Zimbabwe not coming

Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), which has been suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC), has announced that the national team will not travel to Bangladesh for the triangular series that also included Afghanistan.

Zimbabwe were set to tour Bangladesh in September this year to play a T20 tri-series but their suspension will now see them miss out on their first international tour in the shape of the tri-nation tournament.

“Following the ICC meeting, we talked to their CEO and board president. Since the media release arrived on the 19th, we will make our decision in light of the current scenario. We will try to communicate with them to find out how things will turn out now.

“We took Zimbabwe onboard due to their request. We had identified that the series will be more competitive if it’s a tri-nation series. Our commitment with Afghanistan will continue. Our sponsors are aware of the current situation,” said Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury.

At the ICC annual conference which concluded on Thursday in London, a unanimous decision was taken after they felt that Zimbabwe Cricket had not been able to provide a process for conducting free and democratic elections.

The ZC, in a statement on Saturday, notified its inability to stage domestic competitions or fulfil the obligations of the Future Tours Programme after ICC’s suspension which also saw the freezing of funds for the cricket board.

“In all this, players and staff are bearing the brunt of the standoff and they might be forced to go for months or forever without their salaries and match fees,” the ZC as saying in a statement.

“We would like to see our teams playing again as soon as possible and the ZC board is ready to cooperate with the SRC and other stakeholders to get Zimbabwe back to operating within the confines of the ICC statutes again,” the statement added.