Bizarre story about Taylor and Cremer

[triedzi]

Came across this:

"Zimbabwe cricketers go missing in England

HARARE-Two Zimbabwe cricketers Graeme Cremer and Brendan Taylor have gone missing in England enroute to Zimbabwe following their tour of the West Indies.

The Zimbabwe cricket squad arrived the country on Thursday minus the two player amid fears that they might have defected. The team were granted six months transit visas by the British Embassy when they went toured West Indies.

Sources in the team said the players had decided to stay behind in England. Zimbabwe Cricket said they would issue at statement later on the fate of the players.

This is not the first time that Zimbabwe sportspersons have defected in the United Kingdom. Six CAPS United players went decided not come to back to Zimbabwe when the club played a controversial friendly match in the United Kingdom in 2004.

Crèmer – a leg spinner made his Test debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka on January 6, 2005, a match that Zimbabwe went on to lose handing the Bangladeshi Tigers their first ever Test match victory.

Cremer then played Tests against South Africa and New Zealand. Unfortunately Cremer, seen by many as a Test specialist, had his opportunities limited thereafter due to Zimbabwe's self-imposed exile from Test cricket. After several years on the fringes of the national team Cremer finally broke into the limited overs squad against the West Indies in late 2005.
Taylor made his debut for Zimbabwe at a time when many of the country's leading players rebelled against Zimbabwe Cricket (formally known as the Zimbabwean Cricket Union) and made themselves unavailable to represent the side.
He is a good all-round player, who has in the past been successful bowling off-break deliveries. He was recently Zimbabwe's first choice wicketkeeper until the return of Tatenda Taibu behind the stumps.

Despite his young age, Taylor is among the most experienced players in the current Zimbabwean team, and is considered the team's best batsman with 11 ODI half-centuries to his name, and a top ODI score of 98."

This would be bizarre if it has indeed happened. Personally I think it is likely that the two have taken advantage of stopping off in the UK and decided to have a holiday. Most likely they will be back and be disciplined. Given both have played club cricket in the UK, the idea of them defecting seems wide of the mark.

[zimfan1]

interesting coincidence that it was st. Patricks day on Wednesday, i reckon they stopped of for a party.

[muyendesi]

Creamer has written on his facebook profile, " The Dream is over". This story is interesting.I could not expect this especially now with all the positve things happening in Zim cricket.New domestic teams, new coach , sponsors coming back,world 20-20 , india - sri-lanka series coming soon and the old players coming back. On top of that, creamer was the man of the series in the West Indies for me. Sad sad to say the least.

[eugene]

Hopefully there is nothing more to this than doing some sighseeing and partying in London.

[kartik]

BT status:
Game 2morro,London Monday,home Tuesday,.....

March 14 at 6:19am

[jamthala]

very intresting,hope that all things settle calmly

[triedzi]

judging from BT's facebook it looks like he is planning on spending some time getting plastered in London then heading back to Zim.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

Taylor is among the most experienced players in the current Zimbabwean team with a top ODI score of 98."

BIZARRE

[aydee]

You can't help but fear the worst when you see these kind of stories...

Both of these two have been on-off over the last few years, so hopefully they havn't decided to stay in England for club cricket... Fingers crossed.

[maehara]

Both of these two have been on-off over the last few years, so hopefully they havn't decided to stay in England for club cricket... Fingers crossed.

..but why would they? The schedule for Zim is probably busier than it's ever been, the World T20's just around the corner (if they want to impress clubs / counties, that's the place to do it), and there's a real prospect of Test cricket not far away - why throw that away?

I'm hoping it's just a case of enjoying St Patrick's while passing through. Otherwise they've just thrown away two amazingly promising careers.