BY GRACE CHIRUMANZU
Bangladesh Cricket side is set to tour Zimbabwe for the scheduled five One Day International matches set for August 7-19.
The first match will be played on August 9 followed by fixtures on 11, 14, 16 and 18, in Bulawayo.
National team coach, Walter Chawaguta, was not surprised by Bangladesh’s confirmation of touring the country last week, after other cricket nations have followed the trend of cancelling their tours of Zimbabwe sighting security reasons.
He told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that the Asian team, which is expected to land in the country on August 5, often visits the country and has a picture of the security they will have.
“The other time we decided to tour Pakistan after they assured us of our safety despite reports on violence and the tour went on well. So the Asian countries understand us, they understand the situation well and they know they will always be safe,” Chawaguta said.
Zimbabwe last played an international match against Kenya away from home, in February. The previous month they had faced Sri-Lanka and Bangladesh in a tri-nations series held in Bangladesh.
Since then, the senior side has missed the opportunity of playing against internationally experienced players as teams remained reluctant to visit the country.
Zimbabwe was scheduled host Canada last March as well as New Zealand next month. But the tours disappeared into oblivion after the two nations cancelled their trips.
The Prosper Utseya captained side was also to play host to a Triangular One Day series featuring India and South Africa, next month, but as the nation awaited their neighbors’ confirmation, India put their visit on hold.
Chawaguta hopes to make use of the chance that will come with the tour of The Tigers.
“We have a couple of new players who came out of the domestic league who we want to try and work with as we expose them to a competitive international match,” Chawaguta said.
“We are not playing as much international matches as we want to play but we will have to utilize on what we have. There are other outstanding international matches ZC is trying to push for with talks with the involved countries and we keep hoping that we will play them.”
The first match will be played on August 9 followed by fixtures on 11, 14, 16 and 18, in Bulawayo.
National team coach, Walter Chawaguta, was not surprised by Bangladesh’s confirmation of touring the country last week, after other cricket nations have followed the trend of cancelling their tours of Zimbabwe sighting security reasons.
He told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that the Asian team, which is expected to land in the country on August 5, often visits the country and has a picture of the security they will have.
“The other time we decided to tour Pakistan after they assured us of our safety despite reports on violence and the tour went on well. So the Asian countries understand us, they understand the situation well and they know they will always be safe,” Chawaguta said.
Zimbabwe last played an international match against Kenya away from home, in February. The previous month they had faced Sri-Lanka and Bangladesh in a tri-nations series held in Bangladesh.
Since then, the senior side has missed the opportunity of playing against internationally experienced players as teams remained reluctant to visit the country.
Zimbabwe was scheduled host Canada last March as well as New Zealand next month. But the tours disappeared into oblivion after the two nations cancelled their trips.
The Prosper Utseya captained side was also to play host to a Triangular One Day series featuring India and South Africa, next month, but as the nation awaited their neighbors’ confirmation, India put their visit on hold.
Chawaguta hopes to make use of the chance that will come with the tour of The Tigers.
“We have a couple of new players who came out of the domestic league who we want to try and work with as we expose them to a competitive international match,” Chawaguta said.
“We are not playing as much international matches as we want to play but we will have to utilize on what we have. There are other outstanding international matches ZC is trying to push for with talks with the involved countries and we keep hoping that we will play them.”
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