The Zimbabwean cricket team is the team that represents Zimbabwe in international cricket. It is administered by Zimbabwe Cricket (formerly known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union or ZCU). Zimbabwe is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test and One Day International status.
History
Before Test status
Old logo of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union
Main article: History of cricket in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe to 1992
Main article: Rhodesia cricket team
In common with all the other full members of the ICC, Zimbabwe - known as Rhodesia until independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 - had a national cricket team before it achieved Test status.
A brief summary of key moments:
Rhodesia was represented in the South African domestic cricket tournament, the Currie Cup, sporadically from 1904 to 1932, and then regularly from 1946 until independence.
Following independence, the country began to play more international cricket.
On 21 July 1981, Zimbabwe became an associate member of the ICC.
Zimbabwe participated in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, as well as the 1987 and 1992 events.[1]
Zimbabwe's first World Cup campaign in 1983 ended in the group stage, as they lost five of their six matches. However, they threw a surprise against Australia. Batting first, Zimbabwe reached a total of 239-6 in the allotted 60 overs, with skipper Duncan Fletcher top-scoring with 69 not out. Fletcher then produced career-best figures of 4-42 to restrict Australia to 226-7, thereby recording a stunning
1997–2002: The golden era
In spite of his team's difficulties, wicket-keeper/batsman Andy Flower was at one point rated the best batsman in world cricket. During this era, Zimbabwe also produced such cricketers as Flower's brother Grant, and allrounders Andy Blignaut and Heath Streak (who was later appointed national captain). Murray Goodwin was 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.
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 ICC Cricket World Cup coming in fifth place in the Super Sixes, only missing out on a semi-final place due to having an inferior net run-rate than New Zealand. Zimbabwe beat India and South Africa in the league stage.
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.
2003–2004: Signs of a decline
Increasing politicisation of cricket, including selectorial policy, along with the declining situation in Zimbabwe disrupted the 2003 Cricket World Cup, which was jointly hosted by Zimbabwe and South Africa.
England forfeited a match scheduled to be played in Zimbabwe, risking their own progress through the competition, citing "security concerns" as their reason.
Zimbabwean players Andy Flower and fast bowler Henry Olonga wore black armbands, for "mourning the death of democracy" in Zimbabwe. Both were immediately dismissed from the team and applied for political asylum overseas. This public political protest caused considerable embarrassment to the co-hosts and disrupted team harmony.[8] [9]
Since the 2003 World Cup, with a succession of Zimbabwe's best players ending their international careers early, a new side began to develop, featuring the likes of Travis Friend, Andy Blignaut, Hamilton Masakadza, Douglas Hondo, Craig Wishart, Ray Price, Sean Ervine, Mark Vermeulen, Tatenda Taibu, Elton Chigumbura, Prosper Utseya, Dougie Marillier, and Barney Rogers. Whilst not of the same calibre of Streak, Goodwin, and the Flower brothers, this new breed of predominantly multi-disciplined players formed a solid backbone to a competitive, if usually unsuccessful, side.
In late 2003, Zimbabwe toured Australia in a two-match series. The series was more memorable for Australian opener Matthew Hayden's innings in the first Test – in which he overcame a back strain to score a then record 380 runs – than for the Zimbabwean performance.[10]
Zimbabwe lost its first match against Bangladesh in 2004.
In 2004, captain Heath Streak was sacked by the ZCU (now Zimbabwe Cricket), prompting a walkout by 14 other players in protest against political influence in the team's management and selection policies. A scheduled tour by Sri Lanka went ahead, but this was a lopsided affair, with Zimbabwe represented by fringe players who were not of international standard.[11] [12]
Because of this, the ZCU accepted that Zimbabwe were to play no further Test cricket in 2004, though its status as a Test nation was unaffected.[13]
2005–2009: Worsening political situation, steep decline and exodus of players[edit]
After a series of poor Test performances following the resignation of several senior players, the Zimbabwean team was voluntarily suspended from Test cricket in late 2005 by its cricket board, with ICC encouragement.[14]
In early 2005, Heath Streak was reinstated into the national side, but the political situation in Zimbabwe involving Operation Murambatsvina disrupted the Zimbabwean team. During overseas tours, the players were often said to be buying necessities which were unavailable – or prohibitively expensive – at home, as opposed to the souvenirs which other touring teams would purchase.
In 2005 an agreement was signed which led to the return of many of the rebels to the Zimbabwe side.[15] However, results failed to improve as in March Zimbabwe lost both their Tests on tour against South Africa by an innings. Worse was to follow in August, when they were crushed on home soil by New Zealand, in a match that was completed in just two days, instead of the usual five. In the process, Zimbabwe were humiliated; they became only the second side in Test history (after India in 1952) to be bowled out twice in the space of one day. Then they lost both their tests to India at home later in September. After the series against India, Streak announced his retirement from international cricket, dealing yet another blow to the beleaguered team.
By November 2005, the players were once again in dispute with Zimbabwe Cricket over political interference in the management of the game as well as contract negotiations, and the new captain, Tatenda Taibu, resigned from international cricket. By then the team had been further weakened by the departure of the likes of Dougie Marillier, Craig Wishart and Sean Ervine, all of whom retired in protest and expressed disillusionment in the local cricket hierarchy.
By January 2006, 37 Zimbabwean cricketers had failed to receive any offer of renegotiation talks from Zimbabwe Cricket after their contracts with the board had expired. This body of players demanded that the chairman and managing director of Zimbabwe cricket, Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute, be removed from office for there to be any hope for the players to return to the international stage.
On 6 January 2006, the Sports and Recreation Commission, a division of the Zimbabwean government, took over the offices of Zimbabwe Cricket. The apparent takeover has resulted in the firing of all whites and Asians among the board directors, because of "their racial connotations and saving their own agendas and not government policy" according to Gibson Mashingaidze, an army brigadier and chairman of the government's Sports and Recreation Commission.
An interim board was appointed as the new leading party of cricket in Zimbabwe, with Peter Chingoka appointed as the committee's head. Given Chingoka's close ties to Bvute, it is likely that the latter will continue in his post as well.
On 18 January 2006, Zimbabwe Cricket announced that they were suspending the playing of Test cricket for the rest of the year.[16] Zimbabwe's coach Kevin Curran said that Zimbabwe were aiming to play their next Test against the West Indies in November 2007.[17] It is currently felt by observers[who?] that the Zimbabwean national team is not of sufficient Test standard, and that competing against Full Member sides would do little to improve standards, given the likely one-sided nature of the games. Bangladesh, for a long time seen as the 'whipping boys' of Test cricket, recorded their first win against Zimbabwe, and are now generally regarded as being of a superior standard. On 8 August 2011, Zimbabwe recorded a resounding victory in the one test match series over Bangladesh, played in Harare.
Domestically, the Logan Cup – Zimbabwe's first class competition played amongst the provinces – was cancelled in 2006 for the first time since its inception over a century ago (though the Cup was not played during some of the years of the World Wars). This was widely seen as due to concern by ZC that the standard of play would be so poor as to be both not worthwhile and potentially harmful to the external image of cricket in Zimbabwe. The one-day trophy, the Faithwear Cup, was contested, and drew complaints from observers that the quality was less than club level. As well as player exodus, the main reason for this catastrophic fall in standards was put down to wrangling within Zimbabwe Cricket, where internal politics motivated the removal of the historic provinces and their replacement with revamped, newly designated provincial teams. Zimbabwe's economic collapse led to scanty attendance at games and players not receiving their salaries for long periods of time.
In a further harmful incident, ex-player Mark Vermeulen was arrested after attempting to burn down ZC's offices, and successfully destroying the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy's premises. In a nation in increasing social and economic turmoil, such facilities are hard to replace, and their loss has proven difficult to manage for a cricket administration already short of top quality facilities.
In the period coming up to the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, and to stop a similar exodus of players after the 2003 World Cup, the selected players were asked to sign a new contract. The players were summoned to meet Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwe Cricket's managing director, a week or so before they were due to set off and given an ultimatum – sign the contract on offer or be removed from the squad. It is understood that they were not allowed to take advice and were told they had to make the decision there and then.
One player told his team-mates that there were certain things contained in the contracts that needed clarification. He was summoned back into Bvute's office and warned that it was a take-it-or-leave-it offer: this player was later revealed to be Anthony Ireland.[18] Another said that when he told Bvute he wanted to consult with friends, Bvute picked up the phone and called Kenyon Ziehl, the head of selection, and told him he wanted the player replaced in the squad. Unsurprisingly, the player backed down and signed.
In light of the poor state of Zimbabwe's finances, and that Zimbabwe Cricket had to borrow around US$1 million in early 2007 pending receipt of monies from the World Cup to help them over an ongoing cash crisis, the board agreed to pay match fees in US dollars. The players are being paid US$2000 per appearance and a series of US$500 bonuses based on wickets taken and fifties scored. The maximum payment was believed to be capped at around US$8000. However, fees will not be paid until June 2007 to stop the exodus and help cash flow.[19]
The spectre of continued problems with the ZC board has influenced some players to cut their losses and seek to finish their careers abroad: Ireland accepted a contract to play for Gloucestershire during 2007, while opener Vusi Sibanda also left. More are thought to be considering following suit.
Zimbabwe fared poorly in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, even failing to beat non-test playing Ireland.
Zimbabwe upset Australia in its opening match of the Twenty20 World Championship in Cape Town, defeating them by 5 wickets. Brendan Taylor led the way for Zimbabwe, with first class wicket keeping (a catch, stumping and run out) and a crucial unbeaten 60 from 45 deliveries. He was man of the match. They then lost to England by 50 runs, meaning they exited the tournament at the first stage due to their net run rate being inferior to both Australia and England after Australia beat England in the other group game.
There was more encouraging news in October 2007, when it was announced that Zimbabwe would compete in all three domestic competitions in South Africa as part of Cricket South Africa's attempts to improve the standard of cricket in Zimbabwe. [3]
However, their participation in the above competitions was thrown into doubt when the plans were postponed pending a Cricket South Africa board meeting.[20] A compromise was reached in late November, meaning Zimbabwe will take part in the MTN Domestic Championship and the Standard Bank Pro 20 Series, but not the SuperSport Series as originally planned.[21] Instead, they played three first-class four-day games against a South African Composite XI made up of franchise and provincial players. The three games, in Paarl, Potchefstroom, and Kimberley were all won by Zimbabwe.[22]
In between those games, they played a five match One Day International series against the West Indies, scoring an upset win in the opening match[23] before losing the series 3–1. The final match was abandoned due to rain.[24]
Zimbabwe's performance against Bangladesh during this time was extremely poor as it lost every ODI series except one at home, including a 0-5 whitewash in 2006.
Zimbabwe also lost against non-test playing nations Kenya very often. But in 2009, they bounced back beating their African neighbors 9-1 in ten games.
2010–2014: Resurgence and continued financial problems[edit]
Zimbabwe won an ODI and a t20 during their tour of the West Indies. Zimbabwe reached the finals of a triangular tournament which included India and Sri Lanka. They lost their remaining matches in the year except against Ireland whom they beat 2-1 at home.
Zimbabwe started their World Cup 2011 campaign with a 91 run defeat by Australia at Ahmadabad on 21 February 2011. They then recorded a comfortable victory over Canada, before losing by 10 wickets to New Zealand on 4 March 2011. Further heavy defeats by Sri Lanka and Pakistan followed, before a consolation victory over Kenya was achieved in Zimbabwe's final game of the tournament. After these defeats, opening batsman Brendan Taylor was announced as captain of all formats on 24 June 2011, replacing Elton Chigumbura.
Zimbabwe returned to test match cricket on 4 August 2011, after a six-year exile. They hosted Bangladesh in a one-off test match at Harare. The national team's re-introduction to Test cricket was successful, as they beat Bangladesh by 130 runs.[25]
Zimbabwean players take the drinks break in their ODI match against Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka on 23 January 2009.
As part of the lead-up to their Test return, Zimbabwe Cricket announced major upgrades to the Harare Sports Club and Mutare Sports Club grounds.[26] Plans for a new Test ground at Victoria Falls were also revealed.[27] ZC also signed a three-year deal with Reebok worth $1mn. The deal will see Reebok sponsor the Domestic competitions and make the kits of the Zimbabwean national cricket team.[28]
Zimbabwe played their first test match, after regaining their test status, against Bangladesh at the Harare Sports Club in Harare. The only test started on Thursday 4 August 2011. Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field first. Zimbabwe won the test on day five by 130 runs.