The camp will run from tomorrow to September 30 at the New Zealand High Performance Centre in Lincoln. Senior officials said the camp would help the Black Caps emerge with positive results.
Zimbabwe heads to New Zealand as the underdogs against a team that is highly-ranked and worlds apart from Zimbabwe, which has just returned to playing Test cricket after more than five years on the sidelines.
New Zealand Cricket director, John Buchannan said preparing for Zimbabwe was the biggest of the organisation’s priorities.
“Preparation for our tour against Zimbabwe will be the main focus,” he said in an interview from Lincoln.
“However there will be a range of benefits from bringing together a large pool of players. There will be a variety of conditioning and cricket activities including a number of limited over practice matches. Players will also get the chance to work with specialists to get them physically and mentally fit,” he said.
He said the fact that New Zealand had not played much international cricket after the World Cup earlier this year also inspired the decision to host such a camp.
The two teams play a series of Test and One Day International matches starting on February 12.
The matches will mark the first time Zimbabwe has toured New Zealand in a decade following souring relations between the two countries at political level. Relations have been strained after New Zealand accused President Robert Mugabe’s regime of human rights violations. Subsequently, it barred Zimbabwean sportspersons visiting and dissuaded theirs from touring Zimbabwe.
Post published in: Rugby