Tag: cricket

Zimbabwe, South Africa as well as Malaysia are being considered among the venues that would host the One Day International series between Pakistan and the Australia Cricket Team at the end of August. The fallen giants of Asian cricket have had to contend with playing their home series in neutral venues with no teams willing to take the risk of coming down to the war torn nation after a terrorist attack on the touring Sri Lankan team bus back in 2009 which killed three people.

The series was confirmed to be held in Sri Lanka but the island nation pulled out at the last moment because of the clash of timings with its own Twenty 20 league, the Sri Lanka Premier League which is also slated to be held at that time. According to a spokesperson for the Pakistan Cricket Board, a decision on the venue will be made in a meeting next week but he did name the three countries in contention for the role of host.

But what has stunned many people is the option of Zimbabwe being a possible choice of venue after the protests which was mainly led by the players of the Australia Cricket Team against the dictatorial regime of Robert Mugabe in the country ahead of the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup that was hosted jointly by South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The Australian team has not toured the African country since then and it is highly likely that they will not tour it if it was announced as a venue.

The Australia Cricket Team is slated to play in five One Day Internationals as well as two Twenty 20 Internationals against Pakistan in the tour and it would mean that the tour would be quite long, so Zimbabwe might not be the best option for a venue after all.