Vusumuzi Dube
Brandon Moyo, Zimpapers Sports Hub
WITH the ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup already humming along beautifully and the tournament machinery turning with reassuring ease, Zimbabwe Cricket’s gaze is beginning to drift towards a far grander horizon — the kind that demands more than tidy logistics and good intentions.
Beyond the present spectacle lies next year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, a colossal showpiece Zimbabwe will co-host alongside Namibia and South Africa, and one that is already stirring the country’s cricketing imagination with the promise of theatre, glamour and renewal.
At the heart of that preparation is a build that feels less like a construction project and more like a statement of belief: the Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium in Victoria Falls. In a nation that has long carried its cricket in the familiar arms of Harare and Bulawayo, the idea of a new home — a new shrine — rising near one of the world’s great natural wonders has the shimmer of destiny. This, Zimbabwe Cricket hopes, will become the new Mecca of Zimbabwean cricket: a place where the game does not merely happen, but is experienced, inhaled, remembered.
The foundation stone for the multi-purpose 10 000-seater stadium was laid in 2024, and the story since then has been one of steady momentum rather than stalled ambition. In a recent update with Rohit Juglan, Zimbabwe Cricket Media and Communications manager Darlington Majonga said the project has moved with a confidence that is beginning to surprise even the optimists.
He noted that significant progress has already been made, and that the stadium will be ready sooner than many expected, a rare and welcome line in a world where big builds often come with big delays.
Majonga said construction is well on course and will be finished comfortably ahead of the World Cup schedule — a detail that matters not only for tournament readiness, but for the calm it brings to planning, testing and polishing the finer details that separate a venue from a masterpiece. There is something almost poetic, too, in the fact that the ground will be a black soil wicket, rich with higher clay content, allowing the pitch to absorb more water while holding its shape and character over time. It is the kind of surface that does not simply offer a contest; it sets a mood. With its elasticity and the promise of uneven bounce, it invites patience and demands craft. Batters, on such a wicket, are advised to take time to settle in and adapt to the surface, particularly on used wickets — as if the pitch itself insists on a conversation before it grants you a run.
“This is the sight of our new 10 000-seater stadium that we as Zimbabwe Cricket, and speaking on behalf of many cricket fans, are excited about. It is earmarked as one of the major venues for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup that we are co-hosting with neighbours South Africa and Namibia in 2027.
“Construction is progressing very well, we have the media centres and broadcasting facilities, we have the grass banks and other spectator areas as well as the VIP Pavilion and player changing rooms. All is underway and we are expecting the stadium to be ready and completed on schedule, that is, by August 2026 which is well ahead of the World Cup,” said Majonga.
And perhaps the most intoxicating part of this venture is where it sits — not tucked away in the predictable comfort of tradition, but planted in a coveted tourist destination where the air itself feels like celebration.
Victoria Falls is not merely a backdrop; it is an atmosphere, a magnet, a name that already carries global romance.
The stadium, poised to eclipse conventional cricketing hubs with the splendour and charm of its surroundings, is expected to become a visual delight — a sterling addition not only to Zimbabwe’s sporting map, but to the international cricket community’s imagination.
In the same breath, it offers something broader than boundary ropes and scoreboards: a significant boon for sports tourism, a reason for travellers to come for the thunder of the Falls and stay for the music of leather on willow.
“Without a doubt, this is going to be one of the world’s best stadiums. It’s sighted within a game area, so it’s teaming with wild life, fauna and all the things that Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe is famous for. It will co-exist with the wildlife and I am sure it will be a sight to behold for fans whom we are expecting to come out in numbers for the 2027 World Cup and beyond,” said Majonga
Yet even as the flagship rises with a kind of headline-grabbing elegance, Majonga is careful to widen the lens beyond the dazzle of a single venue. The ambition, he insists, is not to build a jewel while leaving the rest of the crown untended. Work will be done on other cricket facilities across the country too, because a World Cup moment should be a spark that catches across provinces, not a flame that burns brightly in one town and fades elsewhere.
“This is a unique stadium, not only in the sense that it is built within Victoria Falls. In Zimbabwe, post-independence it will be the second international venue in Zimbabwe after Takashinga. But, this is our flagship project as we work towards hosting the 2027 World Cup. But, beyond the beauty of Victoria Falls, beyond this stadium, as Zimbabwe Cricket we have a plan to spruce up our stadia elsewhere. Work will be done at Harare Sports Club and Queens Sports Club. We are also working on the other facilities across the 10 provinces of the country.
Our main goal is to make sure that the sport grows and people, from all walks of life, have access to it, as players, fans or administrators. We want it to be a sport for all,” he said.
There is, in that vision, a lifestyle story as much as a sporting one — the notion of cricket as something you can step into, not only as a spectator but as a participant in a national mood.
It is about the widening of doors: for children with scuffed tennis balls in backyards, for families looking for weekend rituals, for administrators trying to keep the game’s heartbeat steady, and for fans who want a reason to believe that Zimbabwean cricket can be both beautiful and serious again. And then Majonga leans into the kind of imagery that feels designed for postcards and phone screens, the sort of line that instantly paints the scene in your head.
“From this stadium, you can see the smoke that thunders, that is the world famous falls. You can see the whole town from this stadium and it’s a sight to behold, it will break the internet.”
In a way, that is the modern promise in a single sentence: sport, place, spectacle — and the certainty that the world will be watching, sharing, arriving. The World Cup itself is scheduled for October to November, but the mood is already forming now, in dust and steel and fresh grass, in the confidence of timelines being met, and in the dream of a stadium that will not only host cricket, but sell an experience. If the Under-19 World Cup is the present rhythm, then Victoria Falls is the crescendo Zimbabwe is composing — one that hopes to turn a tournament into a season of national pride.
@brandon_malvin
Online Reporter