The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Reporter
THE visit by two English County Cricket Clubs to Zimbabwe next month will boost the country’s tourism sector with both teams set to visit Zimbabwe’s number one tourist destination, Victoria Falls.
After accepting an invitation from Zimbabwe Cricket, Derbyshire and Durham are set to tour next month in what is the first visit to the country by an English county team in over two decades. Worcestershire were the last English county side to embark on a tour of Zimbabwe in 1997. According to the schedule for the two teams, both will tour the country’s prime tourist destination, Victoria Falls. Derbyshire, the first team to arrive in Harare on 9 March will visit Victoria Falls day after arrival, travel to Kwekwe, Antelope Park in Gweru before they head to Bulawayo where their matches against Zimbabwe Select are taking place. Former Zimbabwe captain and coach Dave Houghton is the Derbyshire head of cricket.
Durham land in Harare on 16 March and will tour Victoria Falls six days after arriving, with their two three-day fixtures against a Chairman’s XI taking place in Harare. Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) head of corporate affairs Godfrey Koti commended ZC for managing to get the two teams to visit the country. “First of all, we would like to congratulate Zimbabwe Cricket for putting it together. We haven’t had an England team coming to Zimbabwe in a very long time, a county team for that matter so this is a welcome move,’’ Koti said.
As ZTA, Koti said they are fully behind the partnership between sport and tourism, which in other countries is a massive revenue generator.
“We are a huge supporter of collaboration between sport and tourism, this elsewhere is huge business that we would also like to develop as a national tourism organisation like others are doing.”
Koti said they were thrilled to have the two teams visiting Zimbabwe and ZTA will ensure that the tourists get to enjoy their stay in the country.
Going forward, ZTA are looking to bring together sport and tourism so that the relationship can be advantageous to both sectors.
“In the grander scheme of things, it is within our strategy this year to cultivate and promote the conversation of bridging the gap between sport and tourism so we are looking forward to really having this relationship going forward with the sporting fraternity,’’ he said.
The visit by Derbyshire and Durham is seen as a warming up of relations between ZC and the England and Wales Cricket Board. Zimbabwe and England have not had the best of relations over the years as politics got in the way of sport. English bowed down to political pressure to forfeit their 2003 International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup group match against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club which was awarded to the Zimbabweans as a walkover.
England did tour Zimbabwe in 2004 for four One Day Internationals, in what was their last visit to the country with the matches shared equally between Harare and Bulawayo. Zimbabwe last played on English soil at the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy with the last time they headed to England for a bilateral series being in 2003. The last time the two teams met on a cricket field was at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa. Zimbabwe were forced to pull out of the 2009 ICC World T20 staged in England after the British Government indicated that they would not grant the team visas to compete.
