Pakistan Twenty20 skipper Shahid Afridi was delighted at the arrival of the Zimbabwe cricket team this week, and the captain was full of praise for the Africans and their ‘courage’ in visiting his country.

This reaction is a result of the Zimbabweans being the first test-playing nation to visit Pakistan in six years.

All international cricket in the country was suspended following an attack by militants on the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009. Eight people lost their lives due to the attack.

Zimbabwe’s tour to Pakistan was almost cancelled last week after gunmen massacred 45 Shiites in the city of Karachi, but the southern Africans made a decision to continue with the planned tour, and Afridi is certainly very pleased that he will once again play international cricket in Lahore, Pakistan.

“I am delighted to see the return of international cricket to Pakistan. It is like the spring of cricket after six years of autumn,”  Afridi said to AFP.

“The courage of the Zimbabwe team must be praised and they delighted our fans who have been waiting for international cricket for quite some time now.”

The Zimbabweans arrived on Tuesday ahead of their two Twenty20 internationals on Friday and Sunday, before three one-day international games set for May 26, 29 and 31.

Zimbabwe represented themselves well at the 2015 Cricket World Cup earlier in the year, showing the improvement that their game has enjoyed and coming very close to beating Ireland and progressing from the group stage of the competition in a deciding match which favoured the Irish by a slender margin in the end.