KARACHI - The players from the West Indies of the World XI would be first to arrive here in the wee hours of Thursday morning followed by South African and Afghanistan players to play a two match T20 series against Pakistan Stars XI here on October 20 and 21 at the National Stadium.
All the foreign players would be received by the special reception committee which has been set up to welcome the player at the international airport .The players would be driven to the hotel under strict security. The West Indian who will arrive are :Alvin Kallicharan (manager), Rocardo Powell, Steven Taylor, Jermaine Charle Lawson, Adam Sanford.
The South Africans Justine Kemp, Loots Bosman, Mthhandeki Tschabalala, Andre Nel, Andre Johann Seymore, Nantie Hayward will reach Karachi shortly after the arrival of the players from the Caribbean. Shapoor Zardan, M Shahzad Muhammadi of Afghanistan are also expected the same morning.
Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka who will lead the World XI and Jahan Mubarak will arrive on Thursday noon. The Pakistan Star XI players will reach here a day before the match.
Dr MA Shah who is the chief organiser of the history making event had already stated that the visiting World XI cricketers will be provided the highest level of security during their stay in Karachi.
The Sindh Sports Minister Dr Shah told the media here that around 5,000 security personnel will guard the teams at the National Stadium which will host the matches on Saturday and Sunday. Police Control Room is being set up at the venue to take care of all movements. The organising committee already have had a detailed meeting in this regard, which was presided over by the Governor of Sindh, Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan. Top Police and Rangers officials, Traffic Police and City Wardens attended the meeting.
The Federal as well as the provincial government was on board with the organisers, he said. All the precautionary measures have been taken and were aimed at holding these matches successfully. He said that Pakistan, and particularly Karachi, remain absolutely safe for holding international sporting events.
He said he was optimistic about having a full house at the National Stadium in both the matches which will be played under floodlights. The prices of the tickets have been kept at bare minimum as the objective was not to earn money but to provide the much-needed recreation of the highest quality to the cricket-crazy fans of Karachi. He hoped that fans would turn up in very large numbers on both the evenings. Pakistani fans had enough of cricket on TV but they would watch the action on the ground in real time, he said.