D'Arcy Waldegrave: The Zimbabwe series isn't helping anyone

4 thousand for 3.    Okay, that’s a little over the top, but it represents the chasm between Zimbabwe’s test cricket team and the rest.   Overnight the Black Caps turned the screws on the hopelessly out classed Africans, piling on the runs at Bulawayo, at stumps NZ had extended their lead to 476, amassing 603 for the loss of 3. Centuries for Conway, Nicholls, and Ravindra, with the latter two still at the crease, represents a sound flogging after only two days of cricket.    If this was softball, the mercy law would’ve sent them all home.   The oft used phrase in circumstances such as this is ‘you can only play who’s been put in front of you’, which is accurate but wholly depressing when this game has been given faux test status. This should never have been the case. This should have been part of a New Zealand A tour, which it essentially is when the lineup is taken into account. The Black Caps are without a number of their go to first XI yet are still poleaxing the opposition.   The match is not part of the World Test Championship which further erodes any import the game thought it had.   We all understand that Zimbabwe cricket needs to be nursed along, but is this exchange benefitting them or merely serving as a reminder of how poor Zimbabwe cricket is?    This series isn’t helping anyone. The fresh Black Caps aren’t being exposed to any clear and present threats, the older and returning players inflating their averages, essentially masking the efficacy of their input. It may pump up their tires but with little test cricket on the horizon, is there a point to it?    This series should never have been afforded test status.    Still, it’s cricket in whites, so I’ll watch it. Tragic.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.