Brendan Taylor and Raza among five players to miss the T20I tri-series for Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is set to field a severely weakened team in the upcoming T20 International tri-series involving Australia and Pakistan. The ongoing pay dispute between the cricket board and its players is going nowhere which led to the likes of Brendan Taylor and Sikandar Raza among five key players to opt out of the series. The board named the 22-man training squad on Wednesday which will be later trimmed to 15 ahead of the series.

Apart from Raza and Taylor, former captain Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine and Sean Williams are the names missing. All these players missed the warm-up T20 series held in Harare and were determined that they would play cricket in Zimbabwe again only after their pending dues are paid. The cricketers are owed the salary of several months while the national players have not been paid the match fees from their Sri Lanka tour last year in July.

They had threatened to put the series in doubt if Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) did not pay the outstanding money by June 25. Also, according to the reports in Cricbuzz, at least two players in the selected squad are expected to withdraw if the payments are not made.

It’s the same old story

“It’s the same old story, no one knows what’s going on and it seems it’s every man for himself. No one really spoke about it this week (during the warm-up games) and guys are not interested in talking about it. You know how it is, guys get their arms twisted behind the scenes and get scared. Hopefully, it all works out, we’ll know in a few days what is happening I guess,” a source was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

Raza’s absence was expected as there were reports that he had made himself available in the Global T20 Canada which is starting next week. A severely depleted host team is expected for the tri-series though which will commence on July 1.

Zimbabwe’s 22-man squad for the tri-series:

Cephas Zhuwao, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Tarisai Musakanda, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, Elton Chigumbura, Malcolm Waller, Brian Chari, Peter Moor, Donald Tiripano, Wellington Masakadza, Tendai Chisoro, Blessing Muzarabani, Ryan Murray, Kyle Jarvis, Chris Mpofu, Prince Masvaure, John Nyumbu, Ryan Burl, Brandon Mavuta, Rugare Magarira