Johannesburg – The curtain raiser of the much-anticipated Zim Afro T10 was brought to a halt on Thursday due to delayed installation of floodlights at the Harare Sports Club.
The Zim Afro T10 is set to be one of Africa’s hopes at a better future in the sport of cricket, but the competition was brought to a standstill on Thursday evening due to the floodlights at the Harare Sports Club not being ready.
The Bulawayo Braves and the Harare Hurricanes were set to blaze a trail in what is to be the Southern Africa’s newest and hottest cricket tournament, but the match was instead postponed to Friday.
The installation of the floodlights threaten all night-games of the tournament and might result in a drastic change in the schedule of the competition should the incident re-appear.
All this is happening just after Zimbabwe successfully hosted the ICC Men’s World Cup Qualifiers a few weeks ago, when Zimbabwe narrowly missed out on an opportunity to book a spot in this year’s 50-Over World Cup.
It is also important to note that despite Zimbabwe successfully hosting the Qualifier tournament, there was also no DRS system up until the Super Six stages of the tournament, a feature that has become a massive part of the sport and often a definitive aspect of the game at international level.
The T10 competition is on the African shores for the first time since T10 cricket was created, and is the only competition that binds South Africa and Zimbabwe together.
In the competition, South Africa has three teams in the Joburg Buffaloes, Cape Town Samp Army and the Durban Qalandars, while Zimbabwe has two teams.
The inaugural season is only scheduled to take place in Zimbabwe while year two of the competition will be staged in both countries.
Leading up to the start of the tournament, the T10 management promised to unearth five emerging players through their country-wide talent-search in Zimbabwe and they have kept their promise.
Tanunurwa Makoni (Bulawayo Braves), Johnathan Campbell (Cape Town Samp Army), Owen Muzondo (Durban Qalandars), Tinotenda Maposa (Harare Hurricanes) and Matthew Campbell (Joburg Buffaloes) have all been given an opportunity of a lifetime to showcase their skills in the T10.
IOL Sport