DNA

LAHORE, APR 8: Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi attended the final of the Lahore region iteration of the Inter-College Ramadan T20 Cup at LCCA Ground on Sunday night as chief guest. Chairman was welcomed by the other senior board officials to the ground as Punjab College took on GCU Lahore in the final.

The winning team, Punjab College, received their trophy and prize money of PKR 500,000 while the GCU Lahore received their runners-up trophy and prize money of PKR 250,000 from the chairman PCB.

President Lahore Regional Cricket Association (LRCA) Mr Khawaja Nadeem and SGM Domestic Cricket operation Junaid Zia also distributed prizes among the players.

Chairman PCB appreciated the performance of the winning team, Punjab College, and also lauded the spirit and passion of the all the participating teams and players in the tournament.

A total of 63 matches were played in the three regions, Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore and the Chairman committed to providing better opportunities to the top performers of this tournament.

In reply to one of the questions during the media talk Chairman also revealed that the squad for the Pakistan T20I team will soon be announced in a press conference at the GSL while the team management too is soon to be finalised and unveiled.

He also reiterated Pakistan’s plans for hosting the prestigious ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi: “We have shortlisted some of the players and the PCB will provide them more chances to grow as professional players. The PCB aims to arrange around 7000 such matches at the grassroots level in the next four months throughout the country. The purpose is to not only arrange the games but also to earmark young talent for future.

“The PCB is also planning to engage women cricketers at the grassroots level as well. We do have plans to arrange tournaments for women players as well which will be unveiled soon.

The Inter-Colleges tournament is just the first step towards reviving the culture of competitive grassroots cricket and we will soon expand this network.

“As the chairman of the Cricket Board, I’m equally invested in all matches be it the domestic tournaments or the grassroots level cricket.”