Waller says Zim wage issue likely to affect team's performance in Pak Tests

Zimbabwe's new coach Andy Waller has said that the player pay issue faced by the nation's cricket team will be a major distraction ahead of the opening Test against Pakistan in Harare, even if it is solved at the last moment.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Waller expressed that there was no doubt that the issue was still on the players' minds.

After threatening to go on strike before the tour over match fees and then refusing to train on the eve of Saturday's third one-day international because of unpaid monthly salaries, Zimbabwe's players have now given their national body time until Monday to make the outstanding payments, the report said.

Zimbabwe is only two years on from its return to Tests after a self-imposed six-year exile because of the country's failed cricket structure, but the problems that forced it to give up Tests in 2005 already are back, the report added.