Big Picture
What must a young, upcoming cricketer in Zimbabwe feel right now? He
would be told he has to follow in the footsteps of the Flowers and the
Streaks. What he sees are the Ervines and the Ballances, who choose to
play cricket in another country. He would be told he has to derive
inspiration from the exploits of the Zimbabwe side of the 90s. What he
sees is a national team struggling to come up with even a single
performance that would inspire him. He wants to believe his life can be
all about cricket, only cricket. All around him, there are signs that
show such a belief is just not sustainable in practice, at least in
Zimbabwe.
He hears seniors talk about how difficult it is to provide for their
families, he sees the national side threaten to stop playing till they
are promised better wages. Two days after the board promises, he sees
one of his heroes, fast bowler Kyle Jarvis, all of 24, quit international cricket
so that he can play the game for counties and franchises and make some
money while his body lasts. He spots a chilling sentence in Jarvis'
media statement that thoroughly shakes him up, beliefs and all. "I
informed my team-mates yesterday that I would be leaving and they were
supportive and fully understood why I was doing this." Half-prepared to
give up the game, he looks around for some hope, some sign that
everything is not lost for Zimbabwe cricket, where those who choose to
stay on support those who choose to leave.
And then Brendan Taylor and his men go down without a fight to Pakistan
in the format in which they were supposed to have the best chance of
causing an upset. Zimbabwe lost both Twenty20 internationals by
considerable margins, their batsmen falling to the Pakistan spinners,
who took a combined 4 for 67 and 5 for 75 in the two matches. If they
couldn't compete with Pakistan for 40 overs, what chance do they stand
over 100 overs?
If they couldn't stop Jarvis from leaving, what chance do they have of
preventing others who give up on the country in the future? If this
continues to happen, what chance more and more young, upcoming players
won't quit either Zimbabwe or cricket much earlier than Jarvis did?
No money from the board, no fight from the players, no inspiration for
the followers. Money won't come around for a while, but that should not
stop Taylor and his men from putting up a fight. Especially in these
dark times, that is the bare minimum the followers of Zimbabwe cricket
deserve. We can all do with some inspiration.
Form guide
(last five completed matches, most recent first)Pakistan WWTLW
Zimbabwe LLLLL
Players to watch
As if all the responsibility of being Zimbabwe's leading batsman and captain wasn't enough, Brendan Taylor
also dearly needs to rouse his side at this juncture, with both words
as a leader and deeds with the bat. That this hasn't been a productive
season for him won't help, but form as a constraint fades before the
enormity of the task in front of him.
Nasir Jamshed was dropped from the Test side for this tour after
just two games against a tough opponent like South Africa. He's spoken
about how disappointed he felt, and how he plans to make a come back
with good limited-overs performances. He could not do much in the T20s,
now comes the format in which he's impressed the most.
Team news
Captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdur Rehman and Asad Shafiq are the additions to
the Pakistan squad for the ODIs in place of Sohail Tanvir, Zulfiqar
Babar and Sohaib Maqsood, although there was a case for keeping the
inexperienced batsman Maqsood around the team for the ODI leg.
Pakistan (possible) 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad
Hafeez, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Asad Shafiq/Umar Amin, 6 Shahid
Afridi, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Saeed Ajmal, 9 Asad Ali/Abdur Rehman, 10
Junaid Khan, 11 Mohammad Irfan
In another unfortunate reminder of how things are, Zimbabwe announced
their 18-member ODI squad late on the eve of the first ODI, but it
remains to be seen what XI features for the game.