With the effect of the pay dispute between Zimbabwe Cricket Board and its players, Zimbabwe picked a severely weakened squad for the triangular T20 International series against Pakistan and Australia, starting from 1 July at Harare Sports Club.

Zimbabwe has announced a 22-man training squad on Tuesday (20 June) and it is clear that many players in that squad could also pull out if ZC fails to pay the salary by their June 25 deadline.

The Board also confirmed that their top players including Graeme Cremer, Brendan Taylor, Sikandar Raza, Craig Ervine and Sean Williams will not be playing the home Tri-series until they fulfill their financial commitments, as they did not even attend the training at Harare as well. 

Zimbabwe cricketers have been deprived of their salary for a number of months now while the national players have still not been paid match fees from their Sri Lanka tour last July, though ZC recently affirmed that salaries would be paid by June 25. However, it isn’t possible that the entire squad will pull out, which means that Zimbabwe will play the Tri  Series with a depleted squad.

As per reports in Cricbuzz, a source said, “It's the same old story, no one knows what's going on and it seems it's every man for himself. No one really spoke about it this week (during the warm-ups) and guys are not interested in talking about it. You know how it is, guys get their arms twisted behind the scenes and get scared. Hopefully, it all works out; we'll know in a few days what is happening I guess.”

Here is the Zimbabwe squad:

Cephas Zhuwao, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Tarisai Musakanda, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, Elton Chigumbura, Malcolm Waller, Brian Chari, Peter Moor, Donald Tiripano, Wellington Masakadza, Tendai Chisoro, Blessing Muzarabani, Ryan Murray, Kyle Jarvis, Chris Mpofu, Prince Masvaure, John Nyumbu, Ryan Burl, Brandon Mavuta, Rugare Magarira