Vidarbha Cricket Association lends a helping hand to Zimbabwe Cricket

The Vidarbha under-19 team and the under 23 team will play a series of matches against the Zimbabwe under-19 team who are currently in Nagpur. The Zimbabwe bunch arrived in Nagpur on Tuesday will stay in the city for the next few weeks  All the matches are scheduled to be 50 over contests and the team will play a total of 10 matches.

With this tour, the Vidarbha Cricket Association aims to help Zimbabwe cricket in developing and nurturing its young talents for the future. It is also learnt that many such teams from Africa will visit the city of Nagpur in the near future. The Zimbabwe Women’s team will also visit Nagpur shortly and there are plans of the Vidarbha team flying to Harare for a few matches.

“We were in talks with Zimbabwe Cricket over the past three months. They have expressed a desire to come and play in India as part of their preparation plans for the next under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. The VCA has taken the BCCI’s permission for the same and they are here to play 10 one dayers,” VCA president Anand Jaiswal said.

ICC President and VCA Chief Shashank Manohar visited the country of Zimbabwe in mid-August to resurrect, encourage and upgrade the sport in the country. However, according to Jaiswal, Manohar’s trip has nothing to do with the VCA’s involvement with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC).

“We had been talks from even before Shashank (Manohar) visited Zimbabwe. There is no MoU as of such yet but we are looking for a long-term plan. With this, we think we can help Zimbabwe while at the same time, our team will also benefit playing against them,” he added.

Shashank Manohar had previously stated that he and the ICC are on a mission to restore the game of cricket in Zimbabwe. The country has been involved in serious controversies in the recent past and had to deal with hefty bank debt issues.