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ICC encouraged by Zimbabwe progress

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has been pleased by the unity of purpose shown by those involved in running cricket in the country

Cricinfo staff
15-Jun-2010
Haroon Lorgat and David Morgan were in Zimbabwe recently to meet with cricket officials there  •  Getty Images

Haroon Lorgat and David Morgan were in Zimbabwe recently to meet with cricket officials there  •  Getty Images

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, who recently visited Zimbabwe with ICC president David Morgan to meet with Zimbabwe Cricket officials, has been pleased by the unity of purpose shown by those involved in running cricket in the country, and believes that a gradual return to Test cricket by the national team is only a matter of time.
"The biggest change has been the togetherness of everybody working for Zimbabwe cricket in the same direction," Lorgat told Cricinfo's Switch Hit podcast. "Everybody seems to be on the same page. There's no doubt they want to see the team starting to perform well. So everybody is doing the right thing.
"What was quite encouraging for me was that many if not all of the recommendations that we had made in early 2009 following the task team visit in November 2008 have been very enthusiastically adopted by the Zimbabwe board. I'm pleased that people have taken on board those recommendations. They all seem to be working together, from across the spectrum among Zimbabweans, they seem to be working in the same direction."
Peter Chingoka, the Zimbabwe Cricket chairman, has said Zimbabwe are looking to return to Test cricket in 2011 with a home series against Bangladesh, while New Zealand are talking positively about resuming ties, but it will still be some time before they engage the strongest teams in the five-day game
"What was also quite heartening from listening to the key Zimbabwe board directors was that they understood that they needed to progress over a period of time," Lorgat explained. "So playing some of the top sides is not on their horizon at the moment. They really want to play against teams they can compete with, and that's why Bangladesh is being mentioned, and I think that's in the planning stage."
That view was echoed by Zimbabwe Cricket's managing director, Ozias Bvute, who said that Zimbabwe are hoping to play against the lower ranked Test sides and the A sides of the stronger nations as they look to gain experience of different conditions and re-establish themselves in the world game.
"It would be premature for us to jump straight into a normal playing schedule like all the other nations," he said. "Instead we are working on a new calendar which will hopefully see us play Bangladesh, West Indies and then New Zealand over the next two years. We are yet to approach any of these boards with our request though we would like Bangladesh to play in a Test match here in Zimbabwe soon after the 2011 World Cup ends in April next year."
"We will engage the rest of the cricketing world with the objective of playing once-off fixtures in Zimbabwe over a period. We recognize that in the short term, it may not be commercially viable for the other nations to have Zimbabwe touring but we will engage them with the prospect of allowing our national team to play their A sides in their countries. This will allow our team to familiarize themselves with other playing conditions and ultimately gain more experience."
Bvute suggested that Zimbabwe could return to a normal cricketing schedule in five to six years, and that while recent results have been encouraging, a lot of work still needs to be put in before the team can be consistently competitive.
"The gradual re-entry is intentional to allow our cricketers to build confidence and gain momentum," he explained. "Supreme to all this is the integrity of the results such that they are reflective of competitive cricket matches. Crucial to us is that we set out a re-entry programme that is gradual and responsible and that will allow us to assess ourselves over a period of time. It will not happen overnight."