Leicestershire announce pre-season tour to Pakistan

Leicestershire will head to Pakistan at the end of March for a short tour as part of their pre-season preparations. The squad will play one three-day match, a one-dayer and a Twenty20 tie against a representative side from the PCB ahead of the county bid's to improve on last year's mid-table finish in Divison Two. All three matches will be played in the Punjab area, in and around Lahore.

In choosing to travel to Pakistan, where fine weather is all but guaranteed, Leicestershire seem to have made a more sensible decision than Sussex and Lancashire, whose squads will remain in England for their practice matches at the end of March - where temperatures are typically 10C and an average of 73mm rainfall falls throughout the month.

In previous years, Lancashire have undertaken pre-season tours to such sunny climes as South Africa, but this year Mark Chilton's squad will warm up in Liverpool. They are to have warm-weather training in Portugal for four days, however, although this will not involve playing any matches. Scotland also pulled out of a tour to Namibia, after Andy Moles decided in February that playing against county sides would be more beneficial to their preparations for the ICC Trophy.

March 29 - Three-day match at Lahore

March 31 - One-day match at Sheikhupura

April 1 - Twenty20 match at Lahore