Zimbabwe cricket hit rock bottom last year, but they are picking themselves up

There's a saying in chess that no one wins only by moving forward; sometimes you have to go backwards to put yourself in a position to win. Zimbabwe's failure to qualify for two men's World Cups in the same year - the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup - caused them to do exactly that.

"We were very worried and very concerned. We had thought we had put in place everything to be able to get to the World Cup, particularly the T20 World Cup, and when we didn't get there, it called for us to say, 'Wait a minute, we've got to relook at things,'" Tavengwa Mukhulani, Zimbabwe Cricket chairperson said.

"We need to relook at ourselves as a business, as an organisation, to look at our processes and how we do things, look at our personnel - how we hire and what sort of personnel we hire - and look at the structure. We have to ask if this is what we want, given that we have not qualified for the World Cup. Do we have the structure to deliver?"

The answer, which came from a three-person committee commissioned to look into Zimbabwe's failure to get to world events and to review the organisational structure, chaired by Harare-based attorney Lloyd Mhishi, was a firm no.

So on February 10, ZC resolved to restructure their operations entirely. On March 1, advertisements for a new men's head coach and new men's Under-19 coach were put out. Over the next few years, ZC intends to redevelop its domestic and development pathways, build indoor training facilities at all five domestic centres, and set up a national academy. On March 7, Hamilton Masakadza resigned from his role as director of cricket (it us understood he was going to be stood down as part of the new plan anyway) but is set to remain involved in the organisation of the 2026 Under-19 men's World Cup and the 2027 World Cup. When they co-host that tournament with South Africa and Namibia, they want to be more than just participants; they want to be serious competitors.

What happens between now and then will mostly take place behind the scenes, since Zimbabwe's men's side is not due to appear at an ICC event until at least the T20 World Cup in 2026, and the Test side is not part of the World Test Championship (WTC). The women's team remains in the running for the T20 World Cup this year, and will compete in a qualifier in April, but their journey on the global stage is in its infancy - they made their first international appearances five years ago.

In three months, Zimbabwe will be the only Full Member who is not part of the T20 World Cup, and it will hurt to hear that. Doubtless questions will be asked about the relevance of a country that has played in only one of the last five ICC events.

ZC are prepared for that, and they even have some answers. "Because we have not qualified at ICC events, it makes it difficult to make a case for your country, but having said that, sports is cyclical," Mukhulani said. "In the 1970s, West Indies were everything. But they were with us in the qualifiers and they didn't make it [to the 2023 ODI World Cup]. Would you say West Indies don't have a case in cricket? No, they still have it.

"We have such a rich cricket heritage in Zimbabwe. In spite of everything that hasn't gone our way in the field of play in the recent past, we are still a proper cricketing nation that must be taken seriously. We can still beat sides. We went to Sri Lanka recently and we competed. We have a lot to offer to the world of cricket."

They plan on using the next few years to show that. Although Zimbabwe have fewer matches than anyone else on the 2023-2027 FTP (109 across all formats, one fewer than Ireland) they are satisfied with their calendar. "If you look at our FTP, it's decent as compared to other cycles. The only team we don't have is Australia." Mukhuhlani said.

The original document had Zimbabwe scheduled to play West Indies, Ireland, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at home, and Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan and Afghanistan away.

They have since added five home T20Is against India, which will be crucial to their finances, and a four-day Test in England for what will be the first bilateral meeting between the two sides since 2004. County sides have been travelling there for a few years, and there seems to be a thaw in political relations between the UK and Zimbabwe following the end of the reign of Robert Mugabe.

Notably, Zimbabwe play 20 Tests in the cycle, eight more than Ireland and one fewer than Afghanistan - the other two Full Members who are not part of the WTC - and despite the costs involved in hosting matches and even travelling for them, they don't want to cut that down.

"We believe we still have to play Test cricket, even if we are not part of the World Test Championship," Mukhulani said. "We believe you can only get good cricketers from playing the longer version of the game."

Building the player base through Test exposure is one thing, developing the talent pool locally is another. Much like their neighbours South Africa, Zimbabwe's best sportspeople come from the private school system, essentially elite institutions with top-class facilities that can only be accessed by those with money (or with luck, a scholarship). Mukhulani believes that keeps the game too exclusive.

That is one of the reasons ZC turned Takashinga Cricket Club - located in a high-density area (essentially neglected and disadvantaged areas created by colonialism) - into an international venue. It was used for last year's World Cup Qualifiers and spectator presence at the ground suggested a burgeoning interest in cricket that surpassed other that for other sports but also showed where the gaps lie. The schoolkids in attendance at Takashinga have limited access to the game, and those further away from the city have even less.

"Not everybody is fully participating in cricket. We still are very reliant on private schools - and that system is solid and produces good cricketers - but we want more schools to participate. More so, we want our rural schools involved," Mukhulani said.

The economic difficulties in Zimbabwe - hyperinflation was at 175% last year - means that ZC cannot rely on government support to fund programmes at schools, so they have started their own. The Cricket Kumusha-Cricket Ekhaya programme (kumusha and ekhaya mean "home" in Shona and Ndebele) is being rolled out and has promise.

"We have a team that goes out and introduces basic coaching skills to school teachers in the rural areas, and we give them equipment to start the game," Mukhulani said. "But the real problem is that cricket is still an expensive sport. If we keep the momentum, we will start to have the numbers coming from other parts of the country."

That ZC is able to do that, however small the scale, must be applauded because it was only five years ago that the organisation was mired in debt and frozen out of ICC funding. They have managed to turn that around by being more prudent in their use of disbursements but the struggle to be sustainable continues.

A quick-ish fix could be to seek outside funding for a T20 league but ZC are not going there yet. They hosted a T10 tournament last year, where there was some investment from Pakistan Super League franchises (and resulted in floodlights finally being installed at Harare Sports Club), and would consider further partnerships with certain caveats.

"We will talk to whoever comes along with a meaningful offer to Zimbabwe Cricket but most importantly, one that develops the game. We will be interested in the commercial outcomes but most important for us is something that can increase our cricket outcome," Mukhulani said.

Ultimately ZC currently see themselves very much as that: a cricket development organisation, not just for their country but for the continent, which the ICC has identified as one of its two biggest growth areas (the USA is the other).

"We are one of the two Test nations in Africa," Mukhulani, who is also the vice-chair of the Africa Cricket Association, said. "Congratulations to Uganda and Namibia for the progress they have made, but them being at a World Cup is not the end of their journey. They still need to play Zimbabwe and South Africa for them to grow. We have the cricketing facilities that they don't have. We have a big role to play in making sure that the region grows."

He also hinted that ZC are championing more competitive engagement on the continent. "I was just thinking, 'Why don't we have an Africa Cup?' Something with South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya. It will help everyone. It's a conversation we are having," Mukhulani said.

To set themselves up as a credible cricketing presence in Africa is essential ahead of the 2027 World Cup, where Zimbabwe will be able to show the cricketing world what they are made of. Expect to see revamped venues, floodlights at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, and possibly a ground at Victoria Falls.

"We would love to see Victoria Falls Stadium being one of the venues but that is subject to how fast the other departments we are working with move," Mukhulani said.

Plans for a 10,000-seat stadium were unveiled last year after the Victoria Falls Town Council committed a plot of land for development to the project. If successful, ZC could be home to one of the most picturesque grounds in the world, with a 1708-metre wide waterfall, whose indigenous name translates to "the smoke that thunders", in the background. In peak season, the falls create a mist that envelopes the area in a soft rain-like embrace. One local described being in it as being "blessed by African rain". ZC will hope that by the time their time for rain (in the form of results from the restructure) arrives, it pours.