Pandemic extremely hard on Zimbabwe Cricket, admits Brendan Taylor
Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor has admitted to the fact that the effect of the COVID-19 is very hard on Zimbabwe cricket since the team had finally got a full international schedule. The Zimbabwean cricket team was suspended by the ICC in July 2019 due to political interference.Â
While the rest of the sporting world has been put on an unprecedented hiatus, the effect of the pandemic has been rather harsh on Zimbabwe cricket. The team was suspended by the ICC in July last year and were reinstated only in October. According to Brendan Taylor, the coronavirus outbreak led to the disruption of a fairly busy international calendar for Zimbabwe. They began the year 2020 with a home Test series against Sri Lanka and played a full tour of Bangladesh following that. The team also had fixtures against Ireland, Afghanistan, Australia, India and the Netherlands lined up.Â
Hence, Taylor has stated that the situation in which Zimbabwe cricket is, is âextremely frustrating and hurtful timesâ. However, he has admitted to life being way more important than the sport. In fact, he has admitted to being privileged enough to help out the needy people and urged also sportspersons to do the same.
âPersonally, this break is not doing us any favours. I feel we are a team that needs to be playing more often; weâve always been starved of cricket. This year we had a full schedule of international cricket, but thatâs now been jeopardised by this pandemic. So itâs extremely frustrating and hurtful times, â Taylor was quoted as saying by Zimbabwean weekly âThe Standardâ
âBut there are people out there losing their lives and their loved ones to this terrible virus, so at the end of the cricket is not so important anymore, is it? I think itâs a time where as players we can be a little more proactive, setting up GoFundMe pages trying to help the old, the homeless, and thatâs a big issue in our country,â he said.
