Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo
AS momentum for the upcoming Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers gathers, Sri Lanka and Ireland are the first Group B teams to arrive in the City of Kings and Queens.
The two nations, arrived aboard the same flight which touched down at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport earlier today and will be getting down to business tomorrow ahead of their warm up matches on Tuesday.
The tournament, however, starts on June 18.
They both arrived from Harare, where they had landed yesterday and are some of the favourites in their group.
This will be Sri Lanka’s first visit to Zimbabwe for 50-over cricket in six years and their first World Cup Qualifiers appearance in 44 years.
For Ireland however, they were last in Zimbabwe for ODIs in January this year where they played three matches and the series finished tied 1-1 after the decider was abandoned due to rain. Ireland, will therefore be hoping to use their previous experience of Zimbabwe to full use.
Sri Lanka will face Netherlands at Queens Sports Club on Tuesday while Ireland will go up against the United States of America (USA) at Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC). The Netherlands will be the third team to arrive today, with their arrival slated for later today.
The other three teams in Group B, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Scotland will play their warm up matches in Harare and are likely to arrive in Bulawayo on Friday.
All Group B matches will be played in Bulawayo at Queens Sports Club and BAC.
Group A consists of USA, Nepal, West Indies, Netherlands and the hosts, Zimbabwe and their matches will take place in Harare at Harare Sports Club and Takashinga Cricket Club.
The top three teams from each group will progress to the Super Six stage where each team will play three matches against the teams they did not meet in the group stage.
All points won in the group stages will be carried over to the Super Six stage, apart from those gained against the bottom two from each group. The finalists will both book their ticket to the World Cup India in October. – @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter