zimcricketnews.com

The interim ZC board met for the first time today in Harare, and announced their decision to withdraw from Test matches for the remainder of 2006. It is planned that Test matches will resume with the tour to Sri Lanka in early 2007, although obviously much depends on how much progress can be made by the country's cricketers by then.

CricInfo speculates that the ICC may have put pressure on chairman Peter Chingoka to agree to the suspension during his meeting with Ehsan Mani and Malcolm Speed in Karachi last week. The decision means that, despite assurances being given to the WICB, at the very least the Test matches scheduled against the West Indies for April will not now go ahead.

A press release issued after the Board meeting stated the decision was made as a result of recent poor performances by the national teams, but that

"...the young teams remain full of potential and hopes abound for their development into a strong and competitive performer on the Test arena. ZC is now putting in place a programme to galvanise the development of the Zimbabwe squads. It will work with other Test nations and the ICC itself to realise this objective."

Zimbabwe suspend themselves from Tests