This was the first Twenty20 tournament in the country, after the introduction of the Twenty20 format in 2003. It was huge success with the final having an attendance of 30,000. It helped increase the popularity of cricket in Pakistan and became an annual tournament.[3][4]
The eleven teams are divided into three groups: Groups A and B with four teams each and Group C with three. Each team plays a single round-robin tournament and the top team from each group, determined by a point system, advances to the triangular series. The triangular series is another round-robin tournament where the top two teams advance to the final.[6]
Awarded points
Result
Points
Won
2 points
Loss
0 points
No result
1 point
The position of the teams in the points table is determined by:
Faisalabad Wolves won the toss and elected to field.
Match-throwing incident
The tournament involved a match-throwing incident in the match between the Sialkot Stallions and the Karachi Zebras. Shoaib Malik, the captain of the Stallions, openly admitted to deliberately losing their match against the Karachi Zebras in an attempt to eliminate the Lahore Eagles from the competition. Neither team received points for the match. PCB declared the match void and Karachi Zebras were denied a place in the triangular phase of the ABN Amro Twenty20 Cup despite winning their Pool 'B' fixture against Sialkot Stallions.[7] Malik was expressing his disappointment at earlier decisions in the competition that he felt went against his side and it did not involve any match-fixing or financial implications.[8]
Malik's actions were against his code of conduct as a Test cricketer and had effect on the image of Pakistan cricket, the sponsors and the audience. After realising this, Malik later apologised. He was banned for one Test match and fined Rs. 10,000 and 75% of his match fees for two One Day International matches.[5][9]
