Zimbabwe tour of Afghanistan postponed or cancelled?

Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

IN THE Men’s Future Tour Program (FTP) schedule for the period 2023-2027 released by the International Cricket Council (ICC) last year, Zimbabwe was set to tour Afghanistan for a full series next month.

However, it appears as if things have changed and the series will not go ahead as planned. On Wednesday evening, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) released their tours program which runs until the end of next year and next month’s scheduled series was not there.

The two nations were meant to play two Tests, three One Day Internationals (ODIs) and three T20Is. In the ACB’s FTP, a similar series against (same number of matches) was put on their calendar, however with no dates. The series was put between February and June.

Speaking to Chronicle Sport regarding the tour, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) Managing Director Givemore Makoni said talks are ongoing with the ACB regarding the series but there hasn’t been anything tangible so far. Makoni however, is hopeful that they will get something out of their talks with their counterparts in the Afghanistan camp.

If ZC’s discussions with ACB yield no results, Zimbabwe’s next bilateral assignment on the ICC FTP will be a full series against Ireland in December at home. The Chevrons and Ireland are scheduled to play one Test, three ODIs and three T20Is before an away trip to Sri Lanka for three ODIs and as many T20Is in January next year. Dates are yet to be confirmed.

In ACB’s schedule, Afghanistan will make a trip to Zimbabwe in December next year for a similar series with two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is.

However, before the December series against , Zimbabwe will have some international matches where they are scheduled to play in the Africa Regional Final qualification tournament which will take place in Namibia in November.

A total of seven African teams will compete for the two available slots to the 20 team T20 World Cup which will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA) in June next year.

Besides Zimbabwe and the hosts, Namibia, the other teams that will take part in the qualification tournament are Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The tournament will run from November 20 to 1 December. – @brandon_malvin