Top cricketers likely to feature in IDPs fund-raising rubber

Lahore: All top players of the country are likely to represent national cricket team in the exhibition cricket series being staged to support the thousands of Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) of North Waziristan. Pakistan’s national cricket team will face ‘A’ team in a Twenty20 cricket match at Gaddafi Stadium on 26th of the current month.

Star all-rounder Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul etc have expressed their keenness to play in the fund-raising matches being played from July 18 to 26 in four different centres of the country.

People from all walks of life especially the young generation, are taking keen interest in the 4-match cricket series being organised under the aegis of Sports Board Punjab (SBP). A large number of top actors, actresses, sports stars, politicians and other personalities will attend the cricket matches to make the fund-raising campaign a success. Leading pop singers will also perform during the matches to offer maximum entertain to spectators and donors.

A spokesman of Sports Board Punjab told that hundreds of male and female youth have contacted the SBP offices to gain complete information regarding the upcoming series. “The eagerness of the youth and other segments of the society shows that Pakistan will tackle the IDPs crisis quite successfully. The history reflects that our nation has extended every kind of assistance whenever the need arises,” he said.

The ‘A’ cricket team has already been announced for the fund-raising rubber. Following are the members of Pakistan ‘A’ team: Sharjeel Khan, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Nasir Jamshed, Faisal Iqbal, Haris Sohail, Sohaib Maqsood, Fawad Alam, Anwar Ali, Bilawal Bhatti,Raza Hassan, M Sami, Ehsan Adil, Yasir Shah and Imran Khan.

The selected ‘A’ team will play four exhibition matches at Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore on July 18, 21, 24 and 26 respectively.