ISLAMABAD – Two Chinese cricketers are set to join the Peshawar Zalmi squadon Thursday for the tenth fixture of the Pakistan Super League 2018 inSharjah.
Jian Li and Yufie Zhang were recruited by the Zalmi in an effort to promotecricket in China, the team’s China representative, Amir Suhail Afridi toldAPP on Tuesday.
“We will provide them a platform to recognise their talent and motivatethem to achieve international recognition,” he said, adding that theChinese cricketers would join the Zalmi camp at the Dubai InternationalCricket Stadium.
The team is set to play a match against the Quetta Gladiators in Sharjah onThursday. The Zalmi, the defending champions, have won only one of theirthree matches and are placed at the fourth spot among the six PSL teams.The Gladiators have won one match and lost another, placing third so far.
The House of Zalmi had organised a Global Zalmi League in Feburary – afan-based league of cricket enthusiasts with representative Zalmi clubs inover 16 countries around the world.
China Zalmi was represented by cricketers from China, a majority of whomwere selected from the Pakistani Community Keqiao. Participating teams weredivided into four groups and China Zalmi remained unbeaten in its threeleague matches before the quarter-final and final, and went onto win thetitle.
Peshawar Zalmi owner Javed Afridi not only awarded the winning team $10,000but also allowed two of its players to participate in a practice sessionwith senior team members.
He expressed confidence that the China Zalmi win in the Global Zalmi Leaguewould help promote cricket among the Chinese youth.—Agencies