Looks like the Afghanistan away series is off again.
Afghanistan postponed 3 T20I series v India will be played in January. This has pushed Ireland's tour of Afghanistan from January to March which was when we were supposed to play. Our series is now nowhere to be seen.
I think we can safely say all future Afghanistan series are in doubt. I'm not sure what the reason is but how many series has been postponed/cancelled by Afghanistan now?
Afghans won't play against Zimbabwe. That's quite obvious from the way they have cancelled many past series'.
There will be many Asian teams like Nepal, UAE, Oman who would be keen on playing a full member nation like Zimbabwe. Of course for them it will be an opportunity to beat a full member but it's a win for Zimbabwe as well because they are good teams. As I said all these teams have got better because of the number of fixtures they get against each other in WCL-2.
ZCB should invest in these tours, send 'A' teams of a lot of younger players, the guys like K-long, Marumani, Munyonga, Campbell etc. Should perform against these teams and then they will be in a much better space when playing against top 10 teams.
There’s talk of the IPL launching a new T10 league in September 2024, with the same IPL franchises and players. Effectively IPL2 but with T10. Huge Saudi investment in it and they are planning a 30-day window for it.
So that’s now three months of the year sewn up by the IPL in total?
International cricket is dead. It’s a matter of time.
ECB currently planning to sell off Hundred franchises to private investors (most probably IPL owners) from 2025 as well.
There’s talk of the IPL launching a new T10 league in September 2024, with the same IPL franchises and players. Effectively IPL2 but with T10. Huge Saudi investment in it and they are planning a 30-day window for it.
So that’s now three months of the year sewn up by the IPL in total?
International cricket is dead. It’s a matter of time.
ECB currently planning to sell off Hundred franchises to private investors (most probably IPL owners) from 2025 as well.
Yeah, but it remains to be seen as to how successful it will be. As of now there are only talks, such talks have happened in the past as well. Even if they go ahead with such an idea, I'm not too sure if it will be a success. A lot of these leagues are already struggling to survive. Of course IPL is NOT one of them, but you never know, if team India continues its ICC trophy drought, then the IPL too might start to suffer.
Strauss will be hoping for his 30 pieces of silver
He’s had those plus interest already that time KP was told he’d be considered if he made some county runs, so he made 355 of them in one innings and still got overlooked.
I notice the FTP has been updated, and in theory shows our upcoming fixtures over 2024-2025 as:
Jan 2024: 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is away to Sri Lanka
April 2024: 2 Tests, 5 T20Is away to Bangladesh
August 2024: 1 Test, 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is away to Ireland
November 2024: 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is at home to Pakistan
December 2024: 2 Tests, 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is at home to Afghanistan
January 2025: 2 Tests, 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is at home to Ireland
March 2025: 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is away to Bangladesh
May 2025: 1 Test away to England
June 2025: 2 Tests at home to South Africa
July 2025: T20I Tri-series at home to South Africa and New Zealand
Jul/Aug 2025: 2 Tests, 3 ODIs at home to New Zealand
September 2025: 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is at home to Sri Lanka
November 2025: 2 Tests, 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is at home to Afghanistan
Which seems great in theory. As ever though, there is a high chance some of it doesn't happen especially most of the Tests.
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes
