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MCC squad cricketers excited to tour Pakistan

  • February 03, 2020

MCC squad cricketers excited to tour Pakistan

BIRMINGHAM: Players are thrilled to be part of Marylebone Cricket Club’s (MCC) squad and are looking forward to the tour to Pakistan later this month.

The 15-member squad is headed by Sri Lanka’s former captain and one of the greatest cricketers of all time Kumar Sangakkara, who is also the current president of MCC. The touring squad is a mixture of both young and experienced cricketers, several of whom have played at international level too — including head coach Ajmal Shahzad, Ravi Bopara, Liam Dawson, Samit Patel, Sufyan Sharif and Roelof Van der Merwe.

Since the touring squad was announced several members took to social media to express their excitement. Head coach Ajmal Shahzad, who has played Test cricket for England, termed the tour a “Momentous Occasion”. The 34-year-old seamer from Yorkshire, who has represented England internationally in all three formats of the game before taking up a career in coaching, thanked everyone involved in making the tour possible.

Shahzad, who was appointed the head coach of MCC in February 2019, tweeted: “Took a while for us to get here but we made it @homeofcricket! This will be such a momentous occasion. I will be forever grateful for those players and people involved in bringing this together.”

Somerset’s Roelof Van der Merwe is another international cricketer who is part of the MCC squad. The 35 years old, who has represented both South Africa and Netherlands, will be touring Pakistan for the first time. Merwe said he was also looking forward seeing Pakistan’s test captain Azhar Ali and T20I Captain Babar Azam as well as Wasim Akram and Kamran Akmal. Azhar and Babar both were team mates of Merwe at Somerset County last season.

Left arm spinner Imran Qayyum, who plays for Kent County, said he was looking to travel to Lahore and represent MCC. The 26 years old, whose parents hail from Pakistan, has also experience of playing cricket in Pakistan in winter of 2014-15. He wrote on Twitter: “Looking forward to the tour to Lahore ???? and to represent the MCC?”.

Three players from Warwickshire County are also part of MCC’s squad, including their captain Will Rhodes, while Arron Lilley from Leicestershire is also in the squad. Both Rhodes and Lilley are waiting anxiously to play cricket in Pakistan. Rhodes, a medium pace bowling all rounder, tweeted: “Can’t wait for this! Always fun playing with @HomeOfCricket ????”.

The other two players from Warwickshire are wicketkeeper batsman Micheal Burgess and Oliver Hannon-Dalby, who is another medium pace bowling all rounder. Leicestershire’s Arron Lilley, a spin bowling all rounder, wrote: “Can’t wait for this ????”.

MCC squad includes two cricketers from Scotland too. One is Yorkshire born seamer Safyaan Sharif who now represents Scotland and the other is Micheal Leask. Both have represented Scotland internationally. Cricket Scotland congratulated both the players for being part of the squad.

Liam Dawson, who is a member of England’s World Cup winning squad, will join MCC squad in Pakistan along with Samit Patel and Phil Salt. The trio is also playing in the season 5 of Pakistan Super League.

MCC is one of the oldest cricket clubs. The club is based and owns the Lord’s Cricket Ground. The club announced in December last year that it will be sending a squad to Pakistan in 2020. The concept of an MCC tour to Pakistan has been a long-stated aim of the MCC World Cricket committee. The tour is a demonstration of club’s support for Pakistan’s cricketers and fans, who have been affected by the country’s decade-long exile from hosting international cricket.

The club will play two PSL teams — Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans — in the T20 format and will also face Pakistan’s domestic T20 champions Northern. The complete itinerary of the tour will be announced later this week.

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/608189-mcc-squad-cricketers-excited-to-tour-pakistan

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