LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today announced the six Cricket Association squads for the 2021-22 domestic season.
Each squad was selected by the head coach, chairperson and chief executive of the respective Cricket Association in the presence of national men’s chief selector Muhammad Wasim, Nadeem Khan, High Performance Director, Junaid Zia, Domestic Cricket General Manager and chief executives of the other Cricket Associations as observers.
While majority of players from the 2020-21 domestic season were retained, the gaps in each of the six sides were plugged with top performers of the City Cricket Association tournaments, after head coaches had a close look at them in the pre-season training camps that were held last week at each of the six Cricket Associations.
The selected players are: Balochistan – Aftab Ahmed, Fahad Hussain, Mohammad Idrees, Mohammad Javed, Sana Ullah, Shoaib Ahmed, Syed Zainullah (Pishin) and Tariq Jameel
Central Punjab – Asad Ali Jnr, Gohar Hafeez Butt, Haider Ali, Mohammad Faizan, Mohammad Tabraiz, Mohammad Waheed and Mudassar Riaz
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – Aitzaz Habib Khan, Farhan Khan, Khayyam Khan, Mashal Khan, Mohammad Ibrahim, Mohammad Tahir, Niaz Khanand Yasir Khan
Northern – Aqib Liaqat, Asad Raza, Hamza Arshad, Kashif Ali, Sadaqat Ali, Sarmad Hameed and Zaman Khan
Sindh – Asif Mehmood, Imtiaz Leghari, Junaid Ilyas, Khuzaima Bin Tanveer, Mohammad Afzal, Mohammad Shahid Mihrani, Mushtaq Ahmed Kalhoro and Usman Khan
Southern Punjab – Ali Majid, Humayun Altaf, Kaleem Ullah, Mohammad Sharoon Siraj, Mohammad Jahangir, Mohammad Shahriyar, Mohammad Sudais and Moin-ud-Din
This move is in line with the PCB’s policy of incentivising and rewarding top performers at each rung of domestic cricket and setting a clear pathway for graduation to the next level.
The head coaches of the six Cricket Associations, who served as lead selectors of their sides, retained the core players, following which the remaining players were sent to a selection pool from where they were picked by other teams.
Balochistan’s squad includes 55 percent local players, which is a jump by 10 percent from the last season as the PCB continues its efforts to develop the game in the province and provide opportunities to the youth to establish their careers as cricketers.
