yasir Hameed (NWFP), Rao Iftikhar (Federal) and Abdur Rauf (Balochistan).
The prize money for the winner team is 1 million Rupees, which makes it a very rewarding domestic tournament. What makes this tournament even more interesting is PCB’s decision that 75 top players of the country will take part in this tournament.
The players’ eligibility was decided from their performance in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy as well as whether they are part of Pakistan’s National team. To add further to the interest, all major international players of Pakistan will be in action to show their form for upcoming series with Australia.
Any Interest in the Tournament?
I believe in terms of crowd interest, this will be the 2nd most important tournament of Pakistan this year. Most interesting in terms of crowd participation being the twenty-20 one. Detailed team squads are given a little bit later in this post but on paper, Punjab and NWFP appear to be the strongest teams. Sindh is very good on batting side, but a bit weaker on bowling side. I would put Federal Areas team at same strength as Sindh. Balochistan team is the underdog, except they’ve been allowed guest players like Imran Nazir which certainly boosts their strength. All in all, we have a very interesting tournament at hand.
What Happened to Quaid-e-Azam Trophy This Year?
As most of us know, Pakistan’s premier First Class tournament has always been the Quaid-e-Azam trophy. In my opinion, in 2007-08 season PCB made a mockery of that tournament by mixing departmental teams with regional associations. This made regional teams so uncompetitive that last year’s National Champions (Karachi) and Runners-up (Sialkot) ended up at the bottom of points table while “Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company” emerged as the National Champions.
Pentagular cup format therefore looks promising to bring some crowd interest back in domestic cricket.
Tournament Program of ABN-AMRO Pentagular Cup 2007-08:
10 Feb 2008 Punjab v Federal Areas at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
10 Feb 2008 Sindh v NWFP at National Stadium, Karachi
22 Feb 2008 Baluchistan v Federal Areas at National Stadium, Karachi
22 Feb 2008 Punjab v NWFP at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
28 Feb 2008 Balochistan v Sindh at Diamond Club Ground, Islamabad
28 Feb 2008 NWFP v Federal Areas at Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar
05 Mar 2008 Punjab v Balochistan at Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot
05 Mar 2008 Sindh v Federal at National Stadium, Karachi
11 Mar 2008 Balochistan v NWFP at Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar
11 Mar 2008 Sindh v Punjab at National Stadium, Karachi
The teams for Pentagular Tournament are as follows. Note the big-shot names in all the teams.
Sindh:
Khalid Latif, Khurram Manzoor, Shadab Kabir, Shahid Afridi (capt), Naumanullah, Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal (vice-capt), Asim Kamal, Fawad Alam, Rizwan Ahmad, Sohail Khan, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Sami, Faisal Athar, Danish Kaneria, Sarfraz Ahmad (wk), Hanif Malik (wk), Tahir Khan, Uzair-ul-Haq, Asif Zakir.
Punjab:
Shoaib Malik (capt), Mohammad Yousuf, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq (vice-capt), Kamran Akmal (wk), Naved Latif, Adnan Raza, Ammar Mahmood, Junaid Zia, Wahab Riaz, Waqas Ahmad, Mansoor Amjad, Mohammad Khalil, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Salman (wk), Aizaz Cheema, Kashif Raza, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Asif (will be included in the team after a fitness test).
Federal Areas:
Shoaib Akhtar (capt), Rao Iftikhar (vice-capt), Yasir Arafat, Sohail Tanvir, Rauf Akbar, Naeem Anjum (wk), Afaq Raheem, Raheel Majeed, Naveed Qureshi, Usman Saeed, Bazid Khan, Shahzad Azam Rana, Omair Khan, Atif Maqbool, Fayyaz Ahmad, Bilal Asad, Asher Zaidi, Babar Naeem, Yasir Ali, Asadullah Sumeri.
Balochistan:
Usman Tariq, Imran Nazir, Saeed Anwar jnr, Shoaib Khan, Naseem Khan (capt), Sohaib Maqsood, Rameez Alam, Bilal Khiljee, Saeed Bin Nasir, Jalat Khan, Abdur Rauf (vice-capt), Kamran Hussain, Azharullah, Tanvir Ahmad, Mohammad Irshad, Imranullah Aslam, Gulraiz Sadaf (wk), Nazar Hussain, Faisal Irfan, Yasir Arafat (jnr).
NWFP:
Younis Khan (capt), Yasir Hameed (vice-capt), Riffatullah Mohmmand, Wajid Ali, Aftab Ahmad Khan, Wajahatullah Wasti, Riaz Kail, Asad Shafiq, Zulfiqar Jan (wk), Aslam Qureshi, Yasir Shah, Khurram Shahzad, Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Nauman Habib, Fazl-e-Akbar, Adnan Raees, Waqar Ahmad, Fawad Khan (wk), Junaid Khan, Samiullah Khan, Umar Gul (will be included after a fitness
test).
Financial Rewards:
Besides the 1 millon Rupee (approx US$16000) winner’s prize, each member of the playing XI will be paid Rs 25,000 (approx US$400) per match. Non-playing members of the squad will get Rs 10,000 (approx US$160). The tournament will also be televised on Geo Sports Channel.
History of the Pentagular Cup:
The Pentangular Trophy was first introduced in Pakistan’s domestic first-class in 1973-74 season. Following table shows each year the tournament was played and the winner team of each year.
1. 1973-74: PIA
2. 1974-75: National Bank
3. 1975-76: PIA
4. 1977-78: Habib Bank
5. 1978-79: Habib Bank / PIA
6. 1979-80: PIA
7. 1980-81: PIA
8. 1981-82: Habib Bank
9. 1982-83: Habib Bank
10. 1984-85: United Bank
11. 1985-86: PACO
12. 1986-87: PIA
13. 1990-91: United Bank
14. 1994-95: National Bank
15. 1995-96: United Bank
16. 2005-06: National Bank
17. 2006-07: Habib Bank
As the name suggests, the tournament started as a 5-teams-competition but then 6 teams competed in 1974-75. . Five teams took part in 1975-76 but then 8 took part in 1976-77.
In 1977-78 the title of the tournament was changed to the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) Invitation Tournament and 8 teams took part in it. This format continued in 1978-79 and 1979-80.
In 1980-81 the five-team format came back. This time it was called the PACO Cup, named after its sponsors. The PACO Cup was played five times in the six seasons from 1980-81 to 1985-86 as a five-team contest. In 1986-87 it was played as an 8-teams tournament. After this season PACO withdrew from the sponsorship and the tournament got suspended.
Later the Pentangular Cup returned in 1990-91 and was then played twice in 1994-95 and 1995-96.
Thereafter followed a 10-year gap before the Pentangular Cup idea was revived in 2005-06 and, now, it is to be played for a third consecutive season.
References:
1. Gul Hameed Bhatti’s report – the daily News
2. Osman Samiuddin’s Report – Cricinfo.com
3. Pakistan Cricket Board
Round Five Started Today: Day One highlights:
Match Nine: NWFP vs Balochistan at Peshawar
Balochistan: 308, NWFP: 36/0
Scorecard here
Match Ten: Sindh vs Punjab at Karachi
Punjab: 173/9
Scorecard here
The Sindh Punjab match which is starting tomorrow has become the defacto Final of the tournament.
The winner of this match has to win on first innings lead also to take the title.
If the winner of this match fails to take first innings lead then the winner will be tied with Federal Areas on points table and net run rate will decided the tournament winner.
If this Sindh-Punjab match ends in a draw then Federal Areas will emerge as the winners
Points table at the end of round 4 matches (March 8, 2008)
M-W-L-D-Points
1. Federal Areas: 4-2-0-2-18
2. Punjab: 3-1-0-2-12
3. Sindh: 3-2-1-0-12
3. NWFP: 3-0-1-2-6
5. Balochistan: 3-0-3-0-0
Round Four Started Today: Day One highlights:
Match Seven: Sindh vs Federal at Islamabad
Sindh: 222, Federal 119/3
Shahid Afridi played a 49-ball-70-runs innings for Sindh.
Scorecard here
Match Eight: Punjab vs Balochistan at Sialkot
Balochistan: 298/7
Scorecard here
Points table at the end of round three matches (March 2, 2008)
M-W-L-D-Points
1. Sindh: 2-2-0-0-12
2. Federal Areas: 3-1-0-2-9
3. NWFP: 3-0-1-2-6
3. Punjab: 2-0-0-2-3
4. NWFP: 2-0-1-1-3
5. Balochistan: 2-0-2-0-0