LAHORE – Pakistan cricket team, sans captain Shahid Afridi and four other senior players including Younus Khan, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq, has left for Auckland on a 40-day tour of New Zealand.
Afridi and the other four players who did not board the flight to New Zealand have been permitted by PCB to go to Malaysia for a World Cup related commercial shoot, and they will join the team in Hong Kong on way to Auckland.
Team manager Intikhab Alam said he was confident that the tour will go well, as there was no issue of discipline in the side at present. Alam said a successful tour of New Zealand will put the squad in the perfect position to mount a serious World Cup challenge.
“Although the pitches in New Zealand and the sub-continent, where we play the World Cup, are different, a six-match one-day series at the end of the tour will help us build a combination and overcome our shortcomings,” said Alam.
