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The Zimbabwe side are due to leave for Canada today, but there's confusion over whether the proper visa paperwork is in place to allow the side to travel. CricInfo reports that the Canadian Embassy in Harare has yet to issue visa, citing Canadian government reluctance to allow sporting ties with Zimbabwe at present; but organisers of the Canada Cup maintain that visas were issued on October 3rd (Friday past) and that the team will be travelling as planned. We'll know for sure soon enough, but if true it's disappointing to see politics raise its head again. It's understood that Bermuda are on standby to replace Zimbabwe should the team be unable to take part.
CricInfo - Confusion over Zimbabwe visas

The schedule has been released for the Canada Cup Four Nations Twenty20 competition, and the sides will face off as follows:

10 October 2008         Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe
10 October 2008         Canada v Pakistan
11 October 2008         Canada v Zimbabwe
11 October 2008         Sri Lanka v Pakistan
12 October 2008         Pakistan v Zimbabwe
12 October 2008         Canada v Sri Lanka
13 October 2008         Final

Zimbabwe have been confirmed as taking part in the Canada Cup Four Nations Twenty20 tournament, to be held in Toronto in October, after West Indies pulled out of the contest. Canada, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the other participants. The tourney will be held at the Maple Leaf ground in Toronto between 10-13 October - no detailed fixture list is available yet, but I'll post it once I have it.
CricInfo - West Indies pull out of Canada quadrangular

The tri-series in Kenya has now been confirmed - there had been some speculation that Ireland would face pressure from the Irish Government over facing Zimbabwe, but Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom has confirmed that they've cleared the series with the Department of Foreign Affairs, and there are no problems with the series being played on neutral ground.

In seperate news, ZC have also released the itinerary for Sri Lanka's visit to the country in November. The tour will comprise one 4-day match, a 1-day tour match and 5 ODIs - full details on our Fixtures page.

CricInfo lists the following fixtures for a tri-series in Kenya, with all matches to be played at the Gymkhana Ground in Nairobi:

Friday 17 October       Ireland v Zimbabwe
Saturday 18 October     Kenya v Ireland
Sunday 19 October       Kenya v Zimbabwe
Tuesday 21 October      Ireland v Zimbabwe
Wednesday 22 October    Kenya v Ireland
Thursday 23 October     Kenya v Zimbabwe

There's no official confirmation of this series yet that I'm aware of, so don't take this as certain.

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

It's been known for a while that there was a good possibility of Zimbabwe touring Kenya later in the year, either as a bilateral tour or as part of a tri-series with Ireland, who are visiting Kenya for the Intercontinental Cup fixture in October.

Last week, CricketEurope posted fixtures for a tour by Zimbabwe in November, featuring one 4-day match and 4 ODIs, set for the 12th - 23rd November, while several press agencies reported that a tour had been agreed for October. Cricket Kenya have since denied that any fixtures have been agreed, with CricInfo reporting the denials:

A Cricket Kenya source admitted even if ZC agreed to visit, there was no guarantee that the Kenyan government, which has been vociferously critical of the excesses of the Mugabe regime following March's presidential elections, would allow the team to enter the country. At a recent summit of African leaders, Kenya's prime minister Raila Odinga called for Mugabe to be suspended from the African Union until he allows free and fair elections.

So don't believe what you read just yet.
CricInfo - Kenya denies Zimbabwe tour agreed
CricketEurope - Kenya Playing Schedule June - December 2008

The itinerary has been agreed for Pakistan Academy's tour of Zimbabwe. The matches will be against an as-yet-unnamed ZC Board XI.

The tour will consist of 2 four-day matches and 3 one-dayers, as follows:

23-26 August    1st 4-day match         Harare Sports Club
29 Aug - 1 Sept 2nd 4-day match         Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
4 September     1st 1-day match         Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
7 September     2nd 1-day match         Harare Sports Club
9 September     3rd 1-day match         Harare Sports Club

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

Bucking the current isolationist trend, the Pakistan Cricket Board have confirmed that a Pakistan 'A' side is set to visit Zimbabwe in August. Current plans are for two 5-day matches and three one-dayers, with the first match beginning on August 20th. An un-named PCB official, speaking to CricInfo, confirmed that they saw no reason to stop the tour:

"The team will be going there as far as we are concerned. We see no issue in this."

"We believe that sport and politics should be kept apart at all times. [...] Personally, what is happening in Zimbabwe is not right at all. [but] When the ICC decided to shift its annual meeting from Lord's to Dubai [after complications for Zimbabwe cricket officials in obtaining a UK visa] that was one way of the ICC saying sport and politics should not mix. All countries were in favour of that."

You could also argue that the PCB owe ZC a favour, after Zimbabwe fulfilled their tour of Pakistan earlier in the year when other countries were backing out on security grounds.
CricInfo - Pakistan A likely to tour Zimbabwe