India's Zimbabwe tour may be postponed to next year

Harare, June 21 (IANS) India's upcoming tour to Zimbabwe could be postponed to next year if the ongoing issues between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the series broadcaster Ten Sports are not resolved, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) said on Sunday. India is scheduled to tour Zimbabwe from July 7, for three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and two Twenty20 International matches.

There have been reports that an issue over Zimbabwe Cricket's broadcasting partner is threatening the forthcoming tour. ZC said in a release that it is in constant contact with both the BCCI and Ten Sports over the issues, which should be resolved before the tour.

"If the matters take too long to resolve, ZC and the BCCI might mutually agree to push the tour to next year," Wilson Manase, ZC chairman, said.

Manase and ZC chief executive officer Wilfred Mukondiwa would be discussing these issues with their BCCI counterparts on the sidelines of the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) annual conference, to be held in Bridgetown, Barbados, from Monday to Friday of this month.

Manase also said that reports of the BCCI's difficulty in get visas on arrival for its players are unfounded because ZC are yet to approach the immigration officials for the tour as the two boards are yet to finalise the tour memorandum of understanding.

“Cricket is a national sport and ZC enjoys a cordial relationship with all relevant government offices so the acquisition of visas is not an issue. The substantive issues are what we will discuss in Barbados," said Manase.