Central Punjab is a domestic

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

team in Pakistan representing the northern and central parts of the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

province. It competes in domestic first-class,

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

and T20 cricket competitions, namely the

Quaid-e-Azam Trophy The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition in Pakistan. With few exceptions, it has been staged annually since it was first played during the 1953–54 season. Domestic cricket in Pakistan has undergone many reorganis ...

, Pakistan Cup and National T20 Cup. The team is operated by the Central Punjab Cricket Association.

History

The team was introduced as a part of a new domestic structure introduced by the

Pakistan Cricket Board The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is a sports governing body for cricket in Pakistan responsible for controlling and organising all tours and matches undertaken by the Pakistan national cricket team. A member of the International Cricket Cou ...

(PCB) on 31 August 2019. On 3 September 2019, PCB confirmed the inaugural squad for the team. Babar Azam was announced as the captain of the team.

2019/20 season

Central Punjab won the

, defeating Northern by an innings and 16 runs in the final. The team was eliminated in the group stage of the National T20 Cup. The Pakistan Cup was cancelled this season due to the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

2020/21 season

The team came back from a bad start in defence of the

to win five successive matches and reach the final. The final against

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

resulted in a

tie Tie has two principal meanings: * Tie (draw), a finish to a competition with identical results, particularly sports * Necktie, a long piece of cloth worn around the neck or shoulders Tie or TIE may also refer to: Engineering and technology * Ti ...

, and they were declared joint winners. The team again struggled in the limited overs formats, finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively in the Pakistan Cup and National T20 Cup.

Structure

As of 2019, domestic cricket in Pakistan was reorganised into six regional teams (on provincial lines). A three tier bottom-up system is in operation with the Tier 1 teams participating in the

( First Class), Pakistan Cup (

) and National T20 Cup (Regional T20). The Tier 2 teams participate in the City Cricket Association Tournament whilst the Tier 3 teams participate in various local tournaments as both tiers feed players to the Tier 1 team. * Tier 1: Central Punjab * Tier 2: Lahore (East), Lahore (West), Lahore (North), Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Sialkot, Narowal, Hafizabad, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Mianwali, Jhang & Bhakkar. * Tier 3: Various Clubs & Schools.

Current squad

Squad for the 2021–22 season:-

References