Rejuvenated Zimbabwe's chance to move on from a checkered past

Last May, Zimbabwe Cricket made a statement that appeared nothing short of preposterous. In confirming new selection convenor Tatenda Taibu's list of responsibilities, the organisation announced that Taibu would "also assist ZC in bringing former Zimbabwe players back into local cricket."

At the time, the notion was laughable. The previous domestic season had been a shambles, with the Logan Cup suspended three times. In the same media release about Taibu, ZC sacked their experienced head coach, Dav Whatmore, less than two weeks before an ODI series against India.

During the second match of that series, Zimbabwe collapsed from 106 for three to 126 all out in the space of 15 minutes, and the small group of loyal supporters turned on their team. 'We cannot support disaster, catastrophe, quagmire of epic proportions,' read one of several creative banners. Why would any former players return to Zimbabwe, when there was nothing left to return to?

And yet, less than 17 months on, Zimbabwe is the unlikely good-news story that not enough people are talking about. When they take on the West Indies in the first of two Tests in Bulawayo this Saturday (October 21), Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis will be in the team. While being closer to family was at the heart of their desire to move back home, they would not have given up the security of well-paid Kolpak contracts if they did not feel something was brewing in Zimbabwe.

Solomon Mire was lured back from Australia earlier this year, and has already played a part in turning around the on-field performances. Zimbabwe's ODI series victory in Sri Lanka and highly competitive showing in the one-off Test were no coincidence. Rather they are early signs of the work put in by Taibu and head coach Heath Streak, and an increasingly functional administration under new managing director Faisal Hasnain.

Zimbabwe Cricket's administrative victories last week included securing the rights to host the World Cup qualifiers next March; no small feat given the environment in which cricket is operating in Zimbabwe. After simmering for the better part of four years, the country's economic meltdown has accelerated in recent weeks, with a severe cash crisis bringing the commodity shortages that were largely absent for the past eight years.

With elections set for an unspecified date in 2018 - probably a few months after the World Cup qualifiers take place - Zimbabweans are bracing themselves for the sort of third-world, dictatorship-driven rocky period that can only be truly understood through experience.

Against these conditions, ZC have somehow managed to pass two ICC inspections, the second of which was particularly rigorous. With the income from hosting the qualifiers, they will now be able to revamp Zimbabwe's secondary cricket grounds. Harare Sports Club and Queens Sports Club will naturally be the main venues for the qualifiers, but Old Hararians, Bulawayo Athletic Club and Kwekwe Sports Ground are also in the mix. Takashinga, a small but iconic ground in the Highfields area that has fallen into disrepair, could be refurbished to host warm-up matches.

To put things in perspective, it is worth remembering that 10 years ago, as Zimbabwe descended into political and economic chaos, the grass on the Old Hararians field was chest high from neglect. Now a similar political and economic situation is developing, but ZC are preparing to fix the ground up.

Hosting the tournament - and having Mire, Taylor and Jarvis in the team - will give Zimbabwe a much-needed boost in their bid to qualify for the World Cup, which is so important to the financial future of ZC. Which of course brings us to the elephant in the room. "We haven't turned the corner until we have solved our financial problems," Hasnain told Cricbuzzrecently. "But the last six months show that we are on the right track."

Of course, the reason why so few are talking about a revival in Zimbabwe cricket is that most have given up on it. That is understandable after years of scandal and depression, which ultimately brought a debt of around $20m, much of it lying in high-interest loans from Zimbabwean banks. Unfortunately that legacy from previous administrations hangs over ZC - not only in the minds of the public, but also at the ICC.

The governing body has not forgotten what happened the last time they loaned money to ZC, back in 2012. Instead of using the money to retire some of their existing high-interest loans, ZC put the money in a non-interest bearing account at a bank with whom three ZC high-ups had ties. At the ICC meeting in Auckland last week, it is understood that Hasnain's plea for financial assistance did not fall on fertile ground.

"People are still looking at Zimbabwe Cricket with suspicion," said one source who was privy to the discussions. "There is resistance to help them based on past performance, when ZC were unable to answer the questions raised."

In an effort to change perceptions, Hasnain has promised that ZC's first set of accounts under his watch will be posted on the organisation's website (a new version of which is currently being constructed). It would be the first time in five years that anyone outside of ZC or perhaps the government's Sports and Recreation Commission have seen them.

Last year's audit turned into a scandal when an employee attempting to cover the previous administration's tracks was exposed. A fresh, transparent audit would go some way to increasing confidence, and give some credibility to Hasnain's attempts to gain financial support from the ICC, the Zimbabwe government and sponsors.

In the meantime, ZC is doing its best to charge ahead, and has compiled the sort of fixture list that its players have been crying out for over the past five years. The two Tests against the West Indies will be followed by the four-day day/night encounter with South Africa on Boxing Day. In January, Zimbabwe will take part in a tri-series in Bangladesh, and in February they will be Afghanistan's first Test opponents, with details of the match in the UAE expected to be confirmed shortly.

The World Cup qualifiers in March will be followed by a short gap, before Pakistan and Australia arrive for a triangular one-day series in June. Pakistan will stay on for a full tour thereafter, before Zimbabwe travel to South Africa in October for a Test and some ODIs.

Quite what 2019 will bring remains to be seen. After resisting the two-tier Test league that was discussed at the ICC last year, ZC has taken a more pragmatic approach. Given their financial predicament - and the fact that the team is still rebuilding - the prospect of hosting expensive Test matches against strong opposition on a regular basis, which the new Test league would have entailed, did not make sense. The plan instead is to take a step back, and gradually rebuild both on the field and in the office over next five years.

Progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go. For all of Zimbabwe cricket's gains away from the pitch, they will largely be judged by what happens on it. After years of scandals and poor performances, it has been easy to forget that this is all about cricket. A victory in at least one of the Tests over the next two weeks would be a timely reminder of that.