HARARE Buoyed by the return of experienced former players who have boosted the technical ranks, Zimbabwe is looking to reach the second round of the International Cricket Council World Cup scheduled for next February, captain Elton Chigumbura said last week. The 10th Cricket World Cup will be hosted by the three Asian Test nations India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
We will target getting into the second round. With the sort of players we have, I believe we can do it. We have a couple of games against the associate nations (during CWC 2011). The way we have been preparing, we can definitely make it past the first round, said Chigumbura, whose side recently lost a one-day series to Bangladesh.
He added, Brian Lara is going to join us early next year as the batting consultant. Grant Flower is our batting coach now and Heath Streak is working on our bowlers,
Chigumbura described the tour to Bangladesh as important in gauging the teams preparedness for the World Cup.
Zimbabwe lost the four-match series 1-3 to the Asians.
Chigumbura said: Bangladesh has also improved their cricket a lot, but Zimbabwe is not far off. Like Bangladesh who played matches regularly and slowly got better we have been playing games regularly. We are getting there. We have improved our performance over the last year.
Before coming to Bangladesh, we had beaten a couple of bigger sides such as India and Sri Lanka. I believe we will cause some upsets in the World Cup as well. When we come back to the sub-continent for the World Cup, we will be a step ahead. It is good to play Bangladesh.
Zimbabwe are in a relatively tough group where they are pooled together with defending champions Australia, high-flying New Zealand, co-hosts Sri Lanka and little-known Canada.
Zimbabwes first match is against the world champions on February 21 at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera, India.
Post published in: Cricket