Sikandar Raza Speechless As ICC Bars Zimbabwe From T20 World Cup Qualifiers

Zimbabwe cricket Sikandar Raza was utterly shocked as ICC dealt another blow to the African country. Last month, the governing body of the game had suspended Zimbabwe Cricket on grounds of government interference. In addition, the ICC also froze the funding to Zimbabwe. Consequently, the ICC barred representative teams from Zimbabwe to participate in any ICC events while under suspension.

Later, the Zimbabwe players said they are willing to play “for free” to keep the game alive in the country. However, the ICC, on Tuesday, replaced Zimbabwe with Nigeria in the World T20 qualifiers for men. In the women’s tournament, Namibia replaced Zimbabwe. Nigeria will take the 14th and final spot when the event gets underway in the UAE in October.

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Nigeria will join hosts UAE, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jersey, Kenya, Namibia, Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Singapore and two teams from the Americas Final due to be held later this month. Nigeria came third in the Africa Men’s Final and as such become the third African team in the global qualifier along with Kenya and Namibia, again retaining the regional representation for the event.

Shocked with yet another big blow, Sikandar Raza could not resist taking a dig at ICC as he said the decision has made him speechless. Calling himself unemployed, frustrated, he tweeted:

” Just speechless at this decision by  @ICC. So if  @ICC have anymore surprises for us please don’t be shy, just get them ALL out now so that we can plan our unemployed lives a bit better. Regards An unemployed ,frustrated and out of opportunities Cricketer”

Just speechless at this decision by @ICC
So if @ICC have anymore surprises for us please don't be shy, just get them ALL out now so that we can plan our unemployed lives a bit better.

Regards

An unemployed ,frustrated and out of opportunities Cricketer pic.twitter.com/SHdMVbdecu

— Sikandar Raza (@SRazaB24) August 6, 2019

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe are to host Afghanistan in August and the West Indies in October and November before travelling to India for a three-match T20 series in January 2020. Those tours are also in doubts due to the poor financial conditions.