Zimbabwe players finally end their strike

Zimbabwe players celebrate their victory over Pakistan in 2013

Zimbabwe’s cricketers have finally agreed to end their strike over unpaid wages and are returning to training after being promised their pending salary by next week, as per their coach Andy Waller.

Talking to the media on Monday, Waller said: “Obviously I’m relieved that at least we can get on with the core business. We are starting training tomorrow (Tuesday) as a squad. We lost quite a substantial amount of time that we could have used to work on a few areas, but we’ve still got six weeks, which can give us plenty of time to prepare”.

He added, “Also bear in mind that there were payment issues before we played Pakistan last year. We brushed them aside and won a test match. We are used to playing under these conditions. Besides, guys have been working hard individually behind the scenes. So it’s not like people have been idle. We’ve been working hard.”

It is pertinent to add that Zimbabwe hasn’t played an international match in any format since their last victory over Pakistan in September 2013. Proposed tours by Sri Lanka and Afghanistan had been canceled over the ongoing money problems.

Zimbabwe also recently turned down an offer to play a one-off test against South Africa. For the promotion of the game, many fans feel that ICC should also take steps to tackle the situation permanently. Hopefully things will improve for the better now!