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Heath Streak

Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE cricket coach Heath Streak is happy that Scotland have agreed to play his side on their way to the mid-year tour of Sri Lanka.

The former Zimbabwe skipper is worried by the lack of game time in preparation of the tour scheduled for June on the sub-continent.

The incessant rains that have led to the abandonment of most of the domestic games have made it tough for the cricketers to get regular game time as international assignments have also been sparse.

Streak said the gaps in between fixtures are just too big and this has adversely affected his team’s performance.

But Associate Member Scotland could have thrown them a lifeline after confirming two ODIs on their way to Sri Lanka.

“Given the lack of cricket that we have we just needed to get some fixtures. If you look at the gaps that we had after that tri-series we had two and half months of no cricket and then we played Afghanistan and then again we had another two and half months before we play in Sri Lanka.

“So it’s important for us to get some sort of games as preparation going into that Sri Lankan series.

“It’s been a very tough year, the heavy rains that we have had this year and the flooding we in some parts of the country have been a huge factor on the domestic cricket this summer.

“But other than that we have the Logan Cup going on and more consistent cricket on the domestic level. This helps the guys get a bit more game time and of course there is the A team tour to Namibia.

“That will be a good opportunity for some of the youngsters to continue to grow and hopefully to be able to raise their hands for selection in that tour to Scotland and Sri Lanka,” said Streak.

Zimbabwe have only played Afghanistan in an ODI series since the last meeting with Sri-Lanka in a home triangular series that also involved the West Indies.

In comparison, the Asians have toured South Africa, Australia and are currently hosting Bangladesh in all formats of the game.

Streak regards the year 2001 as the most successful in terms of fixture schedules.

In 2001 Zimbabwe played seven Test series, four triangular tournaments and four ODI series as they engaged each and every one of the Full Member countries at different stages.