Lahore, October 6: Around 50 budding cricketers underwent trials at Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi on Saturday.

The trials were specially arranged for them after they contacted the highest authorities of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and assured them that they were talented enough to qualify for Pakistan Under-19, Pakistan `A' and Regional academy teams.

At Karachi, Rashid Khan supervised the trials while Farrukh Zaman was incharge at Peshawar, Azhar Khan at Lahore and Masood Anwar at Rawalpindi.

At the centres, trails were conducted in different categories and all the batsmen, bowlers and wicketkeepers were given full opportunity to display their talent. Video footages were also made of all the players. The trial incharges also interviewed the boys and studied their past performances.

Azhar Khan, who watched 28 boys at Lahore, said: "Some of the boys look promising and can transform into good cricketers if taken care of. I will submit my recommendations (on the players) to the concerned authorities by Monday."

The interesting aspect of the trials was the appearance of brothers Ali Raza and Hasnain Raza who appeared at Karachi. Eight-year-old Ali and six-year-old Hasnain had come all the way from Hyderabad.

Those who attended the trials were:

AT LAHORE: Damas Jan, Ghulam Mustafa, Attique-ur-Rehman, Salman Yasin, Mohammad Qasim, Khiyyam Rashid, Umar Farooq, Zuhaib Hassan, Shakeel Ahmad, Siddique-ur-Rehman (all Lahore), Shah Nawaz (D.G Khan), Mohammad Aslam Noor Khattak (Gujranwala), Syed Atif Hussain Shah, Faisal Manj (both Gujrat), Mohammad Arif Ashraf, Faisal Rasool, Shahid Imran, Fahad Iqbal, Abbas Riaz (Mandi Bahauddin), Munir Ahmad (Rahimyar Khan), Nadeem Akhtar, Ghulam Murtuza (both Sahiwal), Malik Mohammad Asif (Sheikhupura), Ali Nawaz, Mudassar Hussain (both Sialkot), Iftikhar Ali (Toba Tek Singh), Shams-ul-Haq (Bahawalpur), Umar Zaman (Multan)

AT RAWALPINDI: Ghulam Sarwar, Zameer Ahmad, Hafiz Hasnain, Asif Mumtaz, Moazzam Yaqoob, Yasir Murtuza, Khurram Rafiq, Khurram Shahzad, M.Ibraheem, Omair Khan, Yasir (all Rawalpindi), Abdul Rehman, (Attock), Nafees-ul-Abbas, M.Shoaib Babar (both Chakwal), Abdul Khaliq (Mianwali).

AT PESHAWAR: Manzoor Khan, Noor Rehman (Bannu), Safeer Khan (Haripur), Naseer Ahmad (Manshera), Zulfiqar Ahmad (Mardan), Mohabbat Khan (Swabi).

AT KARACHI: Shahbaz Ahmad (Karachi), Fahad Khan (Mirpurkhas), Sikandar Khoso, Mumtaz Ali (both Nawabshah), Ali Raza, Hasnain Raza (both Hyderabad), Mohammad Asghar (Khairpur).

SAMIUL HASAN
G.M. MEDIA
October 6, 2002

© PCB