Cricket in Zimbabwe
Hi friends in this article let us discuss about the history and development of cricket in Zimbabwe.The old name of Zimbabwe is Rhodesia.
The history of cricket goes way back to 16th August 1980, when Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) played their first match near Masvingo (previously called as Fort Victoria).Actually this was the most important match of the Rhodesian domestic cricket season and it was played between Bulawayo(Capital of Zimbabwe) and Salisbury.
As years passed during the 1990s many touring sides visited Zimbabwe.But the Zimbabwe cricket standard was improved when they are allowed by the South African Cricket Association to participate in the South African domestic competition, popularly known as the Currie Cup, which is also called as Super sport series
Their first match in the Currie cup was against Transvaal and it was played on 15 and 16 March 1905, at Johannesburg, South Africa.
But Zimbabwe didn't perform well in this match and they eventually lost the match by an innings and 170 runs. After that Zimbabwe didn't play the Currie cup after this brief appearance,until 1929-30 season.
But they eventually returned to the Currie cup during the 1931–32 season,and this time they did a good performance and they manage to win four out of five matches. In spite of this tremendous performance they couldn't win the cup, on the basis of point system,as they lost the cup to the Western Province
In spite of this good performance, they did not return to until 1946–47 season,but after that they started to play this tournament regularly.The turning point for the Zimbabwe cricket team happened during this intervening period in 1935, when Denis Tomlinson became the first Zimbabwe player who was selected to tour England with the South African cricket team
For more than ten years from from 1953-54 to 1963-64 David Lewis captained Zimbabwe team and during this period the team also includes players like
#)Colin Bland
#)Godfrey Lawrence
#)Percy Mansell
#)Chris Duckworth
#)Joe Partridge
#)Paul Winslow
#)Tony Pithey
#)David Pithey
During the 1970s, Zimbabwe was captained by Mike Procter and during this period the team included players such as
#)John Traicos
#)Duncan Fletcher
#)Robin Jackman.
But the sad part fro the Zimbabwe cricket team is that they failed to win the Currie cup inspite of these strong players.
Till this time the Zimbabwe team was called as "Rhodesian team"
It was during the 1979 -80 season the Zimbabwe team played under the name"Zimbabwe-Rhodesia" but after that the name Rhodesian was not used and officially it was called a Zimbabwe from that time
During the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seaons they started to play first class matches against the tourists
On 21st July, 1981 Zimbabwe was elected as an Associate Member of the ICC after its Independence and in 1982 they eventually played first-class matches when they went to England and this was their first inaugural tour.
The turning poin for the Zimbabwe team with respect to international level occured in 1982 when the managed to win the ICC Trophy and as a result they were qualified for the 1983 Cricket world cup in England.
Zimbabwe proved right about their ODI status as they manage to beat the powerful Australian team by 13 runs in their first match of the world cup.
Zimbabwe also started their match against India well when they reduced the Indian team to 17/5 but Indian team was rescued but Kail Dev who scored his Carrier best 175 runs and India eventually won the match
But after that the team didn't preform well as the most of the white players who performed very well left the country so that they could do their higher studies and this also includes the well known player Graeme Hick, who later played for England.
And after this world cup,Zimbabwe managed to play all the world cup till now and also qualified for the 2011 world cup.
The ICC Granted full member status and also gave the Test status to Zimbabwe and they played their first match against India eventually played its inaugural Test match in October 1992 ,in Harare and they managed to drew that match and this is also a record because it is the only team to save a match during its first ever Test after been given test status by ICC.
During the middle and late 1990s Zimbabwe played test cricket well, but not too strong but its performance started to decline when many of the great players like Heath Streak,Andy Flower, Grant Flower etc. retired and after September 2005 they didn't play any test matches and in January 2006,the ICC withdrew the test status of the Zimbabwe team.The image of Andy Flower is shown below.
Even Though they lost their test status they are allowed to play ODI format.They also keep upsetting the higher ranked countries and the recent upset was in the ICC T 20 world cup, 2009 in South Africa where they beat the Australian team
Named after honourable JD Logan, Zimbabwe started their first-class competition in Zimbabwe called the Logan Cup and it was first started in 1899 and it was was re-vamped in 2006-07 with five different provinces namely
i)Northerns: Harare Met. & Mashonaland Central
ii)Southerns: Masvingo & Matabeleland South
iii)Centrals: Midlands & Mashonaland West
iv)Westerns: Bulawayo Met. & Matabeleland North
v)Easterns: Manicaland & Mashonaland East
Apart from this from 2003 onwards one-day tournament was introduced, but ist structure kept changing on a regular basis.
In 2007 the more exciting domestic Twenty20 competition was started .Now for the 2011 world cup they are preparing players who are in 23-2 age , with a hope that they could perform well.Lets wish them all the best.
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