Pakistan Deploy Thousands of Troops for Zimbabwe Security

Bemused players said they hoped to take the focus off security and put it back on cricket after authorities mounted an unprecedented operation to guard insurgency-hit Pakistan's first home international in six years.

Thousands of police and paramilitaries have been deployed and helicopters will be buzzing over Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, which has been turned into a fortress for tomorrow's Twenty20 game against lowly Zimbabwe.

The fixture is Pakistan's first on home soil since 2009, when militants launched a gun attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore, killing eight police and civilians and leaving seven players wounded.