Time is now right for England to give something back to Zimbabwe
Draw with Sri Lanka has underlined how Test marginalisation is unfair on game’s poor relations
Was cricket’s best performance last week England’s fourth Test win in South Africa, or India winning both of their super overs in their T20 series in New Zealand? Or Zimbabwe dictating terms throughout their drawn second Test against Sri Lanka?
Zimbabwe’s two-test series against Sri Lanka was the first Test cricket they have played since November 2018. Difficult to be at your best for a Test when more than a year has passed without one.
Test cricket in Zimbabwe has been left to die, but it refuses to go under. They have been excluded from the World Test Championship, alone among the 10 senior Testplaying countries, yet in their last series abroad they drew 1-1 in Bangladesh. England fared no better there last time.
Last week Zimbabwe were good enough to score more than 400 against Sri Lanka in Harare and take a big first-innings lead, which forced Sri Lanka to bat out the last day carefully to secure a draw. Irony of ironies in a country beset with drought, Zimbabwe might have won but for time lost to bad light and rain.
Nobody seems to care about cricket in Zimbabwe any more. Certainly not England. The only time the two countries have played each other since 2004, in any format, was in the 2007 World Twenty20 finals in South Africa, when they were in the same pool. Otherwise, for the past 16 years, it has been one cold shoulder.
It is not as if Zimbabwe have been unable to give England a game. In the 1990s – the countries never met before then, except when MCC toured Southern Rhodesia – Zimbabwe and England drew the two Tests. In one-day internationals Zimbabwe went 5-2 up.
Admittedly the economy then collapsed – Zimbabwe’s, that is – and a massive brain-drain ensued, including their best cricketers and coaches. Five million Zimbabweans are estimated to live in South Africa alone. Whatever the result of general elections, people have voted with their feet.
England abstained from voting for Zimbabwe’s Test status after the 1991-92 World Cup despite Zimbabwe beating them in the qualifiers by nine runs. Having made a political point by imposing sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s regime, is it not time to move on, like the former president?
“Sanctions are a crime against humanity” say adverts in Zimbabwe. For certain, they further damage a sport which English people showed Zimbabweans how to play.
Zimbabwe’s Test against Sri Lanka was not on any television channel in Zimbabwe, only live streaming. No role models. No money. Brendan Taylor, their best batsman, had passed 2,000 Test runs and was going strong when given out by a new umpire on the international panel. Could Taylor review it? No Decision Review System. No money. It is the same in every walk of life: whatever money there is, it does not go to those who need it.
During last week’s Test in Harare, a first-class match between Tuskers and Rhinos was taking place at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, where in 1996 England drew the Test against Zimbabwe with the scores level. Everything was threadbare, from the scoreboard, which only put up the total and batsmen’s scores, to the pitch, on which 21 wickets fell on the opening day because the ball kept so low, to the players, who have to wait for months before getting paid, if at all. Bats are unaffordable: domestic players depend on hand-me-downs from the few international players who get a T20 gig abroad.
Yet talent is there, and enthusiasm, even passion. If the pace bowling was minor county standard,
Tuskers had a leg-spinner better than anything England have got: Brandon Mavuta took four for 21 in Bangladesh when Zimbabwe won there in 2018. The wicketkeeping to spin, and the fielding around the bat, had a polish associated with Asian cricket rather than the championship.
England have done rather well out of Zimbabwe. Graeme Hick scored more than 3,000 Test runs for England and more than 31,000 first-class runs for Worcestershire.
Gary Ballance scored 1,498 Test runs for England and was Yorkshire’s leading run-scorer in 2019. Sean Ervine left Zimbabwe after five Tests to score over 9,000 first-class runs for Hampshire. Ryan Higgins, from Harare, now Gloucestershire, was shortlisted for the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s player of the year award alongside Simon Harmer, Dom Sibley and a chap called Ben Stokes.
England’s two best coaches, Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower, came from Zimbabwe. When Sri Lanka had to bat out the last day in Harare last week, who was their batting coach but Zimbabwe’s second-highest Test run-scorer, Grant Flower? Dave Houghton is passing on the knowledge that enabled him to score 266 against Sri Lanka, when they had Muttiah Muralitharan, to Derbyshire as their head coach.
It really is time England gave something back.