Zimbabwean Cricket - The Rise, Fall and Prospects to Rise Again

Zimbabwean Cricket – The Rise, Fall and Prospects to Rise Again: Well the team that emerged to be one of the prime Cricketing talents in the late nineties, with the presence of some scorching talents of the game, Zimbabwe earned a glamorous position in the World Cricket a decade and some years ago. But due to the negative interference of some stinky politics in association with racism conflicts, the name of Zimbabwe as a stern cricketing nation simply faded away from the pages of the International Cricket.

Recapitulating the pages of Cricketing history, we can find how Zimbabwe emerged to be one of the massively developing cricketing sides in the late nineties, when they had whitewashed the English side 3-0 in an international series in 1997. This was followed by an ambitious run in the 1999 World Cup, where Zimbabwe had the upper hand over some strong cricketing sides viz., India. But since then, the Cricketing aspects of the nation had a downfall due to several reasons.

It was in 2003 that some of the senior players of the Zimbabwean Cricket team in the likes of Andy Flower and Heath Streak went onto a protest. This was followed by the resignation of a bunch of senior players from the national squad. The era of 2004 marked the pivotal part of Zimbabwe’s downfall. Some unhygienic factors in the likes of racism, politics casted a darkening shadow over the Cricket and Zimbabwean Cricket could do nothing but to hope for the best to happen to get back such brightening cricketing days.

The former Zimbabwean captain, Tatenda Taibu spoke of the fact that how frightening it was to be a part of such an inexperienced team as all the seniors had taken off their names from the squad. Also, to lead such a squad was perhaps the most reluctant choice of the former wicket keeper batsman. And to mark to further scenes of despair, Zimbabwean team were whitewashed by Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia in the series that were being played in the period. It was during that era that Zimbabwe registered their lowest total in ODIs of 35 runs against Sri Lanka. This happens to be the lowest ever ODI total till date. Taibu explained of the horrendous situations that there were times when Zimbabwe would be two down for 10 and he had to come in at such pressurising situations. And he had to bat well consistently. On occasions, when even he failed Zimbabwe saw nothing but acute misery. Zimbabwe lost their test stature on November, 2005 after their disastrous performances.

Even the families of the cricketers were endangered. However, things did start to improve in the past few years. After the settlement of several issues, Zimbabwe gained their  test stature in 2011 when they went onto beat Bangladesh right in the first test since their revival as a test playing nation. Things were on somewhat high for them since then. They marched as table toppers to qualify for the ICC World Cup, 2015. They even showed a brilliant display of Cricket with several brilliant knocks played by their former skipper, Brendan Taylor.

Things were on the rise and just after their recent tour to Pakistan could well bring the required catalyst for their revival as a brilliant cricketing nation. They have managed to give Pakistan a good amount of competition in the recent series. Even they have lost each of the two T20s and all three of the ODIs against Pakistan, they fought well in every game and this will provide valuable experiences to all the players. And as a matter of fact, this might be a phoenix for a new era of Cricket in Zimbabwe. Also, after this series, Zimbabwe came in the limelight as a cricketing nation. They have been catalysed by such cricketing tournaments. Now the thing is that, the team needs to carry on from here. It is to be noted that from such a horribly darkening sphere, Zimbabwe came back into cricket and are doing well. Something further amazing can definitely be expected from them for sure in the years to come, for the betterment of Cricket as a whole.