England will live to regret costly boycott, says Streak
Tuesday, March 4 2003 20:47 Hrs (IST)

Bulawayo: Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak celebrated his team's passage into the Super Sixes on Tuesday and then said England will live to regret carrying out its costly boycott of Harare.

"Whatever England decided to do was out of our control, just like the weather today was out of our control," said the skipper after the game with Pakistan was abandoned giving them the two points needed to qualify.

"We would rather have played against England and who knows which of us might have won. But it will be looking back on events and it'll be thinking about it.

"It must have been quite exasperating for teams like it to have to sit and watch and wait to see what was happening in other games."

Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) chief executive Vincent Hogg took the opportunity to further condemn England who forfeited the four points rather than play the Harare match on February 13 on security grounds.

"All the other five games were played here under safe conditions," said Hogg. We are naturally delighted to be going through. It might have been different, but it wasn't."

Streak, meanwhile, said his team would not be outclassed when it begins its Super Six campaign. "All of the guys are elated to have got to the Super Sixes," said Streak.

"It's so special because everyone has worked so hard and now we have got three big games coming up. We challenged the Australians really closely when they played here so we are hopeful that we can prove to everyone that we deserve to be there."

Pakistan, which needed a big winning margin if it was progress to the Super Sixes it self, was 73 for three when play was abandoned here leaving Zimbabwe to look ahead to the start of its second round campaign on Saturday against New Zealand in Bloemfontein.

Copyright AFP 2001

Extras:
We’ll prove that we deserve to be there, says Streak
Hussain resigns as Eng ODI captain following WC exit