Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 2025-26 to begin from October 6

Staff Report

LAHORE: The 10-team Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is all set to begin in four cities – Abbottabad, Islamabad, Peshawar and Rawalpindi from Monday, 6 October as the domestic cricket season 2025-26 gets into full swing, the PCB announced on Tuesday. The four-day first-class tournament will be played on single-league round-robin format as a total of nine rounds have been penciled in from 6 October to 26 November, while the five-day final between the two top teams will take place from 29 November to 3 December. The venues for the 46-match QeA Trophy are Abbottabad Cricket Stadium in Abbottabad, Shoaib Akhtar Stadium in Rawalpindi, Imran Khan Cricket Stadium in Peshawar and Diamond and Marghzar Cricket Grounds in Islamabad. The venue for the final will be announced later. Four of these venues except Peshawar also played host to the previous edition of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy as well. The participating teams are Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, FATA, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Karachi Blues, Lahore Whites, Multan, Peshawar and Sialkot. FATA, Faisalabad, Karachi Blues and Multan have qualified for the QeA Trophy after finishing with the most number of points in the recently concluded Hanif Mohammad Trophy. In the first round, Sialkot – the defending champions of the tournament – will face Peshawar at the Imran Khan Stadium in a re-match of the previous edition’s final, which the former won by one wicket in a nerve-wrecking contest at the UBL Sports Complex in Karachi.  The squads of each of the 10 teams will be announced in due course.

First round fixtures:

October 6-9:

Abbottabad v Bahawalpur at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium

Lahore Whites v Islamabad at Shoaib Akhtar Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi

Peshawar v Sialkot at Imran Khan Stadium, Peshawar

FATA v Multan at Diamond Cricket Ground, Islamabad

Faisalabad v Karachi Blues at Marghzar Cricket Ground, Islamabad.