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Events off-the-field in Zimbabwe are about to signal major changes in the situation at Zimbabwe Cricket. Following the violent conduct of Zanu-PF in the run-up to the Presidential poll run-off on Friday (not that it looks like anyone will recognise the "results") and growing international condemnation of the Zimbabwe Government, there are growing signs that ZC is facing international isolation.

First to react were Cricket South Africa, who have withdrawn from their bilateral arrangements with ZC - meaning that Zimbabwe Provinces and Zimbabwe Chevrons will play no part in next season's SA domestic competitions. A statement issued by CSA President Norman Arendse read, in part:

“In the light of the worsening situation in Zimbabwe, CSA has reviewed its position in relation to Zimbabwe cricket. We have decided to suspend our bi-lateral agreements with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union until further notice.

“In the past, CSA has defended Zimbabwe cricket against heavy odds, but the general situation in Zimbabwe has now made this untenable.

“We will continue to comply with the International Cricket Council’s future tours programme regarding Zimbabwe, as we are bound to this programme as a full member of the ICC. However, CSA will suspend its bi-lateral agreements with ZCU, which includes development and administrative programmes, and the participation of Zimbabwe teams in CSA’s domestic competitions.”

With CSA being one of ZC's major supporters, this is a major blow, but not the only one. The British Government is set to ban the Zimbabwean team from touring in 2009, ending their participation in the World Twenty20 - a Government letter outlining the ban is due to be handed to the tournament hosts, the ECB, on Wednesday - while Zimbabwe's suspension from international cricket is due to be discussed by the ICC at a full Board meeting, also taking place on Wednesday - more news as it happens.

Any suspension would place severe pressure on Zimbabwe's already-weakened cricketing infrastructure - without the prospect of international cricket, the side is likely to lose another tranche of key players, and with any eventual return likely to be at Associate level there'll be little incentive - or financial reward - for them to return post-suspension. But the political position in Zimbabwe have left the sport's various governing bodies with little choice.
Cricket South Africa - CSA suspends Zimbabwe agreements
BBC Sport - Zimbabwe to face UK cricket ban

A little rambling. The inaugural Twenty20 Champions League has been pencilled in for September, and will feature two sides each from India, South Africa, England and Australia.

First gripe: apparently winning the existing Twenty20 competitions in the West Indies (where the Stanford Twenty20 has been hugely popular), New Zealand or Zimbabwe doesn't count. Not that Westerns or Easterns would have had much chance, but that's besides the point (although Chevrons could have potentially qualified by reaching the Standard Bank Pro20 final, which would have raised some interesting issues). There are more than 4 ICC Full Member nations with Twenty20 competitions, and until they're all represented, the tourney can't really be considered a Champions League. It's the Carefully-Selected-To-Increase-Our-Chances-Champions League.

Ask me about the World Series in baseball sometime else.

There are other issues with the format as well. Does your side contain any players who took part in the ICL? Sorry, you're disqualified. Does your side contain any players who took part in the IPL? Not if that side's in the Champions League it doesn't - IPL sides get first pick of players. You can't half tell the BCCI were behind the rules for this - while the rules have yet to be fully agreed, the current version that's being floated does a damn good job of stacking the deck in favour of the two IPL participants at every turn - and because the BCCI is organising the tournament, you do what they say lest they throw their toys out of the pram again (see the ICL rule for the first example of that - I eagerly await the inevitable restraint-of-trade court case).

Of course, the idea of a World Championship for club Twenty20 has been tried before, and was a miserable failure. I'm no cricket snob, I thoroughly enjoy T20, but the way the Champions League is being organised, it thoroughly deserves to fail as well. That's unlikely with the amount of money that the BCCI are throwing at it, but I can but hope...

This started off as a comment to another article, but frankly it deserves a post of its own, so I'm reposting it here, with a few additions made now that I've had a chance to think about some of what I wrote.

There have been quite a few comments lately, asking for what I think about the prospects of player x returning to the Zimbabwe squad, or why they've been overlooked by ZC. I'm not going to get into any further discussion about if or when any of the "rebels" will return, for the simple facts that a) speculating on the matter won't change the current situation; and b) a wholesale return of the old squad isn't really what we need right now.

Despite their flaws (and there are many), ZC have done a half-decent job of building the current side into a team that has a chance of going places. The return of Taibu & Brent helped add some much-needed experience, and assuming he's not immediately overshadowed by the likes of Utseya and Maruma, Ray Price could help in that department as well (although Zim are suffering from an embarrassment of riches in the spin department at the moment) - but for the big names like Flower, Streak, and a number of others, a return is simply not on the cards. I said a long time ago that ZC's best option for the future was to concentrate on developing what talent we had left - with some significant help from South Africa, they're doing that and doing it quite well, and repaying the efforts of the current side by ditching them in favour of the old boys isn't the way forward.

That said... Andy Flower has batting skills that we should be bending over backwards to make use of, but he's been allowed to go and help the English cause instead. Alistair Campbell has helped with the coaching of the current side at times, and was spoken of as a potential national coach before ruling himself out before Brown got the job. Heath Streak has I think the best bowling record of any Zimbabwean - if he returns home now that he's no longer playing County cricket, then ZC should try and get hold of his services as a bowling coach. Hell, Duncan Fletcher's currently unemployed - he's proven he can turn a side from a bunch of Test no-hopers to the #2 Test side in the world - and he's a Zimbabwean! Coaching is how most of the "rebels" can help, should they choose to, and not as players - as many of them simply aren't playing any more anyway. But none of this is going to happen until the ZC Board becomes more politically acceptable to the people who want nothing to do with Chingoka and co.

The players we should be looking to get back are the ones lost from the current generation, like Andy Blignaut and Anthony Ireland - but again, these players have issues with ZC that are unlikely to be resolved while the current Board is in charge.

When the current ZC Board is eventually replaced, we'll see who's still left available and I'll debate the pros and cons of whoever you like. Until then, it's just hot air.

I'll be stuck without internet access for the next week - which unfortunately means I'll be unable to give coverage of the remaining two ODIs against South Africa. I'll be back online next weekend (1st August), and will do a summary update & post scorecards then.

Sri Lanka have just complete a 3-0 whitewash of Bangladesh - this is only the third time that a team has won all matches in a three-Test series by an innings. The earlier instances are when England beat West Indies in 1928 and India defeated Sri Lanka in 1994. Now, please not that Zimbabwe did better than this in their last Test series, against South Africa - and yet we're not considered good enough to play Test cricket. Is a little consistency of approach too much to ask for? Hell, at least Zimbabwe still have points on the ICC Test Championship table. Bangladesh don't. By rights, it should be back to the Intercontinental Cup with thee.

From CricInfo's Beyond the Test World blog, looking at the end-of-day-one score from Kenya Select's Logan Cup match against Westerns:

Kenya’s slightly below-par performance can partially be explained by the fact that they only arrived in Bulawayo on Wednesday and have been in the country for less than 48 hours. It will, inevitably, take them time to acclimitise.

Get your excuses here (for the record, Kenya were bowled out for 218 in their first innings). It's snarky little comments like that, that make me hope Westerns wrap this one up with minimal problems...
CricInfo BTTW - Mishra spares Kenyans' blushes

An article in the Sunday Telegraph over the weekend got me thinking about how to improve Zimbabwe's playing standards, given the lack of any truly experienced players in the current setup for the youngsters to learn from. The Telegraph's Scyld Berry has his own ideas, although first I'm going to poke a hole in his opening argument:

How on earth can Zimbabwe be allowed to resume Test status in November when they cannot even beat Ireland?

I eagerly await your call for Pakistan to be stripped of their Test status, Scyld - after all, Zimbabwe at least managed to tie with Ireland. Pakistan didn't even manage that.

But enough of the petty point-scoring, as he does propose something useful:

[The ICC] should organise and fund three years of competitive cricket for these Zimbabwean cricketers. They need to gain the experience of winning; they need a batting and bowling role-model in their side to learn from, and that can only mean an overseas player unless Streak returns. Being plunged again into the deep end of Test cricket from November will do them vastly more harm than good.

He goes on to suggest a global under-23 competition as one possible solution. Personally, I'd like to see Zim fielding a side in South Africa's inter-provincial competition again - Namibia currently play in the 9-side Pool A, Zimbabwe U23 could easily become the 9th side in Pool B to get even more first-class match experience.

The problem, though, is that Zim are relying on other people to help them at a time when providing that help isn't really politically correct. There are probably other ways of helping Zimbabwe raise their standards more quickly than their current match programme will allow, but the inclination by other nations to lend a hand isn't really there at the moment. That means we're stuck with taking the long route - but I do believe Zimbabwe will return to being internationally competitive, given the chance.
Sunday Telegraph - Test return will harm Zimbabwe

In Multan, Inzamam-ul-Haq's home town, incensed youth held a protest rally, chanted slogans against Pakistan and demanded that police arrest the World Cup squad. The mob was heard chanting, "Death to Bob Woolmer, death to Inzamam, death to Nasim Ashraf
CricInfo - Irate fans shocked at Pakistan's World Cup exit

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, died in hospital in Jamaica on Sunday after being found unconscious on the floor of his World Cup hotel room earlier in the day. He was 58. Pervez Mir, Pakistan's media manager, said: "Bob Woolmer has passed away. I am speaking from the hospital and all the team management is also at the hospital. Doctors have pronounced him dead. Bob has passed away and it is very shocking news to all of the team and the team management."
CricInfo - Bob Woolmer's death stuns cricket world

I hope those Pakistani so-called supporters are happy. They got at least part of what they wanted.

By special request, here's a quick look at Zimbabwe's chances in the World Cup - apologies for not doing more of these, but I changed jobs a few months back and don't have quite as much free time on my hands as I used to.

We'll start with the warm-up matches, against Australia and Bermuda. These aren't being played to the usual ICC ODI rules - each team is allowed to play 13 players, to give as many people a chance to get some matchtime as possible - so they don't count towards the ODI rankings, but they may give some indication of form in matches where the two sides are on roughly equal terms. In Zimbabwe's case, sadly, they're not. Read on below the cut...

Former Zimbabwe coach Geoff Marsh has come out against Zimbabwe's planned return to Test cricket after the hammering they received at the hand of Australia Academy. In a CricInfo report, Marsh wonders how a team that couldn't beat an Academy side could possibly be ready for top-flight cricket:

"They've got to be competitive. We've just sent a cricket academy side there and absolutely belted them. You would like to see Zimbabwe back in Test cricket, no doubt about that, they've got some terrific young talent in the system but they've just lost too many senior players. The whole thing is sad ... I think next year is too early."

Fair comment, on the face of it, but there are a few caveats to be added from the point of view of a Zimbabwe supporter:

• Zim didn't play their full-strength team against the Academy
• While winning is always nice, games at that level are played more for experience and to bring new players through
• Australia have a frightening level of depth to their cricketing - I'd hazard a guess that the Academy side could probably give most Test nations a good run for their money

To my mind, it's too early to judge now if November 2007 is too early for Zim to make their Test return. They (hopefully) have a lot of practice matches to play between now and then, and their performances in those matches will allow a fair decision to be made closer to the time - certainly, the ICC have already indicated that they're not prepared to allow Zimbabwe to resume Test cricket until they can at least put up a competitive performance. Now isn't the time to make that choice - let's wait until this time next year, when the team will have a lot more experience, and then start getting critical.
CricInfo - Zimbabwe not ready for Test return: Marsh