The Zimbabwe women's national cricket team represents Zimbabwein international women's cricket. The team is organized by Zimbabwe Cricket, a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Zimbabwe made its international debut in 2006, at the ICC Africa regional qualifier for the Women's Cricket World Cup. By winning that tournament, the team qualified for the 2008 World Cup Qualifier, eventually placing fifth out of eight teams by defeating Scotland in a play-off. However, at the 2011 World Cup Qualifier, Zimbabwe had much less success, failing to win a single match. At the2013 World Twenty20 Qualifier the team placed sixth out of eight teams, while at the 2015 edition the team placed third, narrowly missing out on qualifying for the2016 World Twenty20.
Zimbabwe women is one of the newest international teams. In fact, its first international matches came in 2006, in the regional qualifiers for the 2009 World Cup. It won all three matches against Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to head through to the qualifiers, where it came a respectable fifth out of eight teams.
Current Squad
· Chipo Mugeri (c)
· Precious Marange (vc)
· Christabel Chatonzwa
· Tasmeen Granger
· Sharne Mayers
· Audrey Mazvishaya
· Thandakwenkosi Mlilo
· Pellagia Mujaji
· Modester Mupachikwa (wk)
· Mary-Anne Musonda
· Nomatter Mutasa
· Josephine Nkomo
· Nonhlahla Nyathi (wk)
· Loreen Tshuma
Coaching staff
· National Director of Coaching: Andy Waller
· Head coach: Trevor Phiri
· Assistant coach: Leonard Nhamburo
· Assistant coach: Mufaro Chiturumani
· Batting Coach:
· Bowling Coach:
· Fielding Coach: n/a
· Physiotherapist: n/a
· Trainer: n/a
| Zimbabwe | |
| Association | Zimbabwe Cricket |
| ICC status | Associate member (1981) Full member (1992) |
| ICC region | Africa |
| Coach | Trevor Phiri |
| Captain | Chipo Mugeri |
| First international | |
| Zimbabwe vs. Uganda (Nairobi, Kenya; 8 December 2006) | |
| World Cup Qualifier | |
| Appearances | 2 (first in 2008) |
| Best result | Fifth (2008) |
| World Twenty20 Qualifier | |
| Appearances | 2 (first in 2013) |
| Best result | Third (2015) |
| as of 5 December 2015 | |
Virtually every member of Zimbabwe's squad started out in international cricket as a teenager. Mary-Anne Musonda, who, like Granger, is an offspinner and handy batsman, is already a nine-year veteran of international competition, at 24. Musonda was a 13-year-old hockey prodigy at Kwekwe High when a cricket coach spotted something special in her. Cricket structures available to girls have improved greatly since the likes of Mayers, Granger and Musonda started to play the game, and particularly since the franchise system was adopted nationally in 2009. Many high schools across the country offer girls the chance to play cricket, while every provincial franchise now includes a full women's team in their programme, and the Under-19 side, which has won the Four Nations tournament in Botswana three years running, regularly joins the national team in camp for exposure and experience.
Before, it was a case of if coaches spotted girls in certain schools, they'd just tell you, 'We want you here on trial,'" says Granger. "It's gotten better over the years, but when I started you'd find that if we wanted game time, we'd play with the boys' development side. That's how I got into playing club cricket. There's a club called Emakhandeni, where the likes of John Nyumbu and Brian Chari play. That's the club I started playing for, and that's how I got game time. And it helped a lot.
Like the men's side, Zimbabwe women have also suffered from a paucity of bilateral cricket in the past, being focused almost entirely on tournaments. Yet that is beginning to change, and with increased exposure Zimbabwe are progressing. "Our women's team has definitely come a long way and since I debuted there's been big progress," says Granger. "In 2013 we found ourselves at the global qualifiers in Ireland. We fell three runs short of qualifying for the World Cup in New Zealand. We went to the qualifiers in December last year in Benoni and we won the tournament. Besides South Africa, Zimbabwe is one of the outstanding teams in Africa. We played South Africa at home about a year and a half ago and we got thrashed badly. And now the team went up to South Africa about a month or two ago, and now we're losing by three runs, two wickets, three wickets, like that. It's a huge change.
