LAHORE: As many as 18 teams are taking part in the National T20 2023-24 Tournament starting from Friday (today).
The tournament which will last continue till 10th December is scheduled to be played across four venues National Bank Stadium, UBL Sports Complex, HPC Oval Ground and NBP Sports Complex in Karachi, a PCB spokesman, said.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has also announced free entry for spectators for all matches being played at National Bank Stadium. The Hanif Mohammad, Javed Miandad and Fazal Mahmood enclosures will be accessible for the spectators.
The 63-match tournament has been structured to open with group stage games, which will be followed by Super Eight matches. A total of 32 group stage matches are set to be played from November 24 to 28.
The first set of fixtures will see Lahore Whites face Larkana and Karachi Blues face Peshawar at NBP Sports Complex in Group A. In Group B, Karachi Whites will play against Islamabad and Hyderabad will feature against DM Jamali at UBL Sports Complex. Rawalpindi will take on Abbottabad and Faisalabad will face Bahawalpur at National Bank Stadium for Group C and lastly, for group D, HPC Oval Ground will stage the Multan-Sialkot clash and FATA-AJK game.
Top two teams from each group will progress to the Super Eight stage, which will be played in a round-robin format from 1 to 8 December. The complete schedule for Super Eight games will be revealed in due course.
Following the Super Eight stage, the top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals. Both semi-finals are scheduled to be played on 9th December at National Bank Stadium, respectively. The final is scheduled to be played at the same venue on 10th December.
The winning team of the tournament will pocket prize money of Rs5 million. Meanwhile, the tournament runners-up will be awarded Rs2.5 million. The player of the tournament will be rewarded with Rs250,000. The same amount has been allotted to three other awards; best batter, best bowler and best wicket-keeper of the tournament. The player of the final will receive Rs50,000 while player of the match in each of the Super Eight games and the semi-finals will be given Rs25,000.
This is the first edition of the tournament played since the PCB 2014 Constitution was reinstated. The previous edition of National T20, which featured six sides, was won by Sindh who clinched their maiden title after defeating defending champions Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by eight wickets. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lost out on securing a hat-trick of titles after winning both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 editions.
The division of groups is as follows:
Group-A: Lahore Whites, Peshawar, Karachi Blues, Larkana and Quetta;
Group-B: Lahore Blues, Karachi Whites, Islamabad, Hyderabad, and Dera Murad Jamali;
Group-C: Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, Faisalabad and Bahawalpur;
Group-D: Multan, Sialkot, FATA and AJK.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.