Schedule for Quaid-e-Azam 2019-20 Season Announced - Android

Quetta’s Bugti Stadium will return as a first-class venue after 11 years when it was announced as one of the… Read More

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Quetta’s Bugti Stadium will return as a first-class venue after 11 years when it was announced as one of the nine centers which will host 31 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2019-20 fixtures between 14 September and 9 December.

While scheduling Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2019-20 fixtures, the Pakistan Cricket Board has taken ground availability and readiness as well as expected weather conditions at the backend of the year into consideration.

Balochistan will feature in all the four matches at Bugti Stadium – second round fixture against Southern Punjab (21-24 September), the third round fixture against Central Punjab (28 Sep-1 Oct), the fifth-round fixture against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (28-31 Oct) and a sixth-round fixture against Southern Punjab (4-7 Nov).

The picturesque Bugti Stadium staged its only ODI in 1996, while it hosted its 25^th and last first-class match in October 2008 when the home side met the then North-West Frontier Province in a 2008-09 Pentangular Cup match.

While Bugti Stadium will host four matches, other venues to grace the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy matches are:

• Abbottabad Stadium, Abbottabad – 6
• Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore – 3
• Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad – 3
• Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot – 1
• KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi – 3
• National Stadium, Karachi – 5 (including 9-13 Dec final)
• State Bank Stadium, Karachi – 1
• UBL Sports Complex, Karachi – 5

In the opening round from 14-17 September, Sindh and Balochistan will go head to head at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi, while Gaddafi Stadium will be the venue of the derby match between Central and Southern Punjab. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will lock horns with Northern at the Abbottabad Stadium.

After the first four rounds, the red ball cricket will come to a halt to make the window for T20 cricket. This is being done to provide the selectors with the opportunity to select in-form T20 players ahead of the crucial three-match T20I series against Australia Down Under.

The First and Second XI T20 tournaments, running simultaneously, will also help the HBL Pakistan Super League franchises to spot players ahead of the player draft for the next year’s edition.

To groom further the domestic cricketers for the demanding challenges of Test cricket, for the first time in domestic cricket, the PCB has decided to implement the no-toss rule, which will provide the visiting teams will an option of bowling first. This will act as a deterrent for the home sides from doctoring the pitches in their favor and compel them to prepare pitches that provide the right balance between bat and ball for four days.

The full schedule is as following:

Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Second XI tournament

The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Second XI tournament will run simultaneously with the First XI tournament. The 30 group matches will be of three-day durations, while the final will be a four-day fixture that will be played at Karachi’s State Bank Stadium from 26 to 29 November.

The city of Mirpur in Azad and Jammu Kashmir will host four Second XI matches, starting from the second round contest between Northern and Central Punjab.

The decision to broaden the venues for top-quality perfectly aligns with the PCB’s vision of the promotion of the game as it will attract more and more people towards the game, with the country’s leading cricketers playing in front of them, and help in the development of the game in what previously has been a neglected region.

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