Fawad Ijaz Khan to lead Pakistan Super Veterans in England

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan’s Super Veterans (Over-60) cricket team will be creating history of sorts as they embark on a two-week tour of England on June 15.

According to the information made available on June 14, all-rounder Fawad Ijaz Khan, who is also Chairman of the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA), will be leading the squad which is scheduled to play five limited-overs matches in England. 

Ijaz Faqih, a former Test all-rounder, has been appointed as the vice-captain for what’s going to be the first-ever tour to be undertaken by Super Veterans of the country.  

Ashiq Hussain Qureshi, CEO, PVCA, will be accompanying the team as manager while former Test bowler, Jalaluddin, who performed the first-ever hat-trick in One-day Internationals, and Kaleem Zia Khawaja will be travelling as the head coach and the assistant manager respectively. 

The Super Veteran squad also includes former Test players, Mansoor Akhtar and Ashraf Ali, besides P J Mir, who had represented Pakistan by the name of Pervez Mir during the inaugural World Cup in 1975, and Nadeem Omar, President, Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA).

Arif Habib, Tahir Shah, Basharat Ali Babar, Haji Ashraf, Badar Ansari, Aminullah Khan Raisani, Sajid Kabir and Nadeem Yousuf are the other members of the touring squad with Muhammad Akram and Altaf Aziz being reserve players. 

Pakistan’s Super Veterans will be playing a couple of matches of 50 overs each against hosts England and the touring Australian Veterans Team. 

They will also play three 45 overs-a-side matches against the counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire. 

They will open the tour with a game against Yorkshire at Woodlands Cricket Club, Bradford, on June 17 before taking on Lancashire at Heywood Cricket Club, Heywood, on June 19. 

They will be up against England Veterans at Oswestry Cricket Club, Shropshire, on June 21 before meeting Australian Veterans at the same venue three days later. They will play the final game of the tour against Cheshire at Warrington Cricket Club, Warrington, on June 26. 

Meanwhile the PVCA has expressed its gratitude to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, for his personal intervention in getting UK visas of some of the players from the British High Commission.