LAHORE: Two cricket legends — Sir Vivian Richards of the West Indies and Pakistan’s Javed Miandad — will reunite in October for the Pakistan Junior League (PJL) after ‘King Viv’ has been named as one of the team mentors by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Richards joins Javed, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Daren Sammy, Colin Munro and Imran Tahir as mentors.
The inaugural edition of the tournament will run from October 6 to 21 at the headquarters of Pakistan cricket, the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
Richards and Miandad dominated world cricket with their breath-taking talent and match-winning performances in the 1970s and 80s. They last played against each other in the Nehru Cup final in Kolkata on 1st November 1989 when Pakistan won by four wickets with one ball remaining.
Richards has also been a part of Quetta Gladiators’ campaign in six of seven HBL Pakistan Super Leagues and also helped them win the title in 2019. In 2000, Richards was voted as one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Century, while in December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest ODI batsman and as the third greatest Test cricket batter.
Javed Miandad scored 8832 runs at 52.57 with the help of 23 centuries in his prolific Test career that spanned 124 Tests. The legendary batter also featured in 233 ODIs scoring 7381 runs at 41.70 with the help of eight centuries.
Sir Vivian Richards said, “I am absolutely thrilled at reuniting with my mate Javed Miandad at the Pakistan Junior League with whom I cherish some great memories from our playing days. I think the Pakistan Junior League is a tremendous tool for further consolidating Pakistan cricket’s foundations by unearthing and developing quality talent.”
Javed Miandad said, “I am really excited at the opportunity of working with Sir Vivian Richards who remains one of the greatest players to play the game. The Pakistan Junior League is an innovative and exciting concept and provides a great platform to junior players. The PCB deserves a lot of credit for this initiative which will be the first in the cricketing world, During my stint at the PJL I would Endeavour to help youngsters in their quest of improvement in their game as I am a firm believer that with strong basics you can build a solid game that can help you in all formats of the game.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022