The Zimbabwe cricket team arrived at the Johannesburg International airport on Tuesday morning for their tour of South Africa, eager to put their ordinary tour to Bangladesh behind them.
Zimbabwe play three one-day internationals against South Africa, starting at the Wanderers on February 25, and two Tests, in Cape Town and Centurion.
Last month they lost both the Test and limited overs series against Bangladesh away from home. They led 2-0 in the five-match limited overs series before Bangladesh won the final three encounters to clinch the series.
”The loss to Bangladesh was a bit disappointing,” said Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu.
”But if you look at the team over the last five months, we have been improving, and that improvement excites me,” he added.
”Our number one objective is to keep improving on this tour, but obviously we want to start winning games. We do play to win.”
Zimbabwe’s West Indian coach Phil Simmons, who played two seasons for Easterns, said he hoped he could impart some of his knowledge of the South African conditions to his players.
”I’ll try and use my experience of the conditions here to teach the players off the field,”he said.
”Hopefully I can impart what I have learnt… We need to work on our ability to score big hundreds, but that comes from playing a lot of matches,” added the former West Indian allrounder.
Zimbabwe kick-off their tour with a day-night fixture against a Gauteng/North West XI in Potchefstroom on Wednesday.
After a gruelling tour against England on home soil, South Africa could rest a few of their players for the upcoming Zimbabwe series. Taibu, however, said he was not concerned with what was happening in the South African camp.
”From our point of view we are only concerned about playing South Africa,” he said.
”We’ve got a lot of aspects to sort out in our changeroom, so we are not worrying about what’s happening in the South African changeroom,”added Taibu.
South Africa has won four of the five Test matches played between the two nations, with one drawn, and 15 of the 18 one-day internationals. Zimbabwe have won two — one of which was during the 1999 World Cup in England. – Sapa
Zimbabwe squad: Tatenda Taibu (captain), Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Barney Rogers, Elton Chigumbura, Alestar, Maragwede, Douglas Hondo, Tinashe Panyangara, Bobby Mpofu, Tawanda Mpariwa, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams, Gavin Ewing, Dion Ebrahim, Alexander Cremer.
Tour schedule: February 16: vs Gauteng/North West XI in Potchefstroom; February 18 to 21: vs Northerns/Easterns XI in Benoni; February 25: vs South Africa (first ODI) at the Wanderers; February 27: vs South Africa (second ODI) in Durban; March 2: vs South Africa (third ODI) in Port Elizabeth; March 4 to 8: vs South Africa (first Test) in Cape Town; March 11 to 15: vs South Africa (second Test) in Centurion.