Zimbabwean cricket crisis

Cricket in Zimbabwe was a crisis that lasted from 2003 to 2011 where player withdrawals such as the "Black-armband protest" by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga along with a mass loss of players in 2004 due to a general strike resulted in very poor performances by the national team. Presently Zimbabwe is in the period of rebuilding itself as the domestic structure was re-structured in 2009. Many people allege that the administration of cricket in Zimbabwe is corrupted by the influence of Robert Mugabe's government, who are widely accused of following racist, in particular anti-white, policies. Positive signs began to emerge for Zimbabwe after the 2007 Cricket World Cup especially when in the 2007 World Twenty20 Zimbabwe defeated what was arguably the strongest side in the world at the time, Australia. Along with this Zimbabwe gradually began to show encouraging signs of improvement and four years later they returned to the highest format of the game, Test Cricket. In their first match since their return in August 2011 they comprehensively defeated Bangladesh.

During the 2000–01 season, players began to allege political interference in the running of the game in Zimbabwe. There had already been a reduction in government funding for the sport's development. The players alleged that selection of the national team was subject to interference and particularly resented the imposition of a quota system to ensure a minimum number of black players would be included. The players argued that the black players were gradually emerging, as in South Africa, and that they would increase in due course. For example, Hamilton Masakadza had already made his mark as a batsman, and Mluleki Nkala and Henry Olonga were marking their mark as bowlers.

The matter came to prominence before the 2003 World Cup, when both the British prime minister Tony Blair and the Australian prime minister John Howard said they would prefer it if their teams did not travel to Zimbabwe, but did not ban them from doing so. In the event, only England refused to travel to Harare to play Zimbabwe as they considered it morally wrong to do so, thereby forfeiting the match. In Zimbabwe's first match, two players, one white, one black (Andy Flower and Henry Olonga) wore black armbands in protest against "the death of democracy in Zimbabwe". Both players subsequently retired and emigrated from Zimbabwe, under intense political pressure, with the black Olonga being denounced as not really Zimbabwean as he was born in Zambia.

...
Wikipedia