LAHORE: Four hundred and eighty teenage cricketers will get an opportunity to participate in the newly-launched 24-team Cricket Associations Divisional U19 Tournament. The event will run from 10-16 June in five Cricket Associations, while the event will be held from 11-17 June in the Southern Punjab cricket Associations’ jurisdiction.
These 480 cricketers are a combination of players who had excelled in the recently-concluded 93-team City Cricket Association (CCA) U19 tournament and those enrolled into the PCB’s 100 Best Programme but are above 16 years of age and under 19 years of age.
The best performers from the CA Divisional U19 Tournament will be joined by the outstanding performers from last year’s National U19 Championship (three-day) and Cup (one-day) tournaments in the 2022-23 National U19 Championship and Cup, which will be held from between 26 June and 13 August.
The CA Divisional U19 Tournament is a new addition to the PCB domestic calendar and will serve as a launching pad for the National U19 Championship/Cup. The additional event in the PCB Pathways Programme supplements the increase in teams from six to 12 in last year’s National U19 events.
Nadeem Khan, Director – High Performance: “The CA Divisional U19 tournament is an important addition to the PCB Domestic Cricket Calendar as it will not only provide more clarity to the PCB Pathways Programme, but will also provide additional matches to the budding cricketers in a more competitive and challenging competitive at the age-group level.
“The CA Divisional U19 tournament is also a reward to the high-performing players from the CCA U19 tournament and will also serve as an incentive for them to move up the ladder, provided they continue to demonstrate high-level skills, fitness and performances.” Each of the six Cricket Associations will field four teams with each side to comprise 20 players.
Balochistan CA teams will comprise players from the Quetta, Rakhsan, Loralai, Zhob, Makran, Kalat, Naseerabad and Sibi divisions; Central Punjab will comprise players from the Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Sialkot divisions; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sides will include players from the Peshawar, Kohat, Malakand, Hazara, Mardan, DI Khan and Bannu divisions; players from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan will form the Northern CA squads; Sindh CA sides will have players from the Sukkur, Larkana, Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, Karachi and Hyderabad divisions; while Southern Punjab CA teams will include players from the Multan, Bahawalpur, DG Khan and Sahiwal divisions.