LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has launched the A.H. Kardar Cup National U-16 Schools’ Cricket Championship the largest ever such exercise in country’s sporting history with as many as 9000 school going kids from public and private schools involved in the initiative set to run for some three months.
Chairman PCB Shaharyar Khan, Chairman PCB Executive Committee Najam Sethi, Director Game Development Aized Syed and Shahid Kardar son of Pakistan’s first-ever Test captain (Late) Abdul Hafeez Kardar (Vice-Chancellor Beaconhouse National University, BNU) collectively unveiled the glittering tournament trophy which will be handed over to the winning team.
The tournament begins on April 5 with regional matches across Lahore and followed by other regions. By April 21, all 21 cities would be engaged with simultaneous matches all across the country. The trophy is PCB’s tribute to the legendary Kardar who made a big impact as a player, captain and later as a cricket administrator in Pakistan’s formative years.
Shaharyar Khan and Najam Sethi applauded the launch of the initiative and stressed the importance of cricket at the grass root level which is likely to yield long-term results and provide an exciting talent pool that can graduate to international cricket in due course. The Chairman and Chairman Ex-Co added that the initiative is a continuation of PCB’s commitment to spreading cricket far and wide besides tapping into young talent at an early stage.
Shahid Kardar thanked the PCB for acknowledging the services of his father; he hoped that the tournament will add to the legacy of Abdul Hafeez Kardar since he always wanted to leave a lasting impression on the game in the country and the tournament is a befitting way of honouring his services. The tournament trophies have been donated by Shahid Kardar while he also announced a prize of Rs 100,000 for the Best Player of the Tournament.
Aized Syed briefed the media about the tournament’s structure, format, schedule and the goals that the PCB has envisioned through this initiative.
21 cities are involved in this record breaking event that is set to engage some of the leading schools across the country besides ones where sports activities are scarcely held.
10-20 schools will be participating with their school names in each region/city (10 public schools and 10 private schools). Also, schools having more strength of students will have the option of not merging with other schools.
Total indirect participation of schools across Pakistan: Minimum Participation = 675 Schools approx. Maximum Participation = 900 Schools approx Total direct participation of schools across Pakistan: Maximum Participation = 348 Schools approx Total direct participation of school players across Pakistan: Maximum Participation = 9,000 School players approx.
Regional/City U-16 School cricket Championship: Regional/City U-16 School cricket Championship in each region will be held from 5th of April to 25th of May. Result: One regional/City U-16 school cricket champion from each region/city. Pool matches (Regional champions) Pool matches will be played between the champion regional/City school teams. This tournament will be played in July (after the month of Ramazan). Result: The top team from each pool will qualify to play semi-finals.
Semi-final and Final (Pool champion) Semi-final and Final will be played in July. (In summer vacations, after Ramadan) Result: One “National U-16 school cricket champion” Participating players. A player has to be a student of the given school and the age of the player has to be 16 years and 4 months in August each year to participate in this tournament.
Age verification process which is finalised by PCB has set January 1, 2001, as the cutoff dates for eligibility of the participating players.
