Silver League final to be replayed

The Silver League final of the 49th Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which had to be abandoned due to rain on the last two days at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, will now be replayed.

According to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) press release, "The PCB Chief Operating Officer Saleem Altaf, Chairman PCB National Cricket Monitoring Committee (NCMC) Shafiq Ahmed and PCB Manager National Cricket Pakistan Saqib Irfan held a meeting on Monday to discuss the final... which was rained off without both sides completing an innings.

"It was decided that the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Silver League would be replayed since there needed to be one winner which would be promoted to the Gold League. The venue and the dates of the final will be announced in due course."

The current rules for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Silver League stipulate that the winner of the final gets promoted to the first division - the Gold League - irrespective of the points earned in the tournament.

"This system will be reviewed by the NCMC and the decision taken before the commencement of the cricket season 2007-08," the release added. Islamabad, who had topped the Silver League table with 39 points after four straight wins and a rained-off draw weren't able to raise a strong enough team for the final as captain Rao Iftikhar and allrounder Azhar Mahmood had to rush to South Africa.

The toothless Islamabad attack was hammered for 514 in the final by Multan for the loss of nine wickets. In reply, Islamabad were 212 for 5, still 103 away from avoiding the follow-on. The first-innings issue, though, could not be resolved due to no play being possible on the fourth and fifth days.