Kyle Jarvis left for county cricket and refused to sign a contract with Zimbabwe Cricket. He was fed up with the off field battles with ZC. His decision though sad is understandable. And we can for see more taking up this option if it presented itself. Some were also called up from club cricket in the UK but they declined to come.
Zimbabwe started the series against Pakistan with a win in the first ODI and near misses in the remainder of the ODIs, of which I feel Zimbabwe were in a good position to win but seemed to lack the big game temperament. During the series there were threats to boycott the matches because of perennial payment issues. In years gone by the ZC board has had the upper hand and intimidated players but this time around the players formed a union and were ready to down tools. They refused to practice. Eventually a compromise was reached and all thats left is to see if ZC will honour their word.
Finally made it to Harare Sports Club (HSC) for the closing ODI against Pakistan. The last time I had watched a live cricket match at HSC was in 2008 when Sri Lanka came. I had never seen Lasith Malinga and Sri Lanka live and was looking forward to that but he was injured and Mahela Jayawardene was terribly out of form, good for Zim bad for cricket! Thats one of the ironies about cricket, you want to witness a sublime Jayawardene innings yet you don't want it to come against your own team! The last time I watched Pakistan was in 1992 which was my 'debut' for watching International cricket.
