Afghanistan series starts from May 25

International cricket returns with tourists playing three matches.

LAHORE:

The Afghanistan cricket team will become the first international side to play in Pakistan in two years with the war-torn country starting a three-match one-day series against Pakistan ‘A’ from May 25.

The two sides had last month agreed to hold a limited-overs tour after a six-member delegation from the non-Test playing nation met Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials and proposed a series.

Pakistan last hosted an international team in March 2009, when terrorists attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore. Since then no international cricket has been witnessed in the country.

Afghanistan will be arriving on May 24 and will play the first match under floodlights in Faisalabad, while the second match will be held at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Abbottabad will play host to the third and final match of the series.

Afghanistan’s rise in the cricket world has been nothing less than astonishing. Most of its players learnt the game while living in refugee camps in Pakistan, as war raged on in their own country. In recent years, the team has enjoyed plenty of success, winning the International Cricket Council (ICC) Inter-Continental Cup, as well as ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers and earned a creditable third place in the World Cricket League Division One, while also earning One-Day International status.

PCB has also initiated several measures to support the development of the game in Afghanistan, including providing training facilities to Afghanistan Cricket Board personnel in various areas.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2011.