CRICKET legend Brian Lara will be guest of honour at Friday night's CBZ Cricket Awards, officials confirmed.
Lara, one of the greatest cricketers to have emerged in the West Indies, arrived in Zimbabwe Thursday afternoon to attend the annual awards.
The former West Indies captain, who last visited Zimbabwe 2004 when he officially opened Takashinga Sports Club in the Highfields suburb of Harare, said he was pleased to be back in the country.
He said: “It was a very easy decision for me to come as a guest of honour to the awards, I am happy to be out here and Zimbabwean cricket is very close to my heart.
“I know the chairman well, Peter Chingoka, and I just looked forward to being here again, obviously in a non-playing capacity. Still, it is going to be a very exciting three days."
One of the world’s most decorated cricketers, Lara first visited Zimbabwe in 1989 when he was still to play international cricket for the West Indies.
He said the local game has come a long way since then.
“Zimbabwean cricket is close to me because I started here before I even started playing international cricket," said Lara, who holds the record for the highest individual score in first class cricket with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994.
“I know it has been an uphill struggle for the Zimbabwe team but obviously everybody has been optimistic about Zimbabwean cricket and we want to see them back in the test arena."
He also weighed into the controversy surrounding the decision by Scotland to pull out of a scheduled tour of Zimbabwe following advice from the British Foreign and Commonwealth office.
“It’s very unfortunate that the team will not tour Zimbabwe, sport should be used to unite people so I don’t know why they are refusing to play in Zimbabwe. I would have loved them to come to Zimbabwe,” said Lara.
Lara also supported Zimbabwe's push to return to the Test version of the game, adding the country should be commended for volunteering to tour Pakistan to help raise funds for the nation’s flood victims.
Pakistan was last month hit by its worst floods in living memory which affected up to 20 million people and caused over a thousand deaths.