The futility of playing in Zimbabwe

In a couple of days India’s sojourn to Zimbabwe begins. A tri-nation cricket series is being played where the 3rd team is from Sri Lanka. I thought that if we played Sri Lanka any more, we might as well include them in the Ranji and other domestic series, so often have we played them in the last few years.

Zimbabwe India

India and Sri Lanka have sent their 2nd string teams, with several key players missing. While India’s being led by Suresh Raina, who is yet to ascertain his place in the team, Sri Lanka is being led by T. Dilshan. Agreed that Zimbabwe has some players capable of performing magic on their day especially against depleted squads, why go and play there?

This series is not going to do much for India’s ranking in world cricket, neither is it going to give match practice to our players. Even if a player does tremendously well in the series he’s going to be dubbed as a minnow beater. If team-India was serious about this series than surely the best team would have been sent to play, but they are not. Then why not have a ‘A’ series?

If it is to gauge a player’s form, then why haven’t players like Yuvraj, Ishant, Munaf and R.P. Singh been selected and sent for the tourney, for these players have shown a dip in form and confidence in the recent past. The reason is there for all to fathom, it’s the money that drives the honey. I’ll ignore this series for far interesting world of Ivanovics, Sharapovas, Nadals and Federers :D.