Have you ever wondered why the two haven’t met each other in a bilateral series for over two decades?
England and Zimbabwe haven’t played a bilateral series since 2004. However, the drought will end when the two sides meet for a four-day Test match in Nottingham next summer.
Have you ever wondered why the two haven’t met each other in a bilateral series for over two decades? The main reason was the sore political relations between the two countries under the regime of Robert Mugabe, former President of Zimbabwe.
After England’s government criticised Robert’s leadership, it led to anti-British sentiment. They accused Robert’s government of human rights violations due to the chaos in the country where a major chunk of the population faced starvation.
By that time, the Zimbabwe players had already alleged government involvement in the game’s running. During the 2003 World Cup, the England and Australian Prime Ministers stated they didn’t want their teams to travel to Zimbabwe, even though they didn’t ban them.
Meanwhile, the England Cricket Board (ECB) received death threats from a group named “The Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe”. While some players didn’t take it seriously, a few of them believed it to be more than a hoax.
“Come to Zimbabwe and you will go back to Britain in wooden coffins.” read the threat received by ECB.
Consequently, England wanted their game against Zimbabwe to be moved to South Africa for security concerns. However, the ICC rejected the plea, labelling the matches in Zimbabwe safe to proceed.
Eventually, England refused to travel to Harare and forfeited their points in the World Cup 2003. During Zimbabwe’s first game in the tournament against Namibia, two Zimbabwean players – Andy Flower and Henry Olonga – wore black armbands in protest against Robert’s regime.
Despite political tensions and England not travelling to Harare in the World Cup, Zimbabwe travelled to the UK for a two-match Test series a few months later. Later, they also played a tri-series involving England, Zimbabwe, and South Africa in the same year.
Similarly, there were clouds over England’s tour of Zimbabwe in 2004, which was supposed to be cancelled at one stage. However, the tour went ahead, even though the series was trimmed to four matches from five since England’s journalists failed to get accreditation to cover the first game.
The relations between the two nations were exacerbated, as the ECB cut all the bilateral agreements against Zimbabwe in 2005 on the government’s advice. Since then, the two teams have only played once – during the T20 World Cup 2007 in Cape Town.
However, relations between the two nations have improved drastically in recent years, which led to positive cricketing talks between both cricket boards. Hence, Zimbabwe will finally tour England for their second four-day Test match.
“We are delighted to be able to host Zimbabwe for a Men’s Test match for the first time in two decades. Zimbabwe has a proud cricket history and have produced world-class players and coaches who have enriched the game across the world. We are committed to developing a closer relationship with Zimbabwe Cricket, and the announcement of this Test against our England Men’s team is a step in that ambition,” stated ECB chief executive Richard Gould.
England were the lone exception not playing a bilateral series against England among full member teams according to the 2022-2027 future tour programme. Indeed, it is a historic step towards reviving cricketing relations between both teams after ample political tensions, and the two sides will hopefully meet regularly now.
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