Why Lahore Qalandars deserve most for PSL title?

The wait of Lahore Qalandars has finally over after six years as Shaheen Shah Afridi-eleven bagged a clear victory by 42 runs by outclassing strong and energetic Multan Sultans led by Mohammad Rizwan in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 7 final.

The fans of Lahore Qalandars have finally borne the fruit of six-year-long patience. It was definitely difficult for LQ franchise owner Fawad Rana to witness back-to-back defeats in the previous six seasons despite finding new talent for the national team including Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Harif Rauf.

It was a big victory for Lahore Qalandars which deserves it for a long time as compared to the other franchises of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Good morning, Lahore! #HBLPSL7 I #LevelHai I #HBLPSLFinal I #MSvLQ pic.twitter.com/VyuOvXHzXh

— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 28, 2022

There are some reasons which make a difference between Lahore Qalandars and other franchises of PSL, especially by establishing an infrastructure for young cricketers and players development programs. The details of the LQ players’ programs are available on its website.

First-ever community-based cricketing event

The franchise aims to organize the first-ever community-based cricketing event, introducing the highly exciting T-10 Cricket Tournament between the localities of Lahore.

This rivalry starts with a local talent hunt program leading up to an energetic tournament and opportunities to win exciting prizes in order to promote cricket within the beautiful city that is Lahore.

The aim of ‘Battle of Qalandars’ is to create sporting rivalries within the localities of Lahore and awaken the emotions of people within all age groups to participate and showcase their talent on main-stream media and in turn creating derbies within Lahore.

Its trials had been organised in October 2019.

A total of 6 teams including Bhatti Bahadurs, Gulberg Nawabs, MughalPura Royals, Model Town Panthers, Cantt Warriors, Shahdara Sherdils had been included in the tournament held in November 2019.

Under the project, a total of 6 Players had been selected for the Abu Dhabi T10 League.

Players Development Program (PDP)

Players Development Program (PDP) was invented to engage the youth of Pakistan and give a platform to youngsters who weren’t given a chance in the domestic circuit so they could showcase their talent through this platform.

It was aimed to find undiscovered talent wherever it is possible to reach them and provide them a chance to exhibit and if found worthy, develop and showcase it on a global scale. It was also aimed to create hope for talented individuals who do not have resources to nurture their talent and ability to drive a career through cricket.

The program has received an overwhelming response by the young cricketers as 113,000 people registered and gave trials in 8 cities of Punjab: Bahawalpur, Multan, DG Khan, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Lahore in the first season.

The best 16 players had been given a chance to play with the best Australian Leagues like Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers in Australia.

Moreover, Yasir Jan, an ambidextrous bowler was found from Rawalpindi in the first season who went on to train in Lord’s and signed a contract with MCC. Along with that, four players from PDP went on to join the Lahore Qalandars squad for PSL.

In its season 2, trials had been organised in Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Layyah, Bahawalpur, Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad. Four best players from PDP had signed contracts with the best cricket clubs in Sydney like Hawkesbury Cricket Club, Paramatta Cricket Club and Western Suburbs Cricket Club.

PDP expanded to KP, GB

The program was expanded over to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Gilgit Baltistan. For the very first time, overseas Pakistanis got a chance to participate in the cricket talent hunt and represent their team as Pardesi Qalandars.

Lahore Qalandars have witnessed a tremendous response of more than 500,000 players during three years of the player development program.

Each year the franchise shortlists over 150 players on merit and their performance, provide them with kit bag essentials and give them opportunity to play a tournament, which was broadcasted on Geo Super.

SYDNEY TRI AND QUADRANGULAR SERIES

The final 16 from PDP 1 were given a chance to play with some of the best Australian Cricket Leagues; Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers in a tri-series where Qalandars won 4 out of 6 matches.

In the second year, another team, Hobart Hurricanes was added to the series as well. The spectacular performance given by young Qalandars took Australian domestic cricket by storm and this earned 4 of our Rising Qalandars (Haris Rauf, Usman Qadir, Salman Irshad and Ghulam Rabbani) contracts with the best Australian Cricket Clubs; Hawkesbury Cricket Club, Western Suburbs Cricket Club and Paramatta Cricket Club.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club-LQ partnership

Under the agreement, a player exchange programme was launched to enable international players to learn from each other, starting with Haris Rauf joining Yorkshire as an overseas player.

It also included the scholarships for young, aspiring players from Yorkshire travelling to, training, and playing in Lahore, including access to the Qalandars’ first-class facilities, as well as opportunities for young people from Pakistan to come to Yorkshire.

EMIRATES T20 CUP

Lahore Qalandars had taken in the Emirates T20 Cup which was held in Dubai in 2017.

The tournament was played between Lahore Qalandars, Peshawar Zalmi, Birmingham Bears, Lancashire Lightening, Durham Jets and MCC Emerging XI World.

The team had included the best of the best players from the talent hunt program who also went to Sydney.

Along with the new talent some players who had been in the game previously but weren’t given a fair chance were included as well.

ABU DHABI T20 (2018)

Young players who were picked by Lahore Qalandars from Player Development Program season 3 (2018) were given the life-changing opportunity to play the three-day Abu Dhabi T20 Cup.

The six sides playing for the title were New Zealand’s Auckland Aces, Australia’s Hobart Hurricanes, England’s Yorkshire Vikings, Afghanistan’s Boost Defenders, South Africa’s Multiply Titans and Lahore Qalandars representing Pakistan.

The tournament had begun October 4 to 6 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium with six teams divided into two groups.

The players had a great opportunity in this tournament to learn by sharing dressing room with some of the best players.

The selected PDP squad of Lahore Qalandars for the Abu Dhabi T20 tournament proved themselves against Yorkshire Vikings and Hobart Hurricanes and reached the finals.

The talented young players had become the talk of the town after lifting the T20 Trophy beating Multiply Titans in the final match which was also the most successful team winning 16 trophies overall.