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HARARE, Jan 19 (AFP): Zimbabwe cricket lurched into another crisis Wednesday when Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) suspended its national team from Test matches for the rest of the year.
The shock decision, announced at a meeting here, means that the planned two-Test tour of the Caribbean, scheduled for April and May, will now not take place.
It is the second time in two years that Zimbabwe Cricket, split by ongoing claims of racism, corruption and player strikes, has been suspended from Tests.
A similar decision was taken in 2004 as results and performances on the field became increasingly humiliating.
"While the side goes through the programme to prepare adequately for the rigours of Test cricket, ZC have no doubt the team will be competitive in their ODI commitments under the Future Tours Programme," ZC Interim Board Chairman Peter Chingoka said in a statement.
It had been expected that Wednesday's meeting would have named a new skipper for the team after the resignation, and retirement from international cricket, of Tatenda Taibu with Andy Blignaut tipped a favourite to take over.
But the more dramatic decision to pull out of Tests until 2007 was taken instead and came just 11 days after 37 players called off a planned strike.
They gave the ZC's new interim board three weeks to find a solution to an impasse over a long running dispute over pay and conditions.
Players representative Clive Field had said that the first reaction of the players to the government of Robert Mugabe taking control of cricket administration was to quit the game altogether, find other jobs or take their skills to other countries.
But after discussions he said they decided to negotiate back pay, new contracts (which were due last September) and match fees due from home series against New Zealand and India.
The 37 players said in the past that they would not play for the country while chairman Peter Chingoka remained at the helm.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's decision to suspend its Test status for the rest of the year drew mixed reaction from Sri Lanka and Bangaldesh cricketing circles Thursday.
It was the second time in two years that Zimbabwe Cricket, split by ongoing claims of racism, corruption and player strikes, had been suspended from Tests.
A similar decision was taken in 2004 as results and performances on the field became increasingly humiliating.
Thilanga Sumathipala, the former President of Sri Lanka Cricket and Asian Cricket Council, said: "It's a sad day for cricket. Zimbabwe is a country with great cricket tradition.
Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lanka captain, said: "I am surprised to hear that and I don't know what the people concerned are expecting by doing so. Zimbabwe have always had good players like David Houghton, Andy Flower and Heath Streak to name a few and I am sure if the younger players had been given their opportunities they would have come through.
And President of Bangladesh Cricket Board Ali Asgar Lobby said the suspension of Zimbabwe's Test status was "defintely an internal matter for Zimbabwe".
"Their cricket authorities have suspended themselves from Test cricket. It is not the ICC which imposed the ban," he said.
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