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Zimbabwe lost their test status because of the corruption issues within the cricket board, and not due to the weak performance of the Zimbabwean test team. You can argue that Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan are weak teams but I am going to disagree. At least Afghanistan deserves a chance to progress to the top division. They have proved that they can compete against the big-3 nations on a regular basis. I would argue that Afghanistan is as good as any of the lower ranking first division teams, such as West Indies and Sri Lanka.
During 2004 all the senior players retired from the team because of political reasons but the ban stemmed from the fact that they were not able to pick competing players in the playing eleven and their Test status was removed not because of direct political reason but their ability to perform against top teams and the political reason was just a part on the overall picture. Afghanistan have some really world class players but they still need to have some solid batsman to compete against top opponents.So the first Test starts today but the rains are spoiling the day and surprising to me Stuart Broad is not in the team.
once upon a time Zimbabwe was a very good team. can you remember when legendary players like Elton Chigumbura, Chakabva, Hamilton Masakadza, Mpofu and Brendan Taylor’s were on the Zimbabwe team. they are Zimbabwean legendary players. when they started to retire one by one, Zimbabwe’s bad times keep coming. I think their team is in bad situation because of their internal quarrel. now they need a good coach and obviously they need a good cricket board. IMO, their legendary players like Masakadza or Taylor may help them. if they do not try to change their destiny now, they will soon be extinct. best wishes for their future match.