Upcoming Fixtures

[Minnows cricket fan]

found this article on CricketEurope
http://www.cricketeurope4.net/DATABASE/ ... 3884.shtml

I read an article on Fox Sports News Active (Australia) and it said Zimbabwe will tour Kenya for 4 ODI's in October arriving on the 8th. Its either
got the month wrong (as in the above article is mentions November) or the series in Ocotber has been confirmed and Ireland will join to make it a Tri Series.

[maehara]

Thank-you!

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Now officially denied.

[Minnows cricket fan]

not officially off yet, but i hope Zimbabwe come to sense and realise they need some matches and accept it.

[Minnows cricket fan]

still no confirmed matches

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/kenya/c ... 62622.html

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Disappointing that ZC can't finalise this.

Realistically, Kenya have only a very small chance of beating Zimbabwe. Personally, I think our best bowler, Ray Price, would take many wickets against such weak opposition. Guys like Williams, Taylor, SIbanda and Masakadza would score runs very easily against their bowlers.

Obviously, ZC think the risk of an upset is too great though. Really, the risk is pretty low.

[Train Driver]

I wonder whether the Zim government will actually allow a visit to take place.

As mentioned in one of the cricinfo articles, the Kenyan Prime Minister was one of the loudest voices in the call for Mugabe to be suspended from the African Union until free and fair elections are allowed to take place, would Mugabe then allow a Zim team to play a Kenyan team ?, i suppose he may do just as a political two finger gesture.

If the visit were to take place and involved a triangular tournament with Ireland, would there be any surprise if the Irish players, voluntarily or on government instructions, refused to play against Zim ?.

Finally, i wonder how much truth there is the comment "It's as much about not wanting to be seen losing to Kenya than anything else", the ZC source told cricinfo. "It would be easy to arrange the tour if the will was there. The players want to play. It's the administrators who are running scared as they worry that a defeat by them (Kenya) would make people inside the ICC sit up and start asking more questions about funding".

It may well be, in the short term, that Zim will be limited to fixtures against no other sides than the Asian bloc. There will obviously be no games against England or Australia, without a change of policy South Africa are off the list, can anyone really see the New Zealand visit going ahead next year ?. West Indies don't appear to have made any comment as yet which leaves only India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and any associate countries, Namibia ?, who may still be prepared to play.

It can only be hoped that the current political discussions can come up with some sort of answers, firstly for the people of Zimbabwe and secondly for the future of ZC.

[maehara]

It can only be hoped that the current political discussions can come up with some sort of answers, firstly for the people of Zimbabwe and secondly for the future of ZC.

The signs look promising. The Memorandum of Understanding between Zanu-PF and the two MDC factions required a deal to be signed within 2 weeks of the MOU's signing, which puts the deadline at this Friday, so there should be word soon.

That said, any new administration will have bigger issues on their hands than ZC, so I don't know that we'll be shot of Chingoka et al for a while yet.

[r@ndom]

which leaves only India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and any associate countries, Namibia ?, who may still be prepared to play.

personally i could see sri lanka object to playing later on this year due to a tour being a turn off commercially, which leaves bangladesh early next year who are just happy to to be seen easily beating (they think) weaker opposition and probably the only "leading" associate that would be willing would as you say be Namibia, as ireland, scotland, kenya, netherlands etc. would object and someone like the UAE being too easy. personally i think Namibia home or away would be a walk over so really Zimbabwe's competitive good standard cricket will only be played against Bangladesh it seems, and they may not want to travel to the country. none of india's stars would tour and the BCCI would again object as with sri lanka because commercially noone would care. i could see more players quitting simply because they can't make a living as there is noone willing to play. they can't only play pakistani teams after all.

[maehara]

CricInfo have apparently seen ZC's schedule for 2008/09:

Sri Lanka (Home) - Oct/Nov 2008
Bangaldesh (away) - early 2009
Sri Lanka (away)
New Zealand (home) - mid-2009

The Bangladesh tour is outside the Future Tours Programme. No place for the expected trip to Kenya.