Lahore: Lahore Qalandars, a Pakistan Super League franchise has been investing heavily in the development of domestic cricket among young Pakistanis, for the long term good of the game and increase Pakistani cricket’s international appeal. The profoundly acclaimed Player Development Program being run by the franchise is fast on its way to develop a dynamic pulsating sports culture across the nation as the last star studded trials of the third season of its player development program concluded at Lahore today with the selection of two teams: Lahori Qalandars and Pardesi Qalandars.
The player development program is a small step in the franchise’s vision of national integration through sports. The Franchise has set out with a goal of revival of domestic and international cricket in Pakistan and its player development program travelled through Punjab, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan and KPK in an effort to create fair sports system purely based upon merit and to provide equal opportunities of growth and development of cricketing skills in the far-flung areas of Pakistan.
The massive turnout at the franchise’s home ground Lahore over the trials held in last two days was reflective of the hope Lahore Qalandars have managed to instigate for a promising future of the game in the country. In the current season of player development program the outreach reach by Qalandars expanded to include overseas Pakistanis as well as the franchise conducted trials of Overseas Pakistanis as its Pardesi Qalandars on Wednesday at Gadaffi. For this purpose the franchise arranged for the participation of over 50 overseas Pakistanis from across the world including UK, USA, Canada and Middle East where the Shortlisted team of Pardesi Qalandars include:
Limar Asad, Fahad Babar, Daniyal Chaudhary, Hafiz Farzan Alam, Anjum Naqvi, Aneeq Hasan, Azeem Dar, Inyayt Saeed, Muhammad Salman, Marwan Muhammad, Hassam Mushtaq, Gohar Shah, Hunaid Nadir, Imran Javed, Muhammad Bilal, Faisal Hussain and Meer Murtaza.
The shortlisted players for Lahori Qalandars include:
Hamza Nazir, Shezad Ali, Waqas Ali, Bilal Arshad, Tariq Nawaz, Salman Ali, Farzan Raja, Ali Majid, Sadat Munir, Ahsan Mirza, Bilal Ahmad, Mubashar Hussain, Mirwas Khan, Dilber Hussain, Muhammad Shahzeb and Amad Butt.
Lahore Qalandars CEO Atif Rana has expressed his gratitude to all the participants for making the first phase of the trials great success and has hopes for an even more successful second phase of tournament.
“Our priority was providing a platform to talented individuals completely on merit. We set out to provide an open nursery for any cricket enthusiast. Today we are excited to welcome a young talentedeight year old Samiya as part of the Qalandars family where we will provide for everything she needs to develop her career in cricket. Now, we are heading to Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu & Kashmir for the second phase of the tournament,” said Atif Rana in a statement.
The tournament will commence from September 4th, with eight teams picked across AJK, Gilgit Baltistan, KPK, Punjab and overseas gathering at Muzaffarabad cricket stadium, while the second leg of the tournament shall take place at Gaddaffi from 9th September as these youngsters will battle out for a final spot in team of 16 that will travel to Australia as a part of their professional development in cricketing arena.
The matches in Muzaffarabad will also provide fans an opportunity to win surprise gifts on sidelines of matches.
