Zimbabwe's return to Test cricket is premature
Zimbabwe have not played a Test match since September 2005, but are poised to return to the five-day game in August this year
Tariq Engineer
25-Feb-2013
Zimbabwe have not played a Test match since September 2005, but are poised to return to the five-day game in August this year. In the Daily Telegraph, Scyld Berry excoriates this development, saying Zimbabwe simply do not have the players to succeed at the highest level.
Common sense suggests that Zimbabwe should be given a prolonged course of four-day first-class cricket: of ‘A’ tours by concerned countries, and playing abroad, for example in the West Indian domestic first-class competition, as the England Lions are.
Only when Zimbabwe’s batsmen have learned to play long innings against real pace and spin, and only when they have unearthed some speed of their own, should they return to Test cricket.
But that, of course, is not how cricket politics work. Officially, Zimbabwe withdrew from Test cricket in 2006 of their own volition — the ICC did not suspend them — and to Test cricket they will voluntarily return after this World Cup.
Tariq Engineer is a former senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo