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Brandon Moyo, b[email protected]

AS part of their decentralisation, development and growth project, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) is planning to build a new cricket stadium at the resort city of Victoria Falls.

The new stadium project comes after the board was given land by the Victoria Falls Council and ZC said it is part of their vision which aims to spread the game in all the provinces in the country.

ZC chairperson, Tavengwa Mukuhlani confirmed that the Victoria Falls City Council has already given them land to begin the works, which will get underway soon. 

He said they want to see every province in the country hosting international matches but are facing challenges in some provinces with facilities.

“Ideally, we want every province of this country to be able to have a flavour of international cricket. In Mutare, we have sent the West Indies before to go and practice at Mutare Sports Club, Kwekwe, we have done the same but here’s our challenge, we want to develop these facilities to proper international standards but we don’t own them, they are run by committees for the sports clubs.

“In Kwekwe our challenge is that they want to give us a three-year lease, so we can’t invest on a three-year lease, we have the same problem in Mutare but our desire would have been to upgrade Mutare Sports Club to an international stadium, upgrade Kwekwe Sports Club to an international stadium but there are constraints that are beyond us because of the ownership of the clubs but the desire is there.

“That’s why I have said we are going to Victoria Falls because we have somehow found favour with the Victoria Falls Town Council who have given us a piece of land which we think its ideally to develop a stadium but the focus of Zimbabwe Cricket is to decentralise cricket and to make cricket available and accessible to the fans, we don’t want a Midlands fan to travel to Harare to watch a player from Midlands, you want them to watch that player in their backyard, it stimulates interest and just helps grow the game,” said Mukuhlani.

Cricket has become one of the most followed sports in the country alongside football and rugby and having multiple stadiums will go a long way in increasing the interest towards the game in the country.

This year during the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, Takashinga Cricket Club became the fourth stadium to host an international cricket match in the country after Harare Sports Club, Queens Sports Club and Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC).

Zimbabwe is set to co-host the 2026 Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup alongside Namibia and the 2027 Men’s Cricket World Cup with South Africa and Namibia and having more stadiums that meet international standards will go a long way.

In another development, Mukuhlani said they are now looking at installing flood lights at Queens Sports Club after they were installed at Harare Sports Club in July during the inaugural Zim Cyber City Zim Afro T10 league. — @brandon_malvin