MCC to tour Pakistan in February 2020

After Test cricket resumed in the country, Marylebone Cricket Club will send a team to Lahore for a number of matches in the New Year

Marylebone Cricket Club have confirmed they will send a team to play in Pakistan in February 2020.

Test cricket recently returned to the nation for the first time in 10 years, following the Lahore shootings in 2009 which left eight people dead.

Sri Lanka are currently playing Pakistan in a two-Test series, with Bangladesh due to follow in January.

Fixtures are yet to be confirmed but a Kumar-Sangakkara-led MCC side will play a number of matches at Aitcheson College in Lahore in the New Year.

Confirmation of the tour follows talks during the MCC World Cricket committee meeting held at Lord's in August when future tours to the region were supported.

Former Sri Lanka captain Sangakkara, the current MCC President, said: "It is hugely important to support cricket in countries such as Pakistan, and the PCB has done a tremendous job in rebuilding the international cricketing landscape since the tragic events of 2009.

^{Pakistan are currently hosting Sri Lanka in their first home Test series for a decade}

"I am excited to be captaining MCC on the tour to Pakistan. With international cricket having returned for the first time in a decade, it is wonderful the club is doing its part to strengthen cricket in Pakistan and I look forward to being part of the trip."

PCB chief-executive Wasim Khan added: "Following months of dialogue, and the opportunity to put Pakistan’s compelling case forward to the prestigious and important MCC World Cricket committee, I am delighted that MCC has confirmed that it will send a touring team to Lahore in February.

"The decision by the world’s oldest and most influential cricket club to send a quality team is further testament that Pakistan is as safe and secure a country as any other cricket-playing nation in the world, and MCC’s tour is a further step forward in normalising team tours to Pakistan.

"The PCB looks forward to welcoming the MCC cricket team and we fully expect the squad to have a thoroughly enjoyable time."

Pakistan will play at the home of MCC, Lord's, later in the year when they take on England in the first of three Tests starting on July 30.

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