Streak calls for stronger opposition

Heath Streak, Zimbabwe's captain, has said that he wishes his side had faced better teams in its warm-up games at the start of their tour of England.

When Worcestershire played Zimbabwe last week, two of their biggest stars, Graeme Hick and Nantie Hayward, were missing. And in the match currently in progress, Sussex have left out Mushtaq Ahmed, James Kirtley, Chris Adams and Robin Martin-Jenkins.

Streak said that he understood why counties were keen to rest key players. But he added: "We would like to play against stronger county sides; around the world you see state sides or provincial sides putting out their strongest possible team. They try not to let the touring side dominate, making sure they have a tough time in their warm-up games.

"We would have liked to have played a stronger Sussex side but they have also got injury concerns."

During the last 20 years it has become commonplace for English counties, keen to protect their stars for more lucrative domestic competitions, to field under-strength teams. English cricket chiefs tried to remedy the problem by bringing in sponsorship money for tourist games but that was withdrawn ahead of this season.

Streak suggested that in future it might be more beneficial if tour matches in England pitted the visiting side against Test hopefuls. "I don't think it's a conspiracy thing, it is up to each and every county to select their team - maybe if they [the authorities] looked at giving an incentive or combining counties it would be better," he said.

"There is not much that the counties are playing for in these tourist matches, in terms of benefit to themselves," continued Streak. "Maybe there is a need to put guys forward who have some chance of making the England team or put up some financial reward for performances and winning teams. Perhaps then they would be more inclined to play their full-strength sides."