Two decades of toiling: the story of Zim cricket

By Shingirirai Muchena

When the Zimbabwe senior men’s cricket team played its series-deciding match against Sri Lanka in Colombo everyone back home expected them to fight gallantly like the warriors that they are but at the end of the day the script was as has been the case over the past 6 or so months “so near yet so far” because the result was a humiliating defeat at the hands of the hosts.

The earth-shattering defeat by the Lions in the third t20 match by 10 wickets as reported by Herald (www.herald.co.zw.) was a culmination of a miserable second half of the year 2023 in which the boys failed to qualify for both the 50 over World Cup and the t20 one both tournaments in which the Chevrons were expected to qualify with ease and without breaking a sweat but alas it was not to be as having played the opening round of the 50 over qualifiers on home soil and with qualification seemingly within touching distance the super six stages proved a mountain too high for Zimbabwe as they lost two of their games thereby ending all hopes of qualifying for the global showcase which was scheduled for India later that year.

However, it should be noted that such displays have become a regular occurrence in the performances of our dear beloved team over the past 20 years as fans have been accustomed to near misses of getting into global tournaments and series encounters with so much anticipation of a great outing but getting very little in return after a poor showing by the team. Coming into the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup co-hosted by Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Kenya a lot was expected based on the brilliant performances shown in the previous campaign where they reached the Super Six stage after wins against the likes of England, showings that made the world to stand up and see a new force rising.

Stars like Henry Olonga, Andy Flower, Heath Streak, and Murray Godwin showed the globe what they were made of and expectations were that they were to kick on from there.

The turn of the millennium witnessed a turn of events in the political environment of the country as it saw the rise in human rights suppression and a decline in political free will this had an impact on the game and this was on display during the World Cup as England refused to play its group stage match against Zimbabwe for what it perceived as down to security uncertainty.

Boycotting the match by the England national team only served as a precursor to what was to follow as during a match between hosts Zimbabwe and Namibia Henry Olonga and Andy Flower wore black armbands signaling the death of democracy in Zimbabwe and later on walking off the field never to play for the Chevrons again.

What has followed from this meltdown is the downfall of displays with a few exceptions in between like the stunning victory against Australia at the inaugural T20 World Cup held in South Africa in 2007 and another one in a series loss in Australia in 2022 as well as a solitary wicket win over Pakistan at the t20 world cup in 2022.

Such showings have hurt the rankings as the Chevrons find themselves in the lower order of the entire table as cited by ICC and these rankings do not stand to benefit the team. Espncric info dated 19 February 2024 Zimbabwe is in 12th position in the ODI format and 13 in the t20 format positions that a shadow of the old self for one of the ICC cricket council full members.