Zimbabwe Cricket puts all cricketing activities on hold temporarily

The Zimbabwe Cricket Team have been dealt with a massive blow as the cricket board, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) temporarily suspended all the cricketing activities in the country. This decision is taken considering the new lockdown restrictions imposed by the Zimbabwe government owing to the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Zimbabwe haven’t hosted any team in the country since March 2020 in view of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The country was scheduled to host Ireland in April, followed by Afghanistan and India in August 2020. However, all the series were suspended for an indefinite time.

The Zimbabwe cricket team had last played against Pakistan as they toured the Asian nation for a three-match ODI and T20I series in October and November in 2020. The Pakistan tour didn’t reap good results for the visitors as they had to face defeat in the ODI series by 2-1 followed by a series clean sweep in T20 Internationals.

Zimbabwe postpones the domestic Men’s T20 tournament

Zimbabwe Cricket released an official statement to announce a temporary halt in the sporting activities in the country. The release also stated that the authorities will try to organise the Men’s domestic T20 tournament in the future whenever it is safe to do so. A men’s domestic T20 tournament was set to get underway on January 4 and the participating players were already in quarantine.

“This is a very challenging situation, but ZC’s aim is to reschedule all the affected events and fixtures – including the elite men’s domestic T20 competition which was scheduled to begin this Monday – for them to be played as soon as it is deemed safe to do so,” Zimbabwe Cricket said in a statement.

The pandemic had an adverse effect on the Zimbabwe Cricket team as they were deprived of any cricketing activities. Speaking about the same, Zimbabwe’s senior batsman, Brendan Taylor said that they had a full international schedule in 2020 but all the series have been suspended which is extremely frustrating and hurtful for the players.

“I feel we are a team that needs to be playing more often; we’ve always been starved of cricket. This year we had a full schedule of international cricket, but that’s now been jeopardized by this pandemic. So it’s extremely frustrating and hurtful times.” he stated as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.