Zimbabwe Cricket
The only first-class matches in the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons involved the Zimbabwean national cricket team against tourists. Zimbabwe became an associate member of the International Cricket Council on 21 July 1981, and played first-class matches on its inaugural tour of England in 1982. Zimbabwe won the 1982 ICC Trophy, and this can be seen as its first step towards Test status. The team competed in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, unexpectedly beating Australia in its first match. Later, the team was weakened when white Zimbabweans left the country to pursue their careers elsewhere, perhaps most notably Graeme Hick.
Zimbabwe was elected to full membership of the ICC in 1992, and played its inaugural Test match versus India at the Harare Sports Club on 18–22 October 1992, under the captaincy of David Houghton. The match was drawn, and thus Zimbabwe became the first team to avoid losing its inaugural Test match since Australia beat England in the very first Test in 1877.
The main domestic competition is the Logan Cup which has a long history. This acquired first-class status from the 1993-94 season.
Zimbabwe cricket has also produced Andy Flower, whose test batting average was over 80 in both 2000 and 2001.
Read more about this topic: History Of Cricket In Rhodesia And Zimbabwe To 1992
Famous quotes containing the word cricket:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)