The return of crash, bang and wallop

Departmental teams to vie for Faysal Bank T20 Cup.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Departmental T20 Tournament will get under way from Wednesday in Lahore, with 11 teams in the race to win the coveted crown.

The teams have been divided into two groups, with KRL, NBP, PIA, PTV, SBP and UBL forming Group A while HBL, PQA, SNGPL, Wapda and ZTBL make up Group B.

On the opening day, five matches will be contested between UBL-SBP, HBL-Wapda, NBP-PTV, PIA-KRL and ZTBL-SNGPL.

Earlier this year, HBL had won the inaugural departmental Twenty20 competition, beating PIA in a closely fought final.

Currently, HBL will go into the tournament as favourites along with NBP and PQA, while the likes of ZTBL and SBP could also have the firepower to upset any team on their day.

According to former Test cricketer and HBL’s cricket consultant Raqeeb Ahmed, HBL have every chance of retaining the title as their senior players are back with the team.

“We’ve got a better squad than what we had during the Ramazan event, thus I feel we can become champions once again,” Raqeeb told The Express Tribune.

“The return of Umar Gul has given us a boost in the bowling department because he is one of the best when it comes to Twenty20 cricket. He is making a gradual comeback in domestic cricket and with Ehsan Adil, they will both be a strong force.”

‘Wapda should not be taken lightly’

Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar has warned opponents not to take his team Wapda lightly in the tournament, as they have a strong squad to give any team a tough time.

“Wapda is a strong unit and we have the the capability to surprise any team on our day, so people should not write us off,” said Babar.

“We’ve got senior professionals such as Rana Navedul Hasan, Adnan Raees, Mohammad Ayub, Riffatullah which gives our side the needed experience in crunch matches.”

Babar believes that PQA and HBL will enter the competition as favourites since they have the fire power in their line up.

The winners of the tournament will grab a prize of Rs2 million while the runners-up will be given Rs1 million.

The PCB had earlier planned to host a Twenty20 tournament consisting of regions in this window, but the board was told that the sponsors were not interested in supporting an event without stars.

In addition, all the departments were playing the President’s Trophy and One-Day Cup in Punjab and PCB felt it right to host a departmental Twenty20 event.

“The Twenty20 tournament with regions wasn’t attracting any sponsors because all top stars were busy with their departments,” a senior PCB official revealed. “Hence, we decided to change it to a departmental Twenty20 tournament.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.

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