Logan Cup dates announced

Zimbabwe Cricket has announced that the Logan Cup, the country's first-class competition, will take place between March 12 and April 25.

The first round of matches are scheduled to start next Wednesday with defending champions Easterns being hosted by Southerns in Masvingo, and Northerns clashing with Westerns in Bulawayo. Queens Sports Club will be the venue for the latter due to the suspension of Harare Sports Club groundsmen after they left the wicket exposed to rain during a recent MTN domestic championship match.

The 2008 season Logan Cup was shrouded in uncertainty following the unexplained postponement of the Faithwear Cup, the domestic limited-overs tournament, as well as the Twenty20 competition.

With a thin pool of decent first-class cricketers and faced with plummeting domestic standards, Zimbabwe Cricket has been unwilling to go ahead with first tier provincial tournaments in the absence of 20 or so national and A-side players who have been engaged in South African domestic competitions.

But yesterday's results in the MTN Championship meant that Zimbabwe had no chance of making the semi-finals, and that Sunday's match would be their last. That freed the squad to rejoin their provinces in time for the start of the Logan Cup.