Pakistan's top cricketers will be seen in action in the domestic Pentangular Cup tournament starting on October 25.

Pakistan Cricket Board is laying a lot of stress on the four-day first class Pentangular competition particularly as the national team has not played any Test matches this year due to the postponement of Australia's tour earlier this year.

"The Pentangular is very important for us to give the players exposure and to keep cricket activities going on in the country," a senior board official said.

"This is the reason why all the top players have been told to represent their respective provincial teams in the competition," he added.

He said with the exception of senior batsman Younis Khan who has gone to Australia to play for South Australia, all the other top players, including captain Shoaib Malik and fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, are playing in the Pentangular.

Malik will lead the strong Punjab side that also has Salman Butt, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal, Saeed Ajmal while Sindh, which has Faisal Iqbal, Sohail Khan, Fawad Alam and Danish Kaneria in its ranks, will be led by Shahid Afridi.

Shoaib Akhtar will play for Federal Areas but will not be the captain of the team.

Batsman Misbah-ul-Haq has been asked to captain the Baluchistan province while pacer Umar Gul will lead the North West Frontier Provincial side.

In last year's Pentangular tournament, Sindh, led by Afridi, beat NWFP in the final.