The 2018 Zimbabwe Tri-Nation Series was a cricket tournament held from 1 to 8 July 2018 in Zimbabwe.[4] It was a tri-nation series between Australia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, with all the matches played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) at the Harare Sports Club.[5][6] In the fourth T20I, Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by seven wickets, therefore Australia and Pakistan qualified for the final.[7] Pakistan defeated Australia in the final by six wickets to win the series.[8]
Originally, the tour was just going to feature Australia and Zimbabwe, with the two teams playing two Tests and three One Day Internationals (ODIs).[9][10] In June 2018, the Zimbabwe team threatened to boycott the tour in a dispute over outstanding money that had not been paid to players.[11]Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) paid one of the three months' worth of outstanding salaries, with the players giving ZC the deadline of 25 June 2018 to pay the rest, or face a boycott.[12] However, despite not being paid, the players are likely to call off the protest and play in the series,[13] but the demand for the outstanding salaries payment deadline remains in place.[14] Zimbabwe Cricket assured players that all the outstanding salaries would be paid by 25 July 2018, one month after the players' deadline.[15] A few days later, Zimbabwe Cricket named a 22-man preliminary squad for the series, which was trimmed down to a final seventeen players.[16][17] Zimbabwe did not initially name a captain, after Graeme Cremer was sacked following the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament.[17] A day before the first match, Hamilton Masakadza was named as Zimbabwe's captain.[18]
