[Series Thread] Zimbabwe XI in Canada

[From Canada]

Hi - Does anyone on this board know if the two 50-over games are still going ahead? They are no longer listed on the cricinfo website.

It is hard to get information on Cricket here in Canada.

Congratulations on the big win, by the way. Sorry Canada could not provide better opposition. Canada seem to be in a terrible slump ... going back to 2009!

[maehara]

Hi - Does anyone on this board know if the two 50-over games are still going ahead? They are no longer listed on the cricinfo website.

It is hard to get information on Cricket here in Canada.

It's just as hard getting information out of Zimbabwe Cricket, unfortunately, so we're as in the dark as you are. We'll find out on Saturday, I guess...

[zimfan1]

They will not be going ahead. The players arrive back in Zim on Sunday.

Dont think the tour could of gone any better

[From Canada]

Thanks for the information. That is too bad from Canada's perspective (although based on the ICUP match it likely would have been a waste of time for Zimbabwe). But Canada really needs as many matches as they can get. Do you know what happened? Was it just a cost thing? Or was there some screw up by Cricket Canada? (We have a lot of those).

[jamthala]

They will not be going ahead. The players arrive back in Zim on Sunday.

Dont think the tour could of gone any better

that is very poor planning by zim board,ODI should be there.

[sloandog]

Does anybody know what's happened to John Davison, Jeff Barnett and Ian Bilcliffe.......they were the back bone players of the Canadian batting line up. Where they at now......

[From Canada]

The main problem with Bilcliff, Barnett and Davison is that they all live in Australia or New Zealand, so it is pretty tricky to get them to Canada (or anywhere for that matter) without majorly impacting their other lives. The second problem is that Bilcliff is I think 38 and Davison is 42. Although they were still excellent (or pretty good, anyway), in the WC qualifier in 2009, I think there is a realization that there is a need to develop new players. Barnett has played a bit this year and has been OK (best batter in the recent Caribbean T20, but that is not saying that much), but he was unavailable for the Zimbabwe match because of work commitments in NZ. I am not clear if Davison and Bilcliff will be around for the World Cup, because both of them must be pretty near the end of their playing careers, but they both played in the T20 WC qualifier (where Canada performed dismally and lost all three games).

A lot of the players in the match against Zimbabwe were younger - there were 5 from the last U19 team (Limbada, Kumar, Patel, Desai, and Hamza). Canada did have a few key injuries - Bagai, the normal wicktekeeper is probably our best player by far and he is hurt, as is Zubin Surkari who has been batting pretty well. Also, Khurram Chohan and Harvir Baidwan were both injured or out for other reasons, and both of them are probably better fast bowlers than Osinde. Anyways, I don't mean to make excuses, because it was a pretty poor display, but just to try to salvage some pride, I will say that Canada probably could put out a better team (I know Zimbabwe could too, of course!!)

[sloandog]

The main problem with Bilcliff, Barnett and Davison is that they all live in Australia or New Zealand, so it is pretty tricky to get them to Canada (or anywhere for that matter) without majorly impacting their other lives. The second problem is that Bilcliff is I think 38 and Davison is 42. Although they were still excellent (or pretty good, anyway), in the WC qualifier in 2009, I think there is a realization that there is a need to develop new players. Barnett has played a bit this year and has been OK (best batter in the recent Caribbean T20, but that is not saying that much), but he was unavailable for the Zimbabwe match because of work commitments in NZ. I am not clear if Davison and Bilcliff will be around for the World Cup, because both of them must be pretty near the end of their playing careers, but they both played in the T20 WC qualifier (where Canada performed dismally and lost all three games).

A lot of the players in the match against Zimbabwe were younger - there were 5 from the last U19 team (Limbada, Kumar, Patel, Desai, and Hamza). Canada did have a few key injuries - Bagai, the normal wicktekeeper is probably our best player by far and he is hurt, as is Zubin Surkari who has been batting pretty well. Also, Khurram Chohan and Harvir Baidwan were both injured or out for other reasons, and both of them are probably better fast bowlers than Osinde. Anyways, I don't mean to make excuses, because it was a pretty poor display, but just to try to salvage some pride, I will say that Canada probably could put out a better team (I know Zimbabwe could too, of course!!)

Thank you very very much for the info. I appreciate it

[Boundary]

I know Canada's in the West Indies T20 but I haven't followed the progress. Was it the same side we faced?

[From Canada]

Essentially the same team. The only two major changes were Barnett and Surkari were not available for the Zimbabwe match. Replaced by Kumar and Chattergoon. Anyways, Canada lost to T&T and Jamaica by 9 wickets each, so I am not sure that beating us as badly as you did is too good a measure. It seems that everybody is doing that these days

I know this was the Zimbabwe "A" Team, but it looked to me as if many of the top level players were in the side. How many of these players would be expected to start in the world cup?