Tour of  England 2000        Captain: Andy Flower

Zimbabwe’s eleventh Test tour

First Test-playing tour of England by Zimbabwe

   (April  -  July 2000)

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union held discussions with the Foreign Office about the tour because of President Mugabe seizing white-owned farms. War veterans and landless villagers had invaded hundreds of white-owned farms in the last two months. It was agreed that the tour would go ahead on 13 April, only a fortnight before the first match. Even as it started the threat to cut the tour short grew as players’ concerns were aired about playing cricket while friends and relatives in Zimbabwe were in a dire situation.

Beaten heavily in the first Test but achieving a respectable draw in the second at Trent Bridge, the team was resurgent in the second part of the tour and managed to beat the West Indies for the first time in any form of cricket in the ODI at Bristol.  As confidence grew, Zimbabwe went on to win all three one-day matches against West Indies in the NatWest tri-series.

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Other Zimbabwe tours

Previous tour

West Indies 1999-00

Next tour

India 2000-01

Next tour of England

2003

Members of the Test tour party  (17)

Opening batsmen:  Trevor Gripper, Neil Johnson, Grant Flower

Middle-order batsmen: Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Dirk Viljoen, Murray Goodwin, Guy Whittall.

Wicket-keepers:Andy Flower, Tatenda Taibu

Slow bowlers:Brian Murphy

Fast bowlers:Gary Brent,   Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Mluleki Nkala, Henry Olonga, Bryan Strang, Heath Streak.

Representation from district teams:   

CFX -  Academy

Mat  - Matabeleland (7)

Msh - Mashonaland  (10)

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(18 May 2000):

 25 yrs  8 months

ODI   Member of squad for the ODI National Westminster Bank series

Key to type:

RHB Right-handed bat

RM  Right arm medium-paced bowler

RFM  Right-arm fast medium

OB   Off break

WK  Wicket-keeper

Test Appearances made before the tour

Campbell 41,  A Flower 41,  G Flower 40,  Whittall G 31,  Streak 29,  Strang B  20,  Goodwin 17,  Mbangwa 12,  Johnson 11,  Carlisle 8,  Gripper 6,  Murphy 2,  Nkala 0.

Tour Officials

Stannard had retired in 1996 as head of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Mugabe's secret police. His agents infiltrated rival political parties and broke up anti-government demonstrations.  Members of the cricket tour party were worried that their families back home would be killed in farm invasions and Stannard was to smooth the situation by assuring his young side that all would be well. (www.scotsman.com   Sunday 2 February 2003)

Dave Ellman-Brown, the Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s Chief Executive, was present in England during the tour.

Selectors

Selection

Unavailable:   Paul Strang (he was not confident about his long-term forearm injury, although in the end he played league cricket for Haslingden);  Adam Huckle had retired;  Brian Murphy (returned to University).

Tour Party Announced : 

Not selected :   Andy Whittall.

Taibu, a 17 year-old Churchill High schoolboy, and Nkala from the under-19 side and Viljoen from the CFX Academy were retained for the England tour.

Time between selection and departure from Zimbabwe

  x days

( to 23 April)

Travel

Harare  Q London

After only three days at home recovering from the Caribbean tour the team flew back to England for another three-months on tour. They left Harare on Sunday 23 April.

Some players remained in England from the West Indies tour. The team arrived on 24 April and practised at Lord's the next day before travelling down to Southampton for their first match.

Heath Streak and coach Andy Pycroft did not arrive until Thursday 28 April because they were helping their families move from the violence in the agricultural areas to Bulawayo. Guy Whittall, Gary Brent, Dirk Viljoen and Alistair Campbell were also farmers.

Time spent in England

   91 days

(24 April - 24 July)

On-tour selection

Andy Pycroft  (coach),   Andy Flower  (captain),  Heath Streak (vice-captain).

Reinforcements

Henry Olonga was sent home for a check-up on his ankle injury and to get fit. He was cleared to play and returned for the triangular series including West Indies but aggravated the injury again in training.

Tatenda Taibu was released to return to his school education.

John Rennie was brought in from Zimbabwe on 10 July for the remaining ODI matches.

Fixtures/Results

See  ‘Match Appearances’  below.

� not first-class.

 All the one-day matches were 50 overs.

§  ODI NatWest one-day internationals

Time spent in England before First Test: 

      24  days

(24 April - 18 May)

Test appearances on tour

2  -  Campbell,  A Flower,  G Flower,  Goodwin,  Johnson,  Mbangwa,  Streak,  Whittall (G)

1  -  Carlisle,  Gripper,  Nkala,  B Strang.

0  -  Brent,  Olonga,  Taibu,  Viljoen,  Wishart.

Highlights

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Tour Summary

Return to Zimbabwe

London  Q Johannesburg

Olonga returned to Zimbabwe for a check-up on his ankle injury but was cleared to play in the one-day triangular. But he aggravated the injury in training.  Brian Murphy returned to university in Cape Town immediately after the Test matches to complete his degree. Tatenda Taibu returned to his school education.

When the bowling coach Carl Rackemann arrived on 20 June, Jeff Thomson returned to Brisbane.

The team arrived back in Harare on Tuesday 25 July at the end of a five-month tour.

Time away from Zimbabwe    

     93 days  

(23 April to 25 July)

Match appearances

Finances

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The Zimbabwe players asked their representative Andy Whittall to hold crisis meetings with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union over low pay. The Sunday Mirror reported that their English coach driver was the best-paid member of the squad and that the players would most likely earn only £3000 a man from the tour.

Account of the tour

Postscript

Although the tour ended on a down-note, losing the final of the triangular against England, Andy Pycroft, the caretaker coach, seemed to have improved the team’s confidence and raised their game.

Neil Johnson quit Zimbabwe cricket to join Western Province in South Africa and Murray Goodwin went to live in Western Australia where his sick mother was living. His wife also wanted to move to Australia. Neither player was much impressed with the financial package being offered; they proved to be a great loss to the national side just as it was making some improvement