Player Selection Ceremony held ahead of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) held the first-ever Player Selection Ceremony for its premier first-class tournament Quaid-e-Azam Trophy’s season 2017-2018 at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday.

Eight Regional sides Lahore Blues, Lahore Whites, Karachi Whites, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, FATA and Peshawar picked eight players each to complete their set of 20 players for the tournament.

All the teams had earlier picked 12 players from their own region; the dozen selected also included two Emerging Players.

The Player Selection Ceremony was held in a cordial atmosphere as all eight regions tried their best to make formidable combinations for the most competitive four-day tournament in the country.

The eight regions expressed their satisfaction at the smooth conduct of the ceremony, and accepted the new system which encourages meritorious selections, whole-heartedly.

Director Cricket Operations Haroon Rasheed thanked the regions for their cooperation and re-endorsed the PCB’s trust in the regions.

“The regions are our arms; we want to give them maximum support since they produce talent at the grassroots level and are the reason for Pakistan cricket’s success at the highest level which has recently culminated in the historic Champions Trophy success.

“Our domestic system is on the road to improvement and this is the reason the Player Selection Ceremony was introduced this year to add a new exciting dimension for the players besides further encouraging the role of new blood through induction of two Emerging Players in each squad,” he said.

The eight squads are:

FATA: Asif Afridi, Samiullah Jr, Muhammad Asad Afridi, Muhammad Naeem, Wilayat Muhammad, Rehan Afridi, Sadam Afridi, Muhammad Sarwar, Asif Ali, Rehmatullah, Muhammad Nisar Afridi, Irfanullah Shah, Mukhtar Ahmed, Sajjad Hussain, Ahsan Bhatti, Salman Irshad, Hafeezur Rehman, Yasir Hameed, Sohail Akhtar and Abdul Aziz

Peshawar region: Israrullah, Ashfaq Ahmed, Sahibzada Farhan, Mehran Ibrahim, Akbar Badshah, Jamaluddin, Gohar Ali (Wk), Imran Khan Sr, Taj Wali, Nasir Ahmed, Nabi Gul, Zawan Ahmed, Shahzaib Ahmed, Badshah Hussain, Nasir Awais, Shah Faisal, Muhammad Aqib, Ubaidullah, Umar Islam and Fawad Akbar.

Lahore Region (W): Usman Salahuddin, Rizwan Hussain, Anas Mahmood, Fahadul Haq, Ameer Hamza, Umaid Asif, Waqas Ahmed, Muhammad Irfan, Adnan Rasool, Muhammad Aftab, Aftab Azwar, Salman Fayyaz, Haris Sohail, Shoaib Akram, Irfan Zaman, Muhammad Mohsin, Muhammad Waqas, Umar Farooq, Asfand Mehran and Hamza Akbar.

Lahore region (B): Saad Nasim, Raza Ali Dar, Salman Ali Agha, Waqas Saleem, Zainul Hasnain, Farhan Khan, Bilawal Iqbal, Aizaz Cheema, Qaisar Ashraf, Tayyab Tahir, Ali Mustafa, Ali Zaryab Asif, Inam Javed, Irfan Haider, Shahid Nawaz, Haris Nazar, Saifur Rehman, Mobeen Hameed, Qamber Iqbal and Asadullah.

Faisalabad region: Abdul Samad, Muhammad Saleem, Muhammad Talha, Ahmed Saifi, Asad Raza, Asif Ali, Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal, Naseer Akram, Ateequr Rehman, Raees Ahmed, Atif Jabbar, Ibtisam Sheikh, Ali Shan, Hassan Mehmood, Shahid Khan, Moid Sheikh, Ammar Mehmood and Imran Ali.

Rawalpindi region: Sohail Tanveer, Abid Hassan, Saad Altaf, Nazar Hussain, Umar Waheed, Sarmad Hameed, Naveed Malik, Muzamil Nizam, Nadeem Sikander, Ataullah, Umar Masood, Zeeshan Malik, Behram Khan, Rameez Alam, Shahryar Ghani, Babar Aga, Haseeb Azam, Talha Qureshi, Naqi Raza and Shahzad Ahmad.

Islamabad Region: Immad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Zohaib Ahmed, Sarmad Bhatti, Faizan Riaz, Shahzad Azam Rana, Hamza Nadeem Abbasi, Shahid Yousaf, Abid Ali, Ali Sarfaraz, Arsal Shaikh, Muhammad Naqash, Sadaif Mehdi, Babar Rehman, Afaq Raheem, Fahad Iqbal, Munirur Rehman Tanzil, Muhammad Shahid, Syed Muzamil Shah and Naseerullah Mehsood.

Karachi region (W): Khurram Manzoor, Faisal Iqbal, Muhammad Sami, Anwar Ali, Muhammad Hasan, Azam Hussain, Faraz Ali, Razaul Hassan, Muhammad Waqas Sr, Hamza Ghanchi, Hassan Khan, Danish Aziz, Usman Khan, Abdullah Muqaddam, Moazam Malik, Yasir Mushtaq, Mohtashim Ali, Adeel Malik, Owais Rehmani and Ahmed Iqbal.  —