Online Reporter
IF the year 2025 proved anything, it is that Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) are no longer operating in the shadows of their past.
The country’s second biggest sport awoke from its slumber to reclaim its place on both the home and international fronts. As reported earlier this week in this publication, 2025 was a memorable year for cricket.
It was a demanding, sometimes unforgiving year, but also one that restored credibility, stability and international confidence in the game’s administration and direction.
The responsibility now lies squarely with ZC under the leadership of chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani, to build deliberately on that foundation.
The volume of cricket played over the past year was unprecedented in recent memory. Zimbabwe returned to the rhythms of international competition, particularly in the longest format – the Test arena – exposing players to elite opposition and reacquainting the system with the standards required at the highest level.
Of course the results were mixed, often painful, but they were honest. And honesty, in high-performance sport, is a prerequisite for growth.
It is also what defines Fair Play.
Test cricket revealed the scale of the work still to be done. The Chevrons’ heavy defeats underscored some lingering gaps in skills, depth and endurance. But those same matches also offered something both Zimbabwean cricketers and the sport’s ever-growing legion of fans, had been starved of for years: consistent exposure, clarity about weaknesses and a genuine basis for long-term planning.
Crucially, this progress took place within a stable administrative and technical environment.
Results are hard to come by where there is administrative and technical upheavals and Mukuhlani, whose capacity and pedigree to lead has also been appreciated by the continental body Cricket Africa, deserves a pat on the back for a job well done.
The fruits of the peace and tranquillity being enjoyed in ZC have been there for all to see and many a sport association, registered with the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) could take a cue from the Mukuhlani administration.
Continuity in leadership and coaching allowed for coherence, accountability and trust. That stability did not arrive by accident. It was the product of deliberate governance choices made by the ZC board under the leadership.
For too long, sections of the discourse around Zimbabwe’s cricket have been trapped in the past.
Some critics, unwilling to engage with present realities, have sought to undermine every decision through a recycled and at times racially charged, narrative that does little to advance the game.
That approach belongs to an era ZC are actively trying to leave behind and which is not in line with the principle of using sport as a major tool for nation building, which the Government firmly believes in.
What matters now is evidence, not emotion. And the evidence from 2025 speaks volumes of the huge strides made.
On the field, Zimbabwe qualified for a global tournament after several painful near-misses, restoring belief in the shortest format and reaffirming the country’s competitive relevance. Individual milestones across formats pointed to a healthy balance between experience and emerging talent.
Off the field, systems held, programmes ran, and the game moved forward without the institutional turbulence that once defined it.
Perhaps the most powerful endorsement of Zimbabwe Cricket’s direction came not from local debate, but from the global game’s highest authority.
The International Cricket Council’s decision to award Zimbabwe hosting rights for a major youth tournament, and to include the country as a co-host of the One Day Internationals (ODI) World Cup alongside South Africa and Namibia, was a clear vote of confidence.
Such decisions are not symbolic gestures; they are not gifts, they are merited and are grounded in rigorous assessments of governance, infrastructure, organisational capacity and trust.
The ICC to their eternal credit were not swayed by noise. The global federation were persuaded by delivery.
That confidence should not be taken lightly. Hosting rights bring visibility, responsibility and opportunity — to inspire young players, to upgrade facilities, to professionalise administration further and to reintroduce Zimbabwe as a serious stakeholder in global cricket.
It is also an opportunity to boost the country’s sport tourism figures and to market destination Zimbabwe.
ZC must now ensure that these events are leveraged strategically, not merely staged successfully.
The lesson here extends beyond cricket. Other sporting codes in Zimbabwe, including football, rugby and netball, would do well to study this trajectory.
Stability, which has been lacking in rugby, governance discipline, and constructive engagement with international bodies are not luxuries; they are prerequisites for progress.
Administrations that spend more time fighting internal battles as was the case with previous ZIFA boards or fighting external critics than building institutions inevitably fall behind.
It remains a fact that ZC still face real challenges, especially on the playing field.
The Chevrons’ Test competitiveness will take time. Player depth must be expanded. Domestic structures must be strengthened and aligned with international demands.
But these challenges are now being addressed from a position of relative stability rather than crisis and thus ZC managing director Givemore Makoni and his board led by Mukuhlani, can afford to look back to last term with big smiles and boast that 2025 was a year of restoration.
But the task before ZC is clear: protect institutional stability, invest in development pathways, remain patient with players, and resist the temptation to be distracted by voices rooted in yesterday’s archaic grievances.
Progress will not satisfy everyone immediately, but it will speak for itself over time.
If ZC can stay the course, build on the hard lessons of 2025 and fully capitalise on the confidence placed in them by the ICC, this country’s cricket will truly belong among the elites.
And that, after years of uncertainty, is no small achievement.
For a team not in the World Test Championship, to have played only one Test fewer than Australia in 2025, as they sought to make a case for inclusion in the elite club and expose their players to the highest level of competition is no mean feat for ZC.
