Defeat at the hands of the UAE last week effectively eliminated Zimbabwe from the World Cup Qualifier on home shores, with West Indies and Afghanistan progressing to next year's finals, which will be held in England and Wales
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The chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket has apologised to the nation for his country's failure to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
Defeat at the hands of the UAE last week effectively eliminated Zimbabwe from the World Cup Qualifier on home shores, with West Indies and Afghanistan progressing to next year's finals, which will be held in England and Wales.
With only two qualification spaces available after the ICC chose to limit the tournament to 10 teams, much to the frustration of the Associate world, Zimbabwe finished third.
“This is not what we expected, it’s disappointing and of course as the chairman of the board, on behalf of the board, we want to express our apologies to the nation," Tavengwa Mukuhlani was quoted as saying by the Zimbabwe Daily.
"I believe that I speak on behalf of Zimbabweans that the UAE match was literally a foregone conclusion"
"We are extremely sorry for the outcome, that’s not what the nation expected. The nation expected better results from the team as they always do and we are extremely sorry for the result that came out on Thursday."
Defeat against the UAE came as a surprise to Mukuhlani, who said he thought the match "was literally a foregone conclusion".
"I believe that I speak on behalf of Zimbabweans that the UAE match was literally a foregone conclusion and that was the only match we needed to be in England in 2019," he said.
"We have done everything possible, we gave them two full tours ahead of the qualifiers and the Government has given all the support possible to have this event held in Zimbabwe.
"The fans were amazing in Bulawayo, on Thursday the ground had close if not more than 15,000 people. I am not too sure what else we could have done better to help our team qualify."