Ramiz Raja is wrong. Only more Tests can help Zimbabwe improve their game

Comments made by former Pakistan opener and now a renowned commentator Ramiz Raja over Pakistan’s complete annihilation of Zimbabwe in a two-match long series has sparked a new debate on social media. Whether big teams should play Test matches against lower-ranked teams such as Zimbabwe is being discussed profusely. 

Organising such ‘one-sided Test matches will compel people to watch football or other sports over cricket due to lack of competitiveness between two sides, argued Rameez. He also rebuffed the argument that weaker teams will improve by playing against stronger teams, saying that the Zimbabweans did not improve their performance one bit from the first Test of the series.

Raja’s point echoed among many other social media users who went on to say that Zimbabwe should not play Test cricket at all. To this Jarrod Kimber, one of the most followed non-cricketer cricket writers critiqued that teams such as New Zealand, which appears to be one of the best Test team in terms of performances, took 30 long years to taste their first win. However, their journey was not curtailed and their improvement can be established with them reaching the finals of the first World Test Championship.

To be fair to Raja though, Zimbabwe were really not up to the mark to challenge Pakistan even for an hour of play. 

But, the larger question should not be reduced to whether Pakistan or any other team should play Zimbabwe or Ireland. It should have been centred around what the cricketing world has done for Zimbabwe when their own society and repetitive governments failed to let them breathe fresh air?

On the point of whether playing regularly against better teams would improve their qualities or not, can Raja be confident that Babar Azam become a world-beater batsman by just hammering around the bowlers from Zimbabwe and Ireland? 

The answer to that question is clearly no. Raja would do well to go not so far back in time and see how Pakistan fared on the tour of Australia. A player of the quality of Babar Azam was being found out in the first half of the Test series. There were questions marks about his credentials in the longest format before he proved his mastery with the bat when offered an opportunity to bat higher up the order. 

He would do well to go back and listen to what Ricky Ponting said of the Pakistan bowling attack as well. It would be a tough pill to swallow for Raja as Ponting had said that the Pakistan bowling attack that was playing down under in that series was probably the worst one to have toured down under in a ‘long time.’

Should the ICC or Australia have stopped playing cricket, at least against Pakistan and especially in Australia? Needless to say, Pakistan would dominate the home series on their home pitches or in the UAE.

The point of killing competitiveness in Test cricket also appears hollow as great teams such as England, India and Australia have been trounced inside two days on many occasions in the last few years as well. 

Zimbabwe’s problem is structural and unlike Ireland where the cricketing system can be separated from the problems and complexity of the society, the impact of government and its policies become heavy on the health of the game in Zimbabwe.

To prevent the fake ‘quality of Test cricket’ by cancelling or avoiding these one-side matches will be an embarrassment for the game of cricket that wants to achieve global status. Rather than calling off these matches, the International Cricket Council should take the obligation to help these struggling nations such as Zimbabwe and upcoming ones such as Ireland and Afghanistan. It should also put the onus on ‘The Big Three’—India, Australia, and England to increase their involvement in the game with these nations that will work in favour of the overall wellbeing of the game and will propel the grand old bat and ball stop to finally achieve the status a global sport.

India have not played a series against Zimbabwe since 2016 while a Test series between the sides dates way back to 2005. Australia last hosted Zimbabwe in 2003 for a Test series while England too hosted the Chevrons way back in 2003 only. 

Yes, Zimbabwe have not been lucky enough to produce players such as Rashid Khan, Mohammed Nabi or Sandeep Lamichhane who can steer their sides on their own but the ICC and the big daddies of the game can’t be abdicated from the larger responsibilities of allowing and helping the game grow beyond its existing limits. 

On the contrary, these heavyweights have consolidated their power and control over the ICC in such a manner that it is shrinking the game itself other than in their own backyards, let alone helping it to flourish.