LAHORE, April 15: The fifth and final round of the Pentangular Cup, one of the most prestigious domestic cricket tournaments, will be affected, when nine players of three participating teams, out of five sides, will leave for Abu Dhabi to represent Pakistan 'A' team in the Euro-Asia Cup to be held there from April 22 to May 5.

The final round begins from April 23.

Mohammad Hafeez, Misbahul Haq, Samiullah Khan (Faisalabad), Yasir Hameed, Bazid Khan, Tahir Khan (PIA) and Shahid Yousuf, Mansoor Amjad and Yasir Arafat (NBP) have been selected in the Pakistan 'A' team.

Sialkot and Karachi Harbour are two other teams of the tournament.

The tournament is important since all the five participating teams are the winners or runners-up of three tournaments.

NBP are the winners of the Patron's Trophy while PIA are the runners-up. Sialkot and Faisalabad are the winners and runners-up of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Gold League while Karachi Harbour is the winner of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Silver.

When contacted, PCB Director Cricket Operations Saleem Altaf, admitted that the tournament would be affected due to absence of main players.

Asked if PCB would consider an option to advise players of the Seniors team to be available for the last round after playing back-to-back ODIs against India in Abu Dhabi on April 18 and 19, Saleem said many players had planned to play county cricket while some of them would be preferring rest before the start of the England tour.

However, Saleem said, the PCB would discuss the matter to make maximum number of prominent cricketers available for the tournament.