Zimbabwe playing cricket … what?!?

In the international cricket scene at the moment, series’ between Australia and India, New Zealand and England, and South Africa and Pakistan are taking the focus. Only diehard cricket fans (like myself) would be aware that another tour is about to begin. The West Indies are to host Zimbabwe for 3 ODI’s, 2 T20I’s and 2 Test matches.

Zimbabwe has not played any substantial international cricket for 12 months. They were eliminated from the World T20 after two matches, they played in (and won) an unofficial T20 series between themselves, Bangladesh and South Africa in June 2012. They played in New Zealand in January 2012 and were beaten comprehensively in each format of the game. I really do though have some empathy for Zimbabwe cricket, as the best thing for them would be for regular competitive cricket. If the ICC wants a competitive Zimbabwe team in the future, then they need to help them out to get consistent fixtures. Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe is supposed to be rescheduled to sometime this year, and let’s hope that it goes ahead. For the benefit of both sides, a full tour of 3 test matches and 5 ODI’s would be great. Anyway, I am digressing from this series.

Considering Zimbabwe hasn’t played any significant cricket for a long time, it is difficult to consider their form. No amount of nets sessions could prepare them for a full tour, although they did manage to win the warm-up game against the University of West Indies Vice Chancellor’s XI. West Indies have just arrived back from Australia, where they were whitewashed in the ODI series, albeit they managed to win the T20 International. Before that the Windies lost to Bangladesh 3-2 in November 2012. Therefore they have only won 8 out of their last 10 ODI’s. This would give Zimbabwe some hope of pinching a win in the ODI series.

In the last ODI series between these two teams, West Indies won 4-1 after the Zimbabweans managed to win the first match. This series was played as a stand-alone limited overs tour in the Caribbean in March 2010. That has been the only time these two sides have met in the last 5 years in ODI cricket.

West Indies have decided to rest Chris Gayle and captain Darren Sammy from the first two ODI’s which is probably a sigh of relief for the away side. Meanwhile Zimbabwe have dropped Ray Price from the limited overs games, while he will return for the two test matches.

Squads

West Indies (ODI #1 and #2): Dwayne Bravo (c), Best, Darren Bravo, Carter, Charles, Deonarine, Narine, Permaul, Pollard, Powell, Ramdin, Roach, Russell, Sarwan

Zimbabwe: Taylor (c), Chakabva, Chatara, Chibhabha, Ervine, Jarvis, Masakadza, Mawoyo, Meth, Mpofu, Mushangwe, Mutombodzi, Sibanda, Utseya, Waller

Controversially Zimbabwe Cricket decided that key support staff will not tour with the squad. This means that batting coach Grant Flower, bowling coach Heath Streak and fitness trainer Lorraine Chivandire will not be with the team on tour. This is severely disappointing, but with Zimbabwe’s limited finances, I guess one cannot criticise too much

My guess for these matches is a quite comprehensive 3-0 win to the West Indies. You cannot expect a team without any decent cricket in 12 months to all of a sudden play well. In fact, I’m guessing that this whole tour is going to be a white-wash.

ODI Series Fixtures

ODI #1 – 22^nd February @ St. Georges

ODI #2 – 24^th February @ St. Georges

ODI #3 – 26^th February @ St. Georges

I will post a specific preview of the test series in due course.