Even as MS Dhoni’s rag-tag bunch of youngsters completed India’s first overseas ODI whitewash under Dhoni with a comprehensive 10 wicket victory over Zimbabwe, there was hardly any applause, either in Harare or back home. Though Zimbabwe did manage to make amends of sorts by defeating India in a thriller in the first Twenty20 on Saturday, the battle between Zimbabwe’s best and India’s newest was always an unequal one, with little competition or intrigue to offer.
With the Copa America, Euro Cup and a much more fiercely competitive triangular in the Caribbean, even the cricket-worshipping crowd of India has shown little interest in celebrating the win. After all, Zimbabwe is in the midst of their worst-ever 12 months in international Cricket.
Zimbabwe posted two of their lowest totals ever against India – 123 and 126 – and India lost fewer wickets in the chase than any team in a three-match series. These stats alone speak volumes for the lopsidedness of the quality of cricket on display, and they represent the nosedive that Zimbabwean cricket has taken in the past decade, practically inverting Bangladesh’s rise from cricketing ignominy in the same decade, from virtually the same standing as Zimbabwe.
Fading glory
A decade ago, such a lacklustre away series against Zimbabwe even with such an inexperienced Indian squad would be an unthinkable proposition. Douglas Marrilier’s miraculous innings in Faridabad, where he scooped an A-lister Indian team out of the match, came on March 7, 2002 – the last in a series of fiercely competitive and exhilarating cricketing moments such as the Henry Olonga’s 5-for against India in the Coca-Cola Champions trophy of 1998. Olonga’s celebration after surprising the Little Master in this match earned him Tendulkar’s wrath in the final, where an angry Tendulkar stormed Sharjhah in one of his most celebrated centuries, destroying Olonga’s figures in the process.
Zimbabwean teams in the past generation have consisted of great players from all departments, such as the Flower brothers, Andy and Grant, Heath Streak, Alastair Campbell, Eddo Brandes and Tatenda Taibu. A testament to Zimbabwe’s rich cricketing history is that during India’s inaugural tour of the country in 1992, Zimbabwe had made 456 in the first innings, and almost made India follow on playing its first international Test.
In the process, Zimbabwe became the first Test-playing nation not to lose their first test, and they followed the strong opening performance with Test and ODI victories over India and Pakistan in 1998, including a series win in Pakistan, which included a stunning double-hundred by Grant Flower. Zimbabwe have beaten India, Pakistan, England and Australia at full strength; the most recent victory against India being the Marrillier masterpiece in 2002.
But in only 14 years since then, Zimbabwean cricket finds itself in its worst phase ever, and looks a fading shadow of its past teams’ potential. They were the only Full Member team to not make it to the Super 10 at the ICC World T20, and are currently ranked even lower than Afghanistan in ODIs, to whom they've lost their last five T20s as well.
Causes of the decline
The disintegration of Zimbabwean cricket over such a short time, described by Cricinfo’s Alagappan Muthu as cricket around the world surging forward “leaving Zimbabwe behind”, mirrors the fall of the cricketing might of Pakistan in another part of the world. The seeds of both these declines can be found in the political and economic circumstances of the country from which sports and sporting facilities cannot remain disconnected.
The most incisive and easy-to-spot consequence of the impact of the Zimbabwean political scenario on its cricket is the disappearance of white players from the team, but that is not in any way to suggest that this alone explains the loss in quality.
However, this change in demographic is a forced one, following the mass migration of the minority white population of Zimbabwe under the regime of Robert Mugabe, who came to power after his political struggle against the now-overthrown white minority rule in the country. Since coming to power Mugabe implemented land reforms in 2000, which resulted in the seizing of 80 per cent of white-owned farms from landowners, forcing thousands of evictions and arrests by 2002, with surging reports of violence and human-rights violations.
It was against this political backdrop that Zimbabwean cricket’s precise moment of disintegration occurred during the 2003 World Cup (partly hosted in Zimbabwe), in a match against Namibia. Going down in cricket history, Henry Olonga and Andy Flower wore black armbands during their match at the Harare Sports Club to “mourn the death of democracy in Zimbabwe”, in a gesture that generated as much praise as it did outrage and controversy.
Andy Flower thought the mix of one white and one black player lent balance to the message, which was widely lauded in international media and by fellow cricketers. Naseer Hussain, captain of England (who had forfeited their match to Zimbabwe in Harare owing to security concerns in the same tournament), said the sportsmen “have proved to be great men by what they have done”, while The Times called it “a powerful blow for sanity, decency and democracy”
The Zimbabwean government, cricketing board, and even the public, however, had dangerously different reactions. Not only did Olonga play only one ODI after that protest, but he was also charged with treason – punishable by death – and eventually forced out of Zimbabwe and international cricket, much like the Flower brothers shortly after. The “Black Armband protest” of 2003 thus represents a schism from which Zimbabwe cricket has never really recovered.
Bigger patterns
The decline of Zimbabwe’s resources and economy under Mugabe hasn’t helped matters at all either. The aforementioned land-reforms of the Mugabe government have failed, and in the process driven Zimbabwe into becoming one of the poorest and most lagging economies of the world.
In such circumstances, cricketing facilities and interest have suffered immensely, as the dire conditions make sport a luxury the country can ill-afford to invest in or think about. Hence the Zimbabwean team’s talent-pool and training have been depleted immensely, much like Pakistan’s receding economy has impacted the cricket quality there, or the West Indies Cricket Board’s long-standing quarrel with its players has dented their cricketing glory, and inspired its own protests, like the cancelled Test series with India in 2014.
Also common is the fate of the sportspersons who participated in these protests, and that perhaps explains the questions such as the ones asked in the “Sachin, unlike Ali” piece in Indian Express. The WICB cracked down on the players in the wake of the protests; the Zimbabwean government took the backlash even one step further with Olonga and Flower, but then mixing politics and sport has always been criticised and punished by every sporting association in the world.
The conflation of the two, almost always, is taken as a sign of indiscipline and dissent. So is it a surprise that most sporting personalities stay silent? It is true Ali paid for his beliefs with his title, amongst much else, but it can be argued that he had the unconditional backing of an entire community that he and his message directly represented. When conditions are not so favourable for a political stance, however, sportspeople remain tentative with their beliefs.
And, as a result, with their game – as Zimbabwe's cricket performance shows.
