Draft held for Super-8 T20 tournament

Players distributed among eight participating teams

KARACHI: Islamabad selected star all-rounder Shahid Afridi, while Test skipper Misbahul Haq was picked by Karachi Whites in the Super-8 T20 draft held yesterday at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.

The tournament is scheduled to take place between August 25 and September 16 in two phases — the first one in Rawalpindi and then in Multan.

The eight participating teams include two each from Karachi and Lahore, whereas Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Fata will have one representative each in the tournament.



All the teams will get to play at least seven matches as the event is being held on a single-league basis, which will be followed by semi-finals and the final.

Before the draft proceedings began, the teams were asked to select four local players from their regions, with the remainder of the roster to be filled with draft picks.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal went to Karachi Blues, while Ahmad Shahzad and Umar Akmal will represent Lahore Blues and Lahore Whites respectively.



For the play-offs, the Pakistan Cricket Board intends to organise a separate draft, which will also include those players who are currently in England with the national team and weren’t included in the original draft.

Hence, the four teams who make it to the semi-finals will get to pick the likes of Sarfaraz Ahmad, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Hafeez and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2016.

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