Zimbabwe in No Mans Land

[cricket_icon]

This is a very interesting article on cricinfo:
Firdose Moonda: What now for Zimbabwe? | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

Read it if you have the time, it's a must for any cricket fan, especially those from Zimbabwe. I don't think enough has been said about Zimbabwe's excellent test win against a decent Pakistan side, not exactly the side that obliterated England or gave SA some tough moments but close enough. They should be given more credit, especially for a team which has suffered so much from financial, political and economic matters.

It's sad that Zimbabwe have to wait so long for test series' and that very few countries even tour there. I remember watching Zimbabwe in the late 90s and early 00s, they were always a resourceful team and seemed to be on the up. Obviously stupid decisions made within Zimbabwe by those in power cost them years of growth but they are a great prospect, a team that needs to be nurtured, not just from within but from without too.

I'd like to see more tours of Zimbabwe and more support of this fledgling nation, what do you guys think?

 

[Owzat]

Teams have always been reluctant to play Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, except Sri Lanka so Muralitharan could fill his boots with Bangladeshi wickets, and the majority will continue to play them only if and when they have to.

The article does highlight the inequity, but who would give money to a country ruled in such a way? Like giving a drunk in the street money for food, you would be reluctant given it is unlikely to be spent on the intended purpose.......

Zimbabwe Tests

vs Australia (2 series, 3 Tests) : P3 W0 D0 L3
vs England (3 series, 6 Tests) : P6 W0 D3 L3
vs South Africa (5 series, 7 Tests) : P7 W0 D1 L6
vs West Indies (4 series, 8 Tests) : P8 W0 D2 L6

vs India (7 series, 11 Tests) : P11 W2 D2 L7
vs Bangladesh (6 series, 11 Tests) : P11 W6 D3 L2
vs Sri Lanka (6 series, 15 Tests) : P15 W0 D5 L10
vs New Zealand (9 series, 15 Tests) : P15 W0 D6 L9
vs Pakistan (8 series, 17 Tests) : P17 W3 D4 L10

I've noted that Zimbabwe have now played 50 Test series, that is over two decades. They've won six series, four against Bangladesh, one impressive win over Pakistan (3 Tests) and one one-off Test over India - the latter two at arguably Zimbabwe's peak in 1998/99

They've won 11 Tests, none against South Africa, England, Australia or West Indies in 24 attempts and over half those Test wins over Bangladesh. For all their promise they've only managed occasional wins and against those four teams lost 75% of their Tests compared to 55% against the rest

Is even 6 series in 20+ years really good enough - even allowing for their recent absence? I think Zimbabwe would benefit from tiers, six top sides in the tier above so they could play the likes of West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Holland etc and probably in longer series due to a less crammed schedule. Might not be as much money, might be more.

Not playing Australia, England, South Africa and West Indies doesn't bring in a penny/dollar, getting visits from countries like Pakistan because Pakistan struggle to get series due to security concerns etc won't be that much more of an attraction to the worldwide audience, if they hadn't won a Test would anyone have taken too much notice..............................?

 

[CremerCurrans]

I've pretty much accepted that there will be a dark cloud looming over Zimbabwe Cricket until pretty much all of the management in Zimbabwe cricket is removed, and replaced with people that aren't corrupt. More importantly Mugabe and Zanu-PF need to be removed from the country, because that's the main problem, the whole country is in a bad place. I doubt any of that will happen though, whilst ever Zanu-PF get away with rigging elections, nothing is going to change.

I think the test win against Pakistan, plus our competitiveness for parts of the series, shows that we still have some fight in us. As long as there still remains some hope for the people that love cricket in the country, there will still be a team of some sort that fans and the cricketing community can follow. That's the main positive I try to keep in mind.

Hopefully we can get something from Sri Lanka even if it's just a couple of T20I's. Doesn't look good though. Looks like the domestic competition will go ahead in some form, and the U19's team starts a Quadrilateral series in India in a couple of days, so the players just need to play as much as possible, and be ready when we do get International series.

 

[cricket_icon]

Teams have always been reluctant to play Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, except Sri Lanka so Muralitharan could fill his boots with Bangladeshi wickets, and the majority will continue to play them only if and when they have to.

The article does highlight the inequity, but who would give money to a country ruled in such a way? Like giving a drunk in the street money for food, you would be reluctant given it is unlikely to be spent on the intended purpose.......

Zimbabwe Tests

vs Australia (2 series, 3 Tests) : P3 W0 D0 L3
vs England (3 series, 6 Tests) : P6 W0 D3 L3
vs South Africa (5 series, 7 Tests) : P7 W0 D1 L6
vs West Indies (4 series, 8 Tests) : P8 W0 D2 L6

vs India (7 series, 11 Tests) : P11 W2 D2 L7
vs Bangladesh (6 series, 11 Tests) : P11 W6 D3 L2
vs Sri Lanka (6 series, 15 Tests) : P15 W0 D5 L10
vs New Zealand (9 series, 15 Tests) : P15 W0 D6 L9
vs Pakistan (8 series, 17 Tests) : P17 W3 D4 L10

I've noted that Zimbabwe have now played 50 Test series, that is over two decades. They've won six series, four against Bangladesh, one impressive win over Pakistan (3 Tests) and one one-off Test over India - the latter two at arguably Zimbabwe's peak in 1998/99

They've won 11 Tests, none against South Africa, England, Australia or West Indies in 24 attempts and over half those Test wins over Bangladesh. For all their promise they've only managed occasional wins and against those four teams lost 75% of their Tests compared to 55% against the rest

Is even 6 series in 20+ years really good enough - even allowing for their recent absence? I think Zimbabwe would benefit from tiers, six top sides in the tier above so they could play the likes of West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Holland etc and probably in longer series due to a less crammed schedule. Might not be as much money, might be more.

Not playing Australia, England, South Africa and West Indies doesn't bring in a penny/dollar, getting visits from countries like Pakistan because Pakistan struggle to get series due to security concerns etc won't be that much more of an attraction to the worldwide audience, if they hadn't won a Test would anyone have taken too much notice..............................?

Zimbabwe will definitely benefit from a 2 tier system but they are a far more successful test side than Bangladesh, yet Bangladesh gets more coverage and series' than Zimbabwe.

Also I don't understand your argument about Zimbabwe not gettin a series because they are ruled by a bad government. This is sports, not politics. If that was the case, no one should give money to the machine that is India due to their human rights record in places such as Kashmir or Gujarat or the recent horrors in Bangladesh or the illegals wars in which the UK is involved.

Zimbabwe should in cricket, be taken as a cricketing nation. If player's want to make a political statement and not play there then they should do the same with a whole range of other cricketing nations. If we take Zimbabwe as a cricketing nation, then in reality, they are better than Bangladesh, historically anyway if not right at this moment.

S two tier system, as mentioned already, would provide the perfect antidote, where the bottom 5 teams would HAVE to play Zimbabwe and vice versa. The ICC should make this happen as soon as possible.

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I've pretty much accepted that there will be a dark cloud looming over Zimbabwe Cricket until pretty much all of the management in Zimbabwe cricket is removed, and replaced with people that aren't corrupt. More importantly Mugabe and Zanu-PF need to be removed from the country, because that's the main problem, the whole country is in a bad place. I doubt any of that will happen though, whilst ever Zanu-PF get away with rigging elections, nothing is going to change.

I think the test win against Pakistan, plus our competitiveness for parts of the series, shows that we still have some fight in us. As long as there still remains some hope for the people that love cricket in the country, there will still be a team of some sort that fans and the cricketing community can follow. That's the main positive I try to keep in mind.

Hopefully we can get something from Sri Lanka even if it's just a couple of T20I's. Doesn't look good though. Looks like the domestic competition will go ahead in some form, and the U19's team starts a Quadrilateral series in India in a couple of days, so the players just need to play as much as possible, and be ready when we do get International series.

Political problems aside, Zimbabwe has always been a decent cricketing nation, at their peak putting up a good fight against the best out there. I hope in the next few years we see a new dawn for Zimbabwean cricket. I've always been a fan of some of Zimbabwe's best players, the likes of Streak and Flower up there in my youth as some of the best I saw.