Zimbabwean Cricket Team is the national team of the African country of Zimbabwe which represents the nation in international cricket. It is administered by Zimbabwe Cricket (formerly known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union or ZCU) and is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test and One Day International status.
Harare Sports Club in Harare is one of the premier grounds of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is ranked tenth in Tests, eleventh in ODIs and twelfth in Twenty20 Internationals according to ICC rankings. However, One thing which should be noted is that, Zimbabwean Cricket was once not such a poor cricket playing team. During 1990’s they were one of the strongest sides in the world. The time period from 1997 to 2002 is referred to as ‘The Golden Era’ of Zimbabwean Cricket’.
Neil Johnson celebrating with his team mates after taking a wicket
In spite of his team's difficulties, Andy Flower was at one point rated the best batsman in world cricket. During this era, Zimbabwe also produced suchcricketers as Flower's brother Grant, and allrounders Andy Blignaut and Heath Streak (who was later appointed national captain). Murray Goodwinwas also a world-class batsman following his retirement from international cricket, he has scored heavily for Sussex. Another world-class batsman was David Houghton, who holds the record for the highest individual Test score for Zimbabwe of 266 against Sri Lanka in 1994/95. Sometime captain and middle order batsman Alistair Campbell, leg-spinning all rounder Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, and pace bowler/opener Neil Johnson were other important contributors for Zimbabwe on the world stage at this time.
Alastair Campbell hitting a shot. In July 2009, Alistair was re-inducted into Zimbabwe cricket after being selected Chairman of their Cricket Committee, a major step in the revival of the sport in the nation. He is also the chief selector of the Zimbabwean national cricket team.
With the appearance of these quality players, a breakthrough was achieved in levels of performance in the late 1990s where the Zimbabwean team began winning Tests against other nations, which included a series win against Pakistan. Unfortunately, the political situation in Zimbabwe declined at around the same time, which had a detrimental effect on the national team's performances.
Zimbabwe excelled at the 1999 Cricket World Cup, coming in fifth place in the Super Sixes and only missing out on a semi-final place due to having an inferior net run-rate than New Zealand. In the group stage, Zimbabwe beat India by three runs,before facing their neighbours South Africa, then the best team in the world. Batting first, Zimbabwe made 233 for 6, with a well-fought 76 by opening batsman Neil Johnson. In reply, South Africa collapsed to 40 for 6, before Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock scored half-centuries to reduce the margin of defeat to 48 runs. This was South Africa's first defeat against Zimbabwe and one of Zimbabwe's most famous wins. Neil Johnson also excelled with the ball, taking three wickets and claiming the Man of the Match award. Johnson quit playing for Zimbabwe after this tournament.
Neil Johson scored a magnificent hundred against Australia in the 1999 World Cup. He contributed in 1999 WC for Zimbabwe with both bat and ball.
During this period, Zimbabwe beat all Test-playing nations (except Australia) regularly. Zimbabwe beat New Zealand both home and away in 2000-2001. The team also reached finals of many multi-national one day tournaments.
But, the decline in Zimbabwean Cricket started from 2003 and continued till 2011. This period is also referred to as ‘The Zimbabwean Crisis’ where player withdrawals such as the "Black-armband protest" by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga along with a mass loss of players in 2004 due to a general strike resulted in very poor performances by the national team. Many people allege that the administration of cricket in Zimbabwe is corrupted by the influence of Robert Mugabe's government, who are widely accused of following racist, in particular anti-white, policies.
This all fuss started in 2001 when there had already been a reduction in government funding for the sport's development. The players alleged that selection of the national team was subject to interference and particularly resented the imposition of a quota system to ensure a minimum number of black players would be included. The players argued that the black players were gradually emerging, as in South Africa, and that they would increase in due course. For example, Hamilton Masakadza had already made his mark as a batsman, and Mluleki Nkala and Henry Olonga were marking their mark as bowlers.
Henry Olonga
The matter came to prominence before the 2003 World Cup, when both the British prime minister Tony Blair and the Australian prime minister John Howard said they would prefer it if their teams did not travel to Zimbabwe, but did not ban them from doing so. In the event, only England refused to travel to Harare to play Zimbabwe as they considered it morally wrong to do so, thereby forfeiting the match. In Zimbabwe's first match, two players, one white, one black (Andy Flower and Henry Olonga) wore black armbands in protest against "the death of democracy in Zimbabwe". Both players subsequently retired and emigrated from Zimbabwe, under intense political pressure, with Olonga being denounced as not really Zimbabwean as he was born in Zambia.
In 2004, the Zimbabwe Cricket Union sacked their white captain Heath Streak after he had confronted them with the team's grievances, several other players having also resigned by this time. Streak was replaced by the young and untested Tatenda Taibu. Fifteen senior players were involved in a stand-off over this and other selection issues, resulting in their dismissal from Zimbabwean cricket. Following poor performances by a second-string (and almost all black) Zimbabwe team against Sri Lanka, the ZCU and ICC agreed that Zimbabwe would play no Test cricket in 2004, and this self-imposed suspension remained in force from 10 June 2004 to 6 January 2005.
In their first match after the suspension, Zimbabwe lost to Bangladesh at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong by 226 runs. The second and final match in the series was drawn. Bangladesh had until then been generally considered the weakest team in Test cricket, and by beating Zimbabwe, recorded its first ever Test match and series victories. Bangladesh then defeated Zimbabwe in a limited overs series.
Brendon Taylor playing Against Bangladesh at MA Aziz Cricket Stadium
In February and March 2005, Zimbabwe toured South Africa to play three ODIs and two Tests. Zimbabwe was completely and hopelessly outclassed, and Wisden 2006 described the tour as "gruesome" and "embarrassing to all who saw it".
Meanwhile, in domestic cricket, the Logan Cup had been played, with just four participants, and had been won as usual by Mashonaland. But it is debatable if the competition should have retained first-class status and there were grave doubts about its future.
In August 2005, the New Zealand cricket team arrived in Zimbabwe to play two Test matches and duly won both by an innings with embarrassing ease. The tour was inevitably preceded by controversy because of strong feeling in New Zealand about Mugabe. As with the previous England and Australia situations, the New Zealand government advised the team not to go but did not actually bar them from doing so. Since the ICC would not accept any other reason for non-attendance, the New Zealand players turned up and won easily. However, the NZ government did have some fight in them because they effectively banned a return tour by refusing to issue visas to the Zimbabwean party.
During the New Zealand series, Zimbabwe Cricket fired national coach Phil Simmons. The players signed a petition to denounce the decision and Simmons took ZC to court while they tried to have him deported.
Phil Simmons, the then coach of Zimbabwe
In September 2005, the visitors were India like New Zealand, India was not barred from going to Zimbabwe and decided to go to avert ICC sanctions. In India's case, controversy erupted within its own team on account of arguments between team captain Sourav Ganguly and the new coach Greg Chappell. This row diverted the sport's attention from Zimbabwe and shifted the focus onto India. Despite its problems, the Indian team won both matches easily against sub-standard opposition.
There had been a brief reconciliation with some of the rebel players, Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut having played in some of the 2005 Tests, but then the Simmons affair sparked a wider mutiny under Taibu's leadership. InOctober 2005, Streak announced his retirement from international cricket and indicated that he would concentrate on a county career with Warwickshire CCC in England. In November 2005, Taibu resigned as captain. He stated that: "If we don't do anything, cricket in Zimbabwe will die within a year". Taibu is now playing as an overseas player for Namibia in South African provincial competition.
However, presently, the condition of Zimbabwean Cricket has improved a lot.This was because of the constructive measures taken by Zimbabwean Cricket Board.Zimbabwe Cricket announced major upgrades to the Harare Sports Club and Mutare Sports Club grounds. Plans for a new Test ground at Victoria Falls were also revealed. ZC also signed a US$1 million deal with Reebok to sponsor the domestic competitions and manufacture the kits of the national team for three years.They made Brendon Taylor their captain who was one of the best batsman of the world at that time.
Brendon Taylor, the then captain of Zimbabwean Cricket Team after scoring a century
Anti-white polices were gradually curbed out and in 2013, Zimbabweremoved it’s self imposed test ban on 2013 and started to regularly play in ODI’s and Tests. Several nations like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka ,Bangladesh and South Africa have toured Zimbabwe and conditions are expected to improve under the captaincy of Graeme Cremer and coaching of Heath Streak. Let’s hope that this once upon a time good cricketing nation is restored to it’s earlier place.
India toured Zimbabwe in 2016 and Ajinkya Rahane was the captain of India in that series.
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