ZC silent on warm-up series’

ZC silent on warm-up series’ PDF Print E-mail

Written by Austin Karonga, Sports Writer

Wednesday, 25 July 2012 13:26

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HARARE - Zimbabwe's cricket team is struggling to secure competitive matches in preparation for September’s ICC World Twenty20 event in Sri Lanka.

Coach Alan Butcher has already sent a request to Zimbabwe Cricket for such games to be availed.

Zimbabwe have been grouped with hosts Sri Lanka and neighbouring South Africa for the tournament, set to run between September 18 and October 7.

“I understand that there is something on the table but nothing confirmed yet,” Butcher told the Daily News.

“It will be nice to have other national teams coming here or vice versa but if that fails to materialise, we will work on an intensive programme that will equip our players with the necessary preparations, which proved useful in the tri-series against Bangladesh and Proteas in June.”

Zimbabwe stunned South Africa in the Pran RFL tri-series final by nine wickets with 17 balls to spare in June.

Butcher also reserved special mention for the Zimbabwe A, side which lost to South Africa A in the final of an A side tri-series last weekend.

Zimbabwe A posted 199-9 before the South African second-string side made 203-7 to win by three wickets.

“Certainly, the South African A team was a quality side with a lot of experienced players, but we still did well,” Butcher said. “Perhaps we didn’t put as many runs on the board but definitely the bowlers were at their best.”

“Players like Tino Mutombodzi and Richmond Mutumbami played well and it was also nice to see Brian Vitori almost back to his best. We would want to give the young players as much time as possible in the A side setup but certainly, they will be a tussle for places for the World T20 which will make it very difficult to pick a squad.”