Eight leading departments of the country, including three former national champions, will lock horns in the first Cool and Cool Corporate Twenty20 Night Tournament 2011 which will be played at the DHA Sports Club (Moin Khan Academy) from August 6 to 20.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), who share over 50 first-class and domestic one day tournament titles between them, will lineup with Pakistan Cricket Board’s Grade-Two outfits Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), Port Qasim Authority (PQA), CandyLand, Omar Associates and Saiyed Paper Mills in the tournament.
Some of the biggest names likely to be seen in action in the two-week tournament under the picturesque DHA Sports Club (Moin Khan Academy) floodlights include former Pakistan captains Shoaib Malik, Younus Khan and Shahid Afridi, and current stars Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat, Danish Kaneria, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Abdul Rahman, Khalid Latif and Taufeeq Umar. Tournament Director and former Test spinner Nadeem Khan, who is also GM Operations – DHA Sports Club (Moin Khan Academy), said: “On the behalf of the club, we extended invitations to all the Grade-One and Grade-Two sides of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). For this year’s event, we received confirmation from eight sides but I am confident that after the success of the forthcoming event, more teams will show interest and participate in future events.”
Former Pakistan captain and chief executive of the DHA Sports Club (Moin Khan Academy) Moin Khan said: “It is an absolute honour and privilege for the club to host a galaxy of national stars in the first-ever Twenty20 tournament which features the departmental sides which have played a vital role in the development and promotion of the game of cricket in Pakistan.” The eight teams have been equally divided into two groups with the top two sides from each group qualifying for the semi-finals.