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According to CricInfo, Zimbabwe will tour Bangladesh in early 2009, in a visit arranged outside the Future Tours Programme. The tour will consist of both ODIs and first-class matches.

The tour appears on ZC's outline schedule for the 2008/09 season, which also includes two series against Sri Lanka (at home in 2008, and in Sri Lanka during 2009) and a home series against New Zealand - although that will be subject to the NZ government not taking action to prevent it. Noticeable by its absence is any mention of the visit to Kenya which had been expected to take place before the end of the year, with ZC clearly running scared of being beaten by the "weaker" African side.
CricInfo - Zimbabwe unveil preparations for 2008-09

I was wondering only a few days ago how long it would be between last week's ICC wranglings and the next calls for a cricketing boycott. Ignoring the ongoing rumblings over the ICC's "fudge", the focus is now moving to the scheduled visit of New Zealand in July 2009 - already there's pressure on New Zealand Cricket to withdraw from the tour. As this is a Future Tours Programme tour, NZC would face ICC fines if they withdrew without Government instruction, but so far NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark has restricted herself to calling on NZC to consider their position. The last scheduled tour between the two countries was called off after the NZ Government indicated they would refuse visas to the Zimbabwe side - with this tour due to take place in Zimbabwe, they would need to find another way of preventing the tour.

New Zealand have been through all this before, of course, with their 2005 tour of Zimbabwe - NZC indicated then that it was not up to them to take political decisions - NZC Chief Executive Justin Vaughan is sticking to that approach, while also pointing out that the tour is still a year away, and a lot can change in that length of time:

"No ICC team has unilaterally pulled out because they haven't agreed with the politics of the host nation; that's always been a decision for the government of the day. It's a political question and requires a political solution; it's not a decision NZC should have to make.

"We are a group of cricket administrators. We might have strong feelings about the situation in Zimbabwe but judging international politics is not what we're about. There are other, far more qualified people to do that job, politicians for example.

"The tour to Zimbabwe is a year away. There'll be another ICC conference before then; undoubtedly, a lot will change in Zimbabwe in the next year, and by that time the ICC sub-committee appointed to investigate ZC will have reported back, and we'll have a clearer idea of the situation. You never know, we might not have to make a decision. Time is on our side at the moment."

You can bet the pressure on NZC won't diminish in the meantime, though. In related news, ZC Chairman Peter Chingoka has stated in a recent interview that Sri Lanka are committed to fulfilling their FTP-mandated tour to Zimbabwe in November.
CricInfo - NZ will tour Zimbabwe unless ordered not to

Zimbabwe will have been looking for a good start in their Under-19 World Cup opener against New Zealand this morning, but they didn't get one - and only avoided complete humiliation thanks to face-saving knocks by Solomon Mire and Daniel Landman. Zim won the toss and elected to field, and after losing their openers early, New Zealand were soon making hay - Corey Anderson top-scored with 82, while Prince Masvaure took 3/37 from his 10 overs. New Zealand finished their 50 overs on 221/8 - a decent score but one that Zim would have had hopes of chasing down.

Those hopes fell apart within minutes of the Zimbabwe innings starting, however, as the side quickly collapsed to 5/15, with top-order frailty apparently not being restricted to the senior sides. Solomon Mire (31), Daniel Landman (51) and Tendai Chitongo (15) added some respectability to the score by at least ensuring the side reached triple-figures, but there were no other contributions of note as Zim fell to a 98-run loss.

A very disappointing start, then. Full scorecard for this match is below the cut - Zimbabwe's second match is against Malaysia on Wednesday (20th), which on paper they should win - but with form like this, you can never be sure...
New Zealand U19 221/8 (50 overs; Anderson 82, Masvaure 3/37), Zimbabwe U19 123 (42.4 overs; Landman 51, Southee 5/11). New Zealand U19 win by 98 runs.

Netherlands pulled off a surprisingly thorough win against felow Associate side Scotland, although for both teams this was their final appearance of this World Cup. Going into the tournament, Scotland were the top-ranked of the 5 Associate sides (excluding Kenya, who appear on the main LG ICC rankings and not the Associate version), but they've underperformed in the West Indies and Netherland were pleased to take the opportunity to secure a win for themselves. Batting first, Scotland collapsed to 136 inside 35 overs, a total that Netherlands had no problems chasing down.

Canada weren't so lucky, although they did make New Zealand work during thier final group match. New Zealand batted first and raced their way to an impressive 363/5 from their 50 overs, including 101 from Lou Vincent. In reply, Canada got off to a speedy start thanks to John Davison, who until recently held the record for the fastest World Cup century - he seemed keen to repeat the feat here, and some lose bowling from the Kiwis, particularly Michael Mason, allowed Davison to cut loose. For a while it seemed Canada were on course for an unlikely win, but after Davison fell in the 10th over, the flow of runs dried to a trickle. Canada only just failed to bat out their 50 overs, but by then they were well off the total.
Netherlands beat Scotland by 8 wickets.
New Zealand beat Canada by 114 runs

Another day, another drubbing for the Associates, as Scotland met South Africa and Kenya met New Zealand.

Batting second seems to be the smart thing to do at this World Cup, so Kenya followed the trend and put New Zealand in to bat after winning the toss, a decision that scored immediate dividends as Lou Vincent found himself walking back to the pavillion after a 4th-ball duck. That was the brightest spot of the innings for Kenya, though, as Fleming, Taylor, Styris and McMillan helped themselves to a feast of runs off the Kenyan total on their way to a total of 331 from their 50 overs. In reply, it was really only a determined stand of 71 by Ravi Shah, assisted by Thomas Odoyo's 42, that saved Kenya's blushes - 7 other batsmen failed to make double figures, including the usually-reliable captain Steve Tikolo, and the Kenyans were bowled out for 183, with New Zealand securing their place in the Super Eight in the process.

South Africa likewise won their toss and put Scotland in to bat, having apparently tired of batting practice against the Netherlands. Scotland didn't disgrace themselves, working their way to 186/8 from their allotted overs, with Dougie Brown top-scoring on 45 not out, but once South Africa came to the crease it was clear the match would be over well ahead of time. Captain Graeme Smith clubbed his way to 91 off 65 balls, de Villiers 62 off 67 balls, with Prince, Kemp and Pollock finishing the job after their departure in an innings that lasted just 23 overs. South Africa are now assured of their Super Eight place, while Scotland are assured of their trip home.
South Africa beat Scotland by 7 wickets
New Zealand beat Kenya by 148 runs

Next up: Zimbabwe v Pakistan, a game that Zimbabwe must win to remain in the tournament, and Sri Lanka v Bangladesh.

Records dropping in huge numbers in yesterday's matches, as South Africa hammered Netherlands and New Zealand convincingly beat England.

Netherlands made it another bad day for the Associate sides, as South Africa showed no mercy and rewrote the record books in the process. The highlight was Herschelle Gibbs' six sixes in one over - the first in ODI cricket - but that was just the icing on the cake. Other records included most century partnerships in an ODI (3), most sixes in an innings (18), fastest 50 in World Cup history (Mark Boucher, off 21 balls), and more besides. In reply, Netherland simply opted to bat out their overs, and eventually fell to a huge 221-run loss.

England, meanwhile, would have been hoping to continue from where they left off against Australia - but so were New Zealand, and the boys from God's own country came out on top against a tame England display. Such was the mood in the England camp after the loss, that "a number" of England players were fined by the ECB for disciplinary offences, after hitting a nightclub after the match. Drowining their sorrows, perhaps? England have failed to go further than the group stage in the last 2 World Cups - you have to wonder if Kenya will be the banana skin to stop them progressing this time around. I'd say the odds were at least even...
South Africa beat Netherlands by 221 runs
New Zealand beat England by 5 wickets

Next up: Bangladesh v India, and Ireland v Pakistan.

The final four warm-up matches were played yesterday, with the top 8 seeds featuring this time around, and from a Zimbabwean point of view there was good news and bad. First up, the bad: Pakistan found some form (or South Africa lost theirs, depending how you view it) and took some revenge for their recent series drubbing with a convincing 7-wicket win over the Proteas. Personally, I'm hoping that was more down to a slump by the South Africans. On the good front, West Indies were hammered by India in a match that lasted less than 44 overs total - the hosts collapsed to 85 all out in a dismal performance, with India knocking the required runs inside 19 overs. More of the same form from the West Indies in the group stage, please...

In the other matches, Australia took revenge for their CB Series defeat by beating England. Duncan Fletcher had obviously seen that coming and had made comments before the match that England weren't looking for the win, but even so this still wouldn't have been quite the warm-up England would have wanted. New Zealand recovered from their loss to Bangladesh by seeing off Sri Lanka in a close-fought match in the final of the day's pairings.
Pakistan beat South Africa by 7 wickets
Australia beat England by 5 wickets
New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 18 runs
India beat West Indies by 9 wickets

That's the end of the warm-up matches - the next matches will actually count for something. The next match is the opener on March 13th, and it's a Group D clash between West Indies and Pakistan. See you then...

Three other warm-up matches yesterday, apart from the Australia - Zimbabwe clash which I've covered separately. Bangladesh pulled off the first upset of the tournament by beating New Zealand (fresh from giving the Aussies a hammering) by 2 wickets, with Mashrafe Mortaza (4/44 and 30*) being key to the Tigers' performance. Maybe all those ODIs against Zimbabwe have been good practice, and here's hoping Bangladesh can carry on performing once the group stage starts.

Elsewhere, the matches went according to the script. India easily saw off the Dutch challenge, after posting 300 from their 50 overs & bundling the Netherlands out within 38 overs, while Pakistan likewise had few problems dealing with Canada.
Bangladesh beat New Zealand by 2 wickets
Pakistan beat Canada by 77 runs
India beat Netherlands by 182 runs

The next round of warm-up matches begins on Thursday, with four matches featuring the teams seeded 9-16 in the competition: Bermuda v Zimbabwe, Canada v Ireland, Bangladesh v Scotland and Kenya v Netherlands.

The ICC have issued a statment denying rumours of an investigation into match-fixing in the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe. According to ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed:

"It is disappointing to see such wild and unfounded accusations circulating in the media and we have taken the unusual step of commenting on this speculation as we do not wish the reputation of the sport, the teams or the players to be tarnished by utterly inaccurate media reports."

Click through for the full statment.

Source: ICC

It's nice to find that for once the various match bulletins scattered around the web for yesterday's match are lacking in the heavy criticism of Zimbabwe that's been common of late. Yesterday's 27-run loss (the closest game of the tri-series so far) held a lot of good for the home side - although opinion is pretty much unanimous that they could still have done better.