THE Zimbabwe Cricket management has been forced to revise the T20 competition for the 2017-18 season from being a tournament to a league due to the unavailability of several key players.

The decision to change the T20 competition from a tournament to a league came about as ZC will be having more than 10 players committed to the Shpageeza T20 Cricket League in Afghanistan.

“We are now playing it as a league,” ZC Head Cricket Affairs, Givemore Makoni, told Sportszone.

“The main reason being that we are missing a lot of our core players who are playing in Afghanistan. For you to play a tournament you need to be having your high profile players.”

ZC’s T20 was set to commence on September 15 in Bulawayo but the clash of events was inevitable with the Shpageeza T20 running on rescheduled dates from September 11-22 in Kabul.

Initially, the Shpageeza T20 was due to be played in July but was postponed to September –a situation that put ZC in a dilemma as the local board had already issued No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to the players auctioned.

“We have already given NOCs to the players. We had issued those NOCs earlier because that tournament was supposed to have been played in July so when it was moved to September we had already done so.”

A glance at Shpageeza T20 transfers shows that four players in Hamilton Masakadza, Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza Butt and Solomon Mire are already signed by AMO Sharks, Speenghar Tigers, Mis E-Ainak knights and Kabul Eagles respectively.

H-Metro understands that other Zimbabwean players were later got auctioned and the list has Richmond Mutumbami, Elton Chigumbura, Ryan Burl, Richard Ngarava, Tendai Chisoro, Peter Moor and Vusi Sibanda.

Having the ZC T20 operating as a league means that it will be spread throughout the season and fixtured alongside the Logan Cup and the Pro50 Championship.

@peeslattsB3N