Pakistan cricket team arrives for Twenty20 Cup

JOHANNESBURG—Pakistan Cricket Team has reached Johannesburg to participate in the first-ever Twenty-20 World Championship organized by ICC being played from September 11-24.
The Pakistan Team had flown in from Nairobi, Kenya after playing a four-nation T-20 series also featuring Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda. It was not just that they won all their matches but also won the hearts of Cricket lovers in Kenya and all around the world. Throughout the series, all prize money that was won by Pakistani players for the man of the match and man of the series awards, was donated to Uganda Cricket to contributing in the development of the game in the African Cricket minnow,according to the media manager of the team, Dr Ahsan Malik in a message made available here on Thursday.
The gesture which was initiated by Shahid Afridi in the first match and then followed up by Shoaib Malik in the last game, was much appreciated by Cricket Kenya, the sponsors and the lovers of the game all around.
The match-winning and heart-winning team arrived in Johannesburg with great deal of confidence, spirit and ambition. In the open media session earlier this morning, the Captain, Vice Captain and all senior players, namely Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi and Yunus Khan alongwith Geoff Lawson, showed tremendous commitment to each other and the focus to play exciting Cricket and produce quality results.
Pakistan plays two warm-up matches on Saturday and Sunday with Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka respectively before their first encounter of the tournament with Scotland on September 12.
Shoaib Malik-led Pakistani cricketers reached Johannesburg (South Africa) on Wednesday night to play the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup to be staged in that country from September 11 to 24, according to a message received on Thursday.
Pakistan will play two warm-up matches on Saturday and Sunday against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka before taking on Scotland in their opening match on September 12 in Durban—a city on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, boasting a majority of Indian origin people and where Gandhi also lived in the first decade of the previous century.
The Pakistan team made it to Johannesburg after participating in a four-nation Twenty20 cricket series with Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda at Nairobi Gymkhana Cricket Ground.
Pakistani cricketers donated the prize money for the man of the match and man of the series awards to Uganda Cricket for the development of the game in the East African country where cricket is a secondary sport with perhaps only soccer capturing the imagination of the man in the street.
Senior Pakistani players as well as their coach Geoff Lawson, a former Australian Test cricketer, showed tremendous commitment to doing well and living up to their fans’ expectations in the Twenty20 World Cup.—Agencies