THE Pakistan Under-19 cricket team — the world’s best youth side that features the next generation of that country’s superstars — arrived in Harare yesterday for a three-week tour of Zimbabwe.
Azeem Ghuman of Hyderabad will captain the team during the tour.
The selection committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board selected 15 players for tour, which ends on October 14.
The Asian nation is using the tour as part of its preparations for the ICC Under-19 World Cup next year.
Pakistan has won the last two Youth World Cups in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The Pakistan side held a training camp in Lahore from September 11 to 17, which featured all the selected and reserve players for the tour.
The visiting side is expected to play six One-Day Internationals against their Zimbabwean counterparts and two Twenty20 matches. Zimbabwe Cricket will officially welcome the touring party at a function in Harare this evening.
Meanwhile all-rounder Thomas Odoyo has been confirmed as the second Kenyan joining new Zimbabwean franchise Southern Rocks. Former Kenya captain Steve Tikolo was scheduled to arrive in Harare yesterday after signing as player-coach for the Rocks. Odoyo, a veteran of 117 ODIs, will arrive next week with the rest of the Kenyan team for an Intercontinental Cup tie and five ODIs. He will then remain in the country to play for the Rocks. The arrival of the two experienced Kenyans will almost certainly boost a Rocks side that had an indifferent start to the restructured Zimbabwe domestic season. They lost to Manicaland Mountaineers in Mutare by eight wickets in the Logan Cup and by five wickets in the Faithwear one-day series.
The news will be a blow to the game inside Kenya where the NPCA league has for a long time not been considered tough enough to bring on young players.
The decision of two of the country’s best cricketers to play abroad will only further weaken it and boost the image and competitiveness of the Zimbabwean domestic game.
Zimbabwean cricket authorities have gone into overdrive in an effort to boost the strength of the domestic game through the franchise system.
"We have certainly been upbeat but the mood can certainly be described as more festive now, with a greater air of expectation emanating from everyone involved," ZC managing director Ozias Bvute told The Herald last week.
"We ventured into franchise cricket for two main reasons — the first was to be able to professionally contract more cricketers on a full-time employment basis such that they could concentrate on strengthening and sharpening their skills. With the franchise system having come into effect, where each province is contracting 15 or so players on a full-time basis, you now have a pool of 75 to 100 people who are solely and fully committed to playing and perfecting their cricket from Monday to Sunday.
The second reason is to improve the playing standards. You can only get better through playing competitive cricket, so we have created this format that allows for us to strengthen our domestic game not only by contracting local players but also giving foreigners an opportunity to be contracted to play in our leagues. This has an advantage of creating experience over time, experience which will translate into creating better international cricketers."