MCC to Play One 50-over Match, Three T20 Games in Lahore

London: The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) will play a 50-over match and three T20 games during their upcoming tour of Pakistan. The tour, which is a first in 48 years, will begin from Thursday to February 19.

Lahore Qalandars will provide the club’s first opposition in a floodlit T20 match at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday. Qalandars can boast Pakistan international stars such as Shaheen Afridi and Fakhar Zaman amongst their ranks for this year’s edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Pakistan Shaheens — effectively the nation’s ‘A’ team — will play MCC in a 50-over match at Aitchison College two days later, and the hosts will be captained by Saud Shakeel.

The club will then switch back to T20 for matches against Pakistan’s domestic T20 champions Northern, and Multan Sultans of the PSL, who will include England’s Moeen Ali and James Vince in their squad for the tournament which begins shortly after the MCC tour.

MCC president Kumar Sangakkara will captain a 12-man squad for the tour, which includes the likes of Ravi Bopara, Roelof van der Merwe and Ross Whiteley.

“This tour of Pakistan will be a momentous occasion for everyone involved,” MCC head coach Ajmal Shahzad said.

“We hope that this tour helps contribute to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) wish of seeing international teams returning to tour the country on a regular basis.”

MCC squad: Kumar Sangakkara (c), Ravi Bopara, Michael Burgess, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Fred Klaassan, Michael Leask, Arron Lilley, Imran Qayyum, Will Rhodes, Safyaan Sharif, Roelof van der Merwe, Ross Whiteley.