HARARE: Zimbabwe Cricket has temporarily brought all cricket activities in the country to a standstill, in the wake of new lockdown restrictions announced by the government due to a rise in Covid-19 cases. In fact, all sporting activity in Zimbabwe has been temporarily suspended, according to a statement from the sports and recreation commission. “This is a very challenging situation, but ZC’s aim is to reschedule all the affected events and fixtures –– including the elite men’s domestic T20 competition which was scheduled to begin this Monday –– for them to be played as soon as it is deemed safe to do so,” ZC said in a statement. The Zimbabwe cricket team recently toured Pakistan in November 2020 for a six-match limited-overs series, but they haven’t played an international at home since the pandemic hit. They were scheduled to host Afghanistan in August last year, but that series was called off. India, too, were scheduled to visit Zimbabwe in August for three ODIs, but that series was eventually cancelled as well. Last year, Brendan Taylor, Zimbabwe’s senior batsman, spoke of how the pandemic had hit the national side hard. “Personally, this break is not doing us any favours,” Taylor had told the Zimbabwean weekly The Standard. “I feel we are a team that needs to be playing more often; we’ve always been starved of cricket. This year we had a full schedule of international cricket, but that’s now been jeopardised by this pandemic. So it’s extremely frustrating and hurtful times.”