Online Reporter
THE Zimbabwe senior men’s cricket team have begun the 2025 calendar year on a busy note, in what promises to be an exciting season for the game’s enthusiasts, players, coaches and administrators.
The Chevrons could not have wished for any better end to 2024 and start to the new year than staging the format that defines global cricket – the Test – as they featured in a drawn series against Afghanistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
Afghanistan’s on-going multi-format tour concludes in Bulawayo this weekend.
The significance of this tour was highlighted by the historic Boxing Day and New Year Test cricket fixtures, which provided a rare treat to the domestic cricket aficionados.
Prior to the two-match Test series, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan had also engaged in three T20 Internationals and as many One Day Internationals (ODIs).
It is not every day that Zimbabwe get to have a chance to play so much cricket at one go, let alone Test cricket and/or full tours.
Despite the overall disappointment in the white ball series which the Chevrons lost, there was something to cheer about when the Boxing Day Test began in Bulawayo last week.
The Boxing Day Test was the first engagement in this format for the Chevrons in over 17 months.
Crucially, this was also only the second time that Zimbabwe’s Chevrons were playing a home Test on Boxing Day, since 1996 when they last hosted England in Harare.
Boxing Day Tests have become a tradition among the world’s top Test nations.
Zimbabwe had only hosted just a single Boxing Day Test, when they faced England 28 years ago in a drawn match badly hit by rain at Harare Sports Club.
Since then, Zimbabwe’s only other involvement in a Boxing Day Test has been away from home, against New Zealand in Wellington in 2000 and when they played South Africa in the inaugural pink-ball, day-night Test at Port Elizabeth in 2017.
They also took on Sri Lanka in a Test match that started on 27 December 2001 in Colombo.
The Zimbabwe versus Afghanistan duel lived to the pre-match hype as the fans got full value for their money despite the intermittent rain disruptions.
Several records were broken by both teams who put up excellent performances in this drawn match.
Zimbabwe’s first innings score of 586 broke their own previous scoring record in Test.
The Chevrons eclipsed their previous record of 563/9 which they had made against the West Indies in 2001.
We believe this commendable performance has given captain Craig Ervine and his Chevrons a platform to build on as they just now need to keep the momentum.
Lack of consistency has on many occasions been the Chevrons’ biggest undoing.
However, their showing at Queens Sports Club won them the hearts of more neutrals apart from their traditional fans.
To add to the excitement, this was by far not a one-sided game, as fans had somewhat become accustomed to with the Chevrons often being on the receiving end.
Afghanistan too made the same record with their colossal innings of 699 all out.
They broke their previous scoring record of 545/4 which they had also made against Zimbabwe in 2021.
That the match drew decent crowds to Queens Sports Club, was a strong testament that Test cricket is still alive after all.
It is unfortunate finances seem to stifle Zimbabwe’s ambitions to play more of these five-day games.
But judging by the interest the Boxing Day Test garnered, Zimbabwe Cricket should feel duty-bound to arrange more bilateral fixtures in the future.
Unlike last year, the 2025 calendar looks promising, though.
Zimbabwe, are, next month expected to host Ireland for a full tour before the outward tours of Bangladesh and England where they have a scheduled once-off Test in May.
This will be followed by South Africa’s tour and a tri-angular series here in Zimbabwe.
New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are also scheduled to come to Zimbabwe before the end of the year.
This is what the Chevrons need to improve their quality of play – more games!
Zimbabwe’s poor results in recent years have been blamed on limited game time.
But there were encouraging performances by the Chevrons in the two Test matches against Afghanistan.
Young all-rounder Brian Bennett put up one of his best performances ever with both bat and ball.
Bennett took an astonishing 5/95 which he then followed up with 110 runs with the bat to help Zimbabwe put 586 on the board.
There were also hundreds for Sean Williams and skipper Craig Ervine and a 50 on debut by Ben Curran.
The bowlers then stole the show in the second match – the first New Year Test fixture for Zimbabwe! After a lengthy rain delay, they bowled out the visitors for 157 runs before close of play on Day One.
That was a huge improvement by the bowlers.
It shows that if these players can play cricket regularly, there are good prospects the Chevrons could move out of stagnation.
The bold decision by Zimbabwe Cricket to infuse new faces such as Newman Nyamhuri, Dion Myers, Takudzwanashe Kaitano, Curran and Bennett must also be commended.
It has breathed fresh hope for Zimbabwe.
The transition is well in motion with other players waiting in the wings, the likes of middle-order batter Jonathan Campbell, wicketkeeper-batters Tadiwanashe Marumani and Nyasha Mayavo, as well as pace bowlers Trevor Gwandu and Takudzwa Chataira.
This is progressive for a team whose core group of players is ageing.
Considering that the likes of Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza and skipper Ervine are not likely to be around for the next two to five years, ZC’s talent conveyor belt now needs to be more productive than before.
The tour of Afghanistan, who are also in transition, should help set the tone for a joyous 2025 and beyond.
