The national cricket team representing Zimbabwe is known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Team and was formerly known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. Zimbabwe is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and one-day international status.

Zimbabwe is the ninth nation to play test cricket. It played its first Test against India in 1992. However, it had an established ODI team much before that and had even participated in three World Cups-in 1983, 1987 and 1992.

The Zimbabwe Cricket Team, though not a very strong unit, had some very good players in it. The most renowned of these were wicketkeeper batsman Andy Flower. At a time, Flower was also ranked as the world's best batsman. The 1990s was a whole bunch of good players emerging from the Zimbabwe team. Grant Flower, Alistair Campbell, Heath Streak and Murray Goodwin were some of the most talented players to ever play for Zimbabwe.





Zimbabwe did not perform very well in Tests, though they were improving on their ODI performances. Zimbabwe were never considered a strong team, but they were known as fighters who were exceptionally good in the fielding department.

However at the end of the decade, Zimbabwe was plunged into political unrest and that kind of strained into the Cricket Team as well. As a result lot of the top players lost their places in the squad and the team was reduced to inexperience. Further controversy resulted in some top players striking and this was like the final straw for Zimbabwean cricket's doom. The team had to be made up of players who were not ready for international cricket and this meant a disastrous phase for the team where they lost almost every match they played, both at home and away.





Zimbabwe has not done much in world cricket except some upset shows here and there. Some good players have retired. Zimbabwe is also suffering from lots of internal problems, which is not good for cricket.

Zimbabwe have never reached the semifinals of the World Cup and it looks rather unlikely that they will do so in World Cup 2011. Zimbabwe cricket was rocked by a lot of controversy in the recent past and as a result a whole lot of top players like Andy Flower, Henry Olonga and Heath Streak lost their place in the side. To compensate the loss, the Zimbabwe selectors called up a new set of player, most of whom were not equipped to play at the international level. Consequently, the team's performance suffered. Now with the World Cup coming up, it is unlikely that the team can come up with a miracle. Only a handful of players in the team have played in a World Cup before this. So it will be an uphill task for the Zimbabweans to perform well in the series.

On a political charm offensive but ultimatley they will be judged on results. Will continue to struggle at the highest level until they can find quality performance to replace the lost generation.