A total of 1,175,000 rupees will be at stake on the occasion of the final. One million rupees and the trophy will be collected by the champions while Rs 500,000 will go to the runners-up. Five individual awards, all worth Rs 50,000 each, will be handed out to the Man of the Match in the final and the tournament’s best batsman, bowler, fielder and wicket-keeper.
The two umpires named for the final are Saleem Badar and Zameer Haider. Former Test cricketer Anwar Khan will be the match referee and Mohammad Ahsan the official scorer. Meanwhile, the SNGPL will be selected from the following players:
Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Adnan Akmal (wicketkeeper), Asad Ali, Azhar Shafiq, Imran Ali, Imran Khalid, Khurram Shahzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Saleem Mughal, Samiullah Niazi, Tauqeer Hussain and Yasir Arafat. Umar Akmal and Adil Raza may play if realeased from the Pakistan Under-19s camp.
Habib Bank attained ‘Grand Slam’ in 1977-78 Habib Bank made their debut on the Pakistan domestic circuit in 1975-76. They immediately made a mark by winning the United Bank Limited (UBL) Trophy and Servis Cup limited overs competitions in their inaugural season. As early as 1977-78, they had become the only Pakistan team ever to attain a ‘Grand Slam’.
They not only won the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Championship title, they claimed the Patron’s Trophy Championship and also the BCCP Invitaion Tournament, which was just another name for the Pentangular Trophy contest.
Habib Bank may have only won one national title, but from among the departmental teams they hold the record for having won the most — nine — Patron’s Trophy tournaments. They have ended as runners-up in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Championship on three occasions — in 1978-79, 1988-89 and 1999-00.
SNGPL entered the first-class circuit by finishing second to Public Works Department (PWD) in the Patron’s Trophy Grade-II final in 2000-01. But they ended 10th out of 10 teams in the first-class Patron’s Trophy Championship in 2001-02 and were relegated to Grade-II again.
In 2002-03, they won the Grade-II event then known as the Kardar Trophy and have been playing first-class cricket again since 2003-04. After finishing at the bottom or therabouts in the league rounds each season, they have emerged tall in 2007-08 by making the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final.
Championship in its 50th season
The 2007-08 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Championship is the 50th since having been introduced in 1953-54. It was not held in 1955-56, 1960-61, 1965-66, 1967-68 and 1971-72 for various reasons. Of the 49 previous titles, Karachi teams have the lion’s share of 18 and, in fact, Karachi Urban clinched the trophy in the 2006-07 season also.
PIA come a distant second, with six titles to their credit. NBP have been the champions on five occasions and Lahore/City and United Bank Limited (UBL) four times each.
The inaugural winners in 1953-54 Bahawalpur, in addition to Peshawar, Punjab and Railways have won the championship twice each. ZTBL, when they were known as Agriculture Development Bank Limited (ADBP), Faisalabad, HBL and Sialkot have been the winners on one occasion each.
With nine departmental and 13 regional teams bunched together in the 2007-08 competition, it has been held in two groups of 11 teams each. Six teams — three each from either group — are to be relegated to the non-first-class circuit of the next season.
These are the sides that have finished at the bottom of the list in each group. Sialkot, champions in 2005-06 and runners-up last season, and Peshawar, twice winners of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy title, are thus going to be the hardest hit.
If the PCB goes ahead with its original intention, then four other teams — Pakistan Customs and Hyderabad from Group A and Karachi Blues and Quetta from Group B are also threatened with demotion.
