A dazzling gust of wind swept across Grace Road on Thursday, and despite the sparse crowds, there was enough stardust to keep the signature hunter happy. Andrew Flintoff sat on the gazebo balcony while Mark Wood tried the coach's hand during the latest injury layoffs and smiled on the edge of the border.
In the middle, Mike Atherton's son Josh de Caires also had the run, as he gathered 79 fluent 79 goals from 93 balls on a green court. De Caires, a player at Modern Mold, drew his own route, but some of the old men's behavior was seen there. Kindly, the lower back doesn't seem so squeaky.
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But more worth mentioning than the professional county club Select XI is the fresh rookie team led by Flintoff-directed De Caires and attendees with member Luke Wright - is the identity of the opponent. Zimbabwe arrived at a four-day Test match with England, which will be held next Thursday at Trent Bridge, where they made their debut for 22 years on those coasts.
Peroxide lit up in his hair since a series that mainly remembers Jimmy Anderson, and he burst into five wickets during Lord's debut. The tour has largely gone the Nokia 3310 (a phone that was essential at the time, kids) and Zimbabwe slipped from the Feisty Overachievers, a quality-rich team that moved to informal second-level test cricket.
Indeed, Zimbabwe played around South Africa after next week’s Test (the warm-up before India’s five visits) in a four-day match in Arundel. The third and final match of the tour is to prepare for the Protyan ahead of the World Test Championship final against Australia next month – Zimbabwe is currently excluded against Afghanistan and Ireland.
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Still, it was truncated - a far cry from the 2003 cry, when they took two tests and joined South Africa in ODI's three-game winning streak - the tour was a welcome development. First, the England and Wales Cricket Council also paid travel fees to tourists in lieu of mutually beneficial trips that did not participate in future travel plans.
This obvious kindness is partly driven by the broadcast agreement between England and Wales Cricket Council and the Sky, which is the basis for six Test matches per season. In the years that bring India or Australia into the usual five-game series, an early opponent is still needed. Ireland fulfilled the role before the Ashes of 2023, and now it's Zimbabwe's turn.
But while the relationship between the ECB and Zimbabwe cricket has not been melted a lot in the near future, the green light is not coming from the British government, but it won't happen. During the dark period of Robert Mugabe's brutal regime, and a period of Zimbabwe cricket, corruption was said to be a prevalent period, and relative stability had restored the country.
Zimbabwe will be tricky in Nottingham next week, with their test cricket diet so thin in recent years. There are only 108 hats in their 15-man lineup (by comparison, Joe Root adds 152 by himself). It's not doing well as the county's kids opened 330 in 72 games, including the half-century of the ending Sebastian Morgan and Jafer Chohan.
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Similarly, last month, the 1-1 win in Bangladesh was a 1-1 victory, the first victory in Zimbabwe in seven years, and there are some promising players in their squad. Blessing Muzarabani is a towering 6-foot-6-inch fast speed claiming to have nine wickets in Sylhet, and he might have some problems for England on the right surface - like New Zealand's same giant Will O'Rourke did on their last outing.
Muzarabani also crossed out De Caires with a sharp childbirth, as well as Pakistan-born all-around Sikandar Raza, a former world-class performer in the white ball format.
Experience comes from Sean Williams and Captain Craig Ervine, 39, while Gary Ballance, who retired after a brief return to the country where he was born, shared local knowledge as a batting consultant.
This short tour may warm up the opponent on the main side, but for Zimbabwe, the sun has broken through for twenty years in the cold.