Ireland's Zimbabwe tour confirmed

Ireland's trip to Zimbabwe has been confirmed, and in addition to the
Intercontinental Cup match against Zimbabwe XI, three one-day internationals
between the senior national teams have been arranged. All of the games will
take place in Harare, with the four-day fixture starting on Monday September
20. The ODIs follow on September 26, 27 and 30.

Zimbabwe withdrew from Test cricket in 2006 and were subsequently admitted
to the Intercontinental Cup on the understanding that Zimbabwe XI's four
home games would be played at neutral venues. But along with the relative
political stability in the country, Zimbabwe Cricket has worked hard to
improve its structures after divisive squabbling between players and
administrators had wrecked cricket in the country.

There had been some speculation as to whether Ireland would make the trip at
all, and for a time there had been a possibility that the Intercontinental
Cup fixture would take place in South Africa. But both Kenya and Afghanistan
recently played their Intercontinental Cup matches in the country, and
Zimbabwe also hosted Sri Lanka and India in a one-day tri-series in June
this year, so the pressure on Ireland to make the trip was always going to
be immense. Now that their tour has been confirmed, it is almost certain
that Scotland - who are scheduled to play Zimbabwe XI in the middle of
October - will also make the trip.

Zimbabwe XI are currently in third place behind Afghanistan and Scotland in
the Intercontinental Cup having drawn against Afghanistan and beaten Kenya,
Netherlands and Canada. Ireland are fifth on the points table after draws
against Scotland and Kenya and a loss to Afghanistan at Dambulla.