Pakistan team to visit Zimbabwe and Kenya

A team representing Pakistan's National Cricket Academy will tour Zimbabwe and Kenya in August and September this year.

The PCB, in a release, said it has always supported Zimbabwe Cricket, and hoped the NCA team's visit will help Zimbabwe to strengthen their chances of returning to the international fold. Zimbabwe haven't hosted an international match since December last year, when West Indies visited for a five-match ODI series, right after South Africa played three ODIs. Zimbabwe had toured Pakistan earlier this year, losing 5-0 in an ODI series.

They have not played a Test since September 2005, and the heightened violence ahead of the run-off to the presidential elections this year prompted England and South African boards to cut off cricketing ties. A Zimbabwe delegation also agreed to pull out of the ICC World Twenty20 in England in 2009, as a Zimbabwe team would in all likelihood have not been allowed to enter the country, putting the ECB in an embarrassing situation.

However, there are chances of a improvement in the situation in Zimbabwe, with president Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signing "a deal setting a framework for talks on the country's political crisis", the BBC reported.

The NCA team will play two four-day games and three one-dayers in both countries. Their tour begins with the Zimbabwe leg. They arrive in Harare on August 20, and will play two four-day games and three one-dayers in Harare and Bulawayo. The Harare Sports Club and the Queens Sports Club will host the matches. The team will touch down in Nairobi on September 10, where they play all two four-day games and two one-dayers, with one game scheduled in Mombasa.