KARACHI: The PSL team Lahore Qalandars will be the first team to land in the United Arab Emirates for the second edition of Pakistan Super League, with an aim to provide maximum opportunity to local, national and international players to gel with each other.
Team Lahore Qalandars will leave for Dubai early Thursday morning, where it will be joined by the captain, Brendon McCullum of New Zealand, on Friday to start the team’s campaign in PSL 2017.
Azhar Ali – who is waiting for his travel documents – and Umar Akmal – who has gone to perform Umrah – will not travel with the squad and join the team later in Dubai.
Qalandars, who were finished fifth in the previous season, are hopeful for better results this time. Atif Rana, the CEO of Lahore Qalandars, believes that “Lahore Qalandars will be the tough team to beat this time.”
The franchise ran a long players’ development program which featured 113,000 Cricketers from Punjab in an attempt to find and find raw talent for the team and transform them into performers. Team’s leadership has also been transferred to New Zealander Brendon McCullum from Azhar Ali.
Now, the Lahore Qalandars believes that they’re the best prepared side for the tournament and have set their eyes on the trophy of second edition.
“We are well prepared, players have done a lot of hard work. We have the best of local talent and the best leader in T20 Cricket, Brendon McCullum,” said Atif Rana of Lahore Qalandars.
“InshaAllah, Lahore will be a tough side to beat,” he said.
Rana added that the catch behind early departure to Dubai was to provide an ample opportunity to everyone know each-others.
“Being in Dubai before other teams would provide our players an opportunity to get together, this will also give Brendon an opportunity to see the players we found in our PDP program,” Atif said.
Lahore Qalandars will formally launch its PSL 2017 campaign on 10th February by taking on the finalist of previous edition, Quetta Gladiators.
