The Western province Cricket Association (WPCA) will be organizing a six-a-side inter-school cricket tournament for under-13 boys from March 20 to April 3 here. The unique event, dubbed as “Nestle-Milo Under-13 Inter-School six-A-Side Championship 2008” will be the first of its kind being organized by WPCA for under-13 boys. With a set of new rules, specially formulated to suit the budding talents, the new tourney is expected to generate good interest in promoting the game here. In an effort to provide exposure and new experience to the boys, the championship will be played on natural grass ground equipped with astro-turf wicket. This was announced by WPCA President Junaid Iskandar at a meeting which was attended by Mohammed Habeeb of main sponsor Nestle, representatives of the participating schools, WPCA and Saudi Cricket Center (SCC) officials and Hamayun Rafiq Chaudhury, Marketing Specialist of Safra. Players born on or after January 1, 1995 shall be eligible to participate in the championship. Detailing the format and rules Hamid Rana, Executive Advisor of WPCA, said: “Twelve teams, divided into four groups of three teams each, will be competing for honors on a league-cum-knockout format.” After the preliminary league top team from four groups will play knockout semifinals and the final. In all likelihood the semifinals and final will be played under floodlights. The venue will be announced soon. The boundary will be of 25 meters as against the 40-meter standard boundary. A four will fetch six runs while a six will be counted as ten runs. The match will be played between two teams of six players each. A team is allowed to have 8 regular players, nominate two substitute players and two officials (manager and coach). The match will be of five overs each and a team should bowl its quota of five overs in 30 minutes. International umpires – Sohail shah (Level 1) and Khalil Khazi (Level 2) – will officiate the matches with the help of third umpire Mohammed Arshad. To ease burden on participating schools Mohammed Habeeb, Advertising and Promotions Coordinator of Nestle promised to provide T-shirts and caps. He also promised Nestle's support to promote cricket in the Kingdom. Hamayun of Safra which supports the WPCA in promoting the game, also offered to provide caps to players and officials. Iskandar thanked SCC for its encouragement and whole-hearted support. __
