London [UK]: England fast bowler Stuart Broad has been named to lead the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) for the annual Champion County Match, slated against Surrey in Dubai next month.
“We are thrilled that Stuart has agreed to captain the side for the Champion County match against Surrey. He is not only a player of the very highest class, but his experience of over 100 Test matches will be invaluable to the younger players in the squad, and I am sure that they will be eager to learn from one of England’s greatest ever bowlers,” ESPNcricinfo quoted MCC’s assistant secretary John Stephenson, as saying.
“Surrey were undoubtedly the best side in last season’s County Championship and have an extremely strong squad, so it will be a tough challenge for Stuart and his side but one I am sure they will relish,” Stephenson said.
The 32-year-old, who is part of his side’s campaign against West Indies in a three-match Test series, will use the match for a first-class leg of England’s home summer. The rest of the MCC squad will be named in due course, with the four-day game scheduled to begin on March 24.
Broad is one of only two Englishmen to have taken over 400 Test wickets. In the MCC’s history, he is one of only a handful of players to have earned a place on three dressing-room honours boards, with inclusions on the Honours Board five-wicket and ten-wicket hauls in Test matches, as well as his 169 with the bat against Pakistan in 2010.
Having captaincy experience, Broad had led England on 27 occasions in T20Is between 2011 and 2014, including the World T20 in 2014 and three ODIs on the tour of the Caribbean in 2014.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]