Cairns slams Zimbabwe cricket as 'dreadful'

Chris Cairns

New Zealand cricket's elder statesman Chris Cairns has wasted little time in slamming Zimbabwe's test series performance as "dreadful".

Barely off the plane in Bulawayo in time for next week's tri-series against Zimbabwe and India, New Zealand's premier allrounder gave a blunt assessment of the hosts' performance in the past fortnight.

"There's no point in trying to up-play the Zimbabwean effort. I thought they were dreadful to be honest," Cairns told Radio Sport today.

"I thought their application was non-existent and I'm not quite sure what sort of state they're in."

New Zealand won both tests in Harare and Bulawayo by an innings in less than five combined days of playing time.

Zimbabwe Cricket reacted by sacking their coach, former West Indies test batsman Phil Simmons, and replacing him with former Zimbabwe international Kevin Curran.

Cairns was certain Zimbabwe wouldn't be stripped of test status despite their obvious shortcomings.

"The political side of things will mean that they'll retain their test status, I believe.

"It's difficult to argue against that because you want the game to live in all corners of the world.

"But when you're getting performances like this, it sort of devalues it a little bit."

Cairns, 35, retired from test cricket after last year's tour of England with 3320 runs and 218 wickets to his name from 62 matches.

He has carried on in the one-day game and will play his 204th match if selected for the series opener against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Wednesday.

Cairns had his first training today along with fellow one-day squad arrivals Andre Adams, Craig McMillan and uncapped Wellington offspinner Jeetan Patel.

- NZPA