KARACHI: For the first time in the history of domestic cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday unveiled well in advance the schedule of seven tournaments along with playing conditions of all three formats.

In the previous seasons, the schedule of any one competition was made public just before the particular event started.

The newly-formed Domestic Affairs Committee finalised the schedule and details for the 2016-27 season on recommendations of the Domestic Cricket Department and announced it after getting approval from the PCB’s Board of Governors.

The salient feature of the entire schedule, barring the Patron’s Trophy Grade-II competition, is primarily focussed on quality over quantity.

The Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Championship — country’s premier first-class tournament — will commence from Oct 1 this year on the same format as last year with two pools of eight teams participating in the first phase which concludes on Nov 15.

The top four teams from each group will then compete in the Super Eight stage with matches scheduled for Karachi from Nov 19 to Dec 6 before the table-toppers of two pools meet in the day/night Dec 10-14 final at the National Stadium.

One prominent change made in the forthcoming season that apart from the final, there will be 10 other first-class matches that would be played under floodlights keeping in view the importance of providing cricketers practice for day/night Tests.

The floodlight fixtures will be staged at the National Stadium (5), Pindi Cricket Stadium (3) and Gaddafi Stadium (3).

The season kicks off with the staging of the National T20 Cup in two phases — in Rawalpindi (Aug 25 to Sept 2) and Multan (Sept 5 to 11).

The Inter-region under-19 three-day and one-day events will be played simultaneously from Aug 30 to Oct 14 with triangular series between winners of three groups determining the qualifiers for the final.

Just three days after the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy final, the National One-day Cup for eight departmental teams will be held from Dec 17 to Dec 31 with matches slated for Karachi and Hyderabad.

The eight regional outfits then compete in the National One-day Cup from Jan 8 to 27 with matches to be held in Rawalpindi and three grounds in Islamabad with the semi-finals and the final set for Lahore.

The Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II will be held from March to 30 with eight teams competing in two groups of four.

The Pakistan Cup one-day tournament, unlike last season when only Faisalabad hosted the event, will be played from April 11 to May 5 at six venues with Quetta returning to the mainstream of domestic cricket as the host city after several seasons in the wilderness owing to various issues.

The event begins at the Bugti Stadium before moving to Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Faisalabad before the final at Lahore.

The PCB will announce the schedule of Patron’s Trophy Grade-II tournament only after confirmation is received from each departmental team.

According to the PCB media release, the unveiling of domestic tournaments for the next season would allow the competing teams of departments and associations, all officials and other stakeholders to finalise their financial and administrative plans while streamlining their activities well before the start of each tournament.

The PCB has also decided to give substantial raise in match fee and daily allowance of players and giving them more facilities in a bid to improve the standard of domestic cricket.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2016