Zimbabwe's new selectors and coaching staff named

The Zimbabwe board's managing director Ozias Bvute has now confirmed what Cricinfo revealed 24 hours earlier that Zimbabwe's tour of Bangladesh will include two unofficial Tests.

"We have agreed with the Bangladesh board to play two longer-version games after the ODIs," Bvute said in an interview with Zimbabwe's Independent newspaper.

The additional fixtures will be played at A-team level, with a three-day game scheduled for December 11 to 13, and a four-day game penciled in for December 15 to 18. Kevin Curran, Zimbabwe's coach, will fly back home on completion of the ODIs and will be replaced by his Zimbabwe A counterpart, Andy Pycroft. Five players considered more adept to the longer version have already been picked to go to Bangladesh, while others will return home.

Curran, meanwhile, seems to have safely survived an attempt to remove him from his job, which was being orchestrated by former head of selectors Bruce Makovah, and former director and players welfare and technical committee chairman Crispen Tsvarayi.

In fact, the changes which have been ringed to the Zimbabwe team's technical department spares both Curran and Pycroft. Former chief selector Steven Mangongo has now taken over substantively as assistant to Curran. Walter Chawaguta, the Under-19s coach who was tipped to have that role permanently, has been relegated to become A-team assistant coach.

The new selection panel is headed by Kenyon Ziehl, a cousin of Curran's, former Rhodesia and South Africa player Jackie du Preez, Bulawayo province chairman Vumi Moyo, and Steyn Kombayi, who is the provincial manager for Harare Metropolitan province.