Sikandar Raza’s tweet on Zimbabwe suspension touches Ravi Ashwin; he hopes African nation returns to glory soon

They had once made a sensational debut in the Cricket World Cup in 1983 by beating Australia by 13 runs. In fact, Zimbabwe had also beaten the same team in their first-ever match in the T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. But all the glittering history has now come to face shame as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has suspended the African nation because of political interference, freezing funding to Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and barring any team from the country to participate in any ICC event.

This extreme step by the international body has made Zimbabwe’s participation in the upcoming qualifiers for both the women’s and men’s T20 World Cups highly unlikely. The ICC Board met over Zimbabwe for several rounds of talks in London this week and decided unanimously that ZC has breached Article 2.4 (c) and (d) of the world body’s constitution.

It was also held that the Sports and Recreation Commission’s (SRC) act of suspending the cricket board in June constituted interference by the government into the country’s cricketing affairs. SRC is a government body which suspended ZC last month as well as its acting managing director Givermore Makoni. ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar said they did not want to take the decision of suspending a member lightly but also at the same time, wanted to keep the sport away from political touches.

Ravi Ashwin disappointed with Zimbabwe suspension

Ace India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took to Twitter to express his disappointment over the treatment that was meted out to Zimbabwe, a promising cricketing nation that was badly hit by non-cricketing reasons. The country has seen a serious talent drain over the years because of political instability and especially the policies of the former Robert Mugabe administration had impacted its cricket as well.

During the 2003 World Cup, former cricketers from Zimbabwe Andy Flower and Henry Olonga had exhibited before the world a black arm-band protest against the state of political affairs in their country. Even England had boycotted them in that tournament.

Ashwin, who is in great touch in County cricket in England at the moment, tweeted in response to a heart-breaking tweet from Zimbabwe cricketer Sikandar Raza who had said that the decision to suspend Zimbabwe left so many people and careers in hopelessness and so many families in a disarray.

How one decision has made a team , strangers
How one decision has made so many people unemployed
How one decision effect so many families
How one decision has ended so many careers
Certainly not how I wanted to say goodbye to international cricket. @ICC pic.twitter.com/lEW02Qakwx

— Sikandar Raza (@SRazaB24) July 18, 2019

The Indian off-spinner sympathised with Raza’s tweet saying it “shows the agony of cricketers and how their life’s have been taken away from them.” He hoped that Zimbabwe will soon be back to their days of glory.

Extremely heart breaking news for all Zim cricketers and their fans, reading the tweets of @SRazaB24 just shows the agony of cricketers and how their life’s have been taken away from them. I pray that the lovely cricket nation returns to its glory asap! #ZimbabweCricket

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) July 19, 2019