Zimbabwe Cricket: Is this the begining of new era?

Though Zimbabwe has not been among the dominating cricketing nations but it has always been considered as a threat when played against.

Andy Flower is coaching with England these days.

They had a wonderful team during the late 90’s. Their batting strength had the likes of Alistair Campbell, Neil Johnson, Grant Flower, Murray Goodwin, Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart, and Craig Evans and not to forget Andy Flower.Their bowling attack was strong as well. Leading from the front was Heath Streak, Travis Friend, Henry Olonga, Mbangwa and Paul Strang. Grant Flower and Alistair Campbell contributed in the spin section along with their batting.

But the face of cricket in Zimbabwe changed when the senior players’ retired together. All of a sudden there was no Andy Flower, Campbell, Johnson and Strang. Though the new players were trying hard to impress the condition was not improving. This new lot included Taibu, Chigumbura, Matsikaneriya, Andy Blignaut and Brendon Taylor. But it did not work. The performance graph went on going down. In the end even Heath Streak took retirement. And the condition of Zimbabwe team became worse than Bangladesh. Zimbabwe did not get to play tests with other International teams like they used to before. Nothing was working out for them.

Elton chigumbura has taken over the reigns of Zimbabwe

But then the ICC T20 world cup was a glimmer of hope for the Zimbabwe cricket team. As the smaller version brings down the potential of stronger teams it was time that they made their presence felt. In the warm up matches they defeated both Pakistan and Australia. But unfortunately they could not go into the semis because of the rain.

But to prove themselves that it was not a fluke they had to perform well in the tri-series. And they exactly did that by defeating India so dominatingly. Though it was not the full-fledged team of India but still defeating them is not a piece of cake and hence credit should be given to the players of Zimbabwe. So, is this the beginning of new Era for the new Zimbabwe team. If they remain in this form then Zimbabwe will again become the threat it used to be. And the other international teams would be keeping a sharp eye on them for the next ICC world cup 2011.

P.S: The political conditions and other external factors were not considered which played a major role in their performance.