PAKISTANI cricket legend Waqar Younis will be the guest of honour at a reception tonight hosted by Islamic Relief in Bradford.

The event, called A Night for Aleppo, at the Aagrah Midpoint restaurant, Thornbury, aims to raise money for the people of that war-torn city in Syria, and will feature eye-witness accounts as well as a question and answer session with the former Pakistan cricket coach and long-standing supporter of Islamic Relief’s work.

Reverse-swing specialist Younis is regarded as one of the greatest and fastest bowlers of all time and holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history.

He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day International matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from 1989 to 2003.

“Waqar Younis is a true cricketing legend and we are extremely excited that he will be our guest,” said Altaf Hussain, Islamic Relief’s community fundraiser for the north east.

“This is an emergency Zakat dinner and as such we hope that people will give as much as they can afford for the people of Syria

“We will also be launching our hugely successful Cake Campaign online and serving the cakes for dessert.”

The event ties in to Islamic Relief’s wider Ramadan 2016 campaign.

“The aim is to raise over £11 million to save and transform lives around the world. So far the charity has assisted 6.5 million Syrians since the conflict began, delivering over £140 million worth of aid and assistance.

“The campaign will feature on more than 500 buses in Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester.

Donors are being encouraged to ‘gather the rewards of Ramadan’ by giving generously in a month when Muslims believe good deeds can be multiplied more than 700 times.

“The campaign heavily features the word ‘SubhanAllah’ meaning ‘Glory to God’.

“We have chosen bus advertising as one of the main components of our campaign this year because it allows us to put our message across cost-effectively to a wide cross section of people,” explains Tufail Hussain, Islamic Relief’s Deputy Director.

“This campaign is about raising awareness as well as raising funds – informing people about what Islamic Relief really stands for and highlighting the huge generosity of the British Muslim community, who give more than £100 million in Ramadan to international aid charities alone.

“We hope our campaign will be received very positively because we have a positive message to share.”