By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
A grand ceremony will be held at the Karachi Gymkhana Cricket Ground on September 1 to mark the opening of the eighth edition of the PVCA Inter-Schools Cricket Tournament 2016 for the Omar Trophy, being contested by 32 outfits.
Nadeem Omar, Managing Director, Omar Associates, will be the chief guest in the inauguration ceremony, to be presided over by Fawad Ijaz Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA).
According to an announcement of the PVCA, the opening ceremony, to be attended by all the participating 32 teams, will be taking place from 9 am to 10 am and it will be followed by the inaugural match between Beaconhouse School and Ladybird Grammar School.
The PVCA is organizing the Inter-Schools tournament in Karachi for the eighth time, having launched it with great fanfare in 1999. The event is being sponsored by Omar Associates (Pvt) Ltd with Bank Alfalah Ltd being the co-sponsors.
The participating teams have been divided equally in eight groups. It includes 31 schools of the metropolis while a team of Karachi Gymkhana Schoolboys has also entered the tournament in which 55 matches are scheduled to be played over a period of two and a half months.
Besides the Karachi Gymkhana Cricket Ground, the other venues to be used for the tournament will be National Stadium, NBP Sports Complex, KCCA Stadium, TMC Ground, Hussain Lawai Naya Nazimabad Stadium and SKBZ Ground.
The PVCA will be spending over Rupees two million in holding the holding whose semifinals and finals, to be telecast live, will be staged at the National Stadium.
The Man of the Match of every league outing will be entitled for a cash award of Rs 1,000 while the Man of the Final will be rewarded with a purse of Rs 5,000. The best batsman, the best bowler, the best wicketkeeper and the best player of the tournament will also be getting Rs 5,000 each.
Besides arranging for meals and refreshments during matches, the organizers will also be providing shirts and caps to the participants and it will be mandatory for them to wear the sponsored shirts and caps during their matches.
The PVCA has constituted an organizing committee for the tournament which will be headed by Nadeem Omar with Alamgir Ahmed having been appointed as the coordinator. Amjad Islam, Visal Ansari and Nasrullah Khan will be the other members of the committee.
The students born on or after September 1, 1999, are eligible to participate in the tournament while each school has been allowed to field one guest player who should not be a student of 31 participating schools.
All the matches will be limited to 40 overs per innings.
The morning session games will be played from 10 am to 12.45 pm while the afternoon session fixtures will be held from 1.30 pm to 4.15 pm.
No bowler will be permitted to bowl more than eight overs in a match whereas in order to encourage fast bowlers, the teams will not be allowed to use spinners during the first six overs.