A biting wind swept across Grace Road on Thursday and though the crowd was thin, there was just enough stardust to keep the autograph hunters happy. Andrew Flintoff was perched on the pavilion balcony, while Mark Wood, trying his hand at coaching during his latest injury layoff, patrolled the boundary’s edge with a smile.
Out in the middle there were also runs for Josh de Caires, son of Mike Atherton, who compiled a fluent 79 from 93 balls on a green-tinged pitch. De Caires is a player in the modern mould charting his own course but some of the old man’s mannerisms were there to see. Mercifully, the lower back appears to be much less creaky.
Still, truncated though it is – a far cry from 2003, when they played two Tests and took part in an ODI tri-series along with South Africa – this tour is a welcome development. And in something of a first, the England and Wales Cricket Board is also paying the visitors a tour fee in lieu of a reciprocal trip not sitting in the future tours programme.
This apparent benevolence is in part driven by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s broadcast deal with Sky, which is predicated on delivering six Test matches every season; in the years that bring India or Australia for their usual five-match series, an early summer opponent is still needed. Ireland fulfilled this role before the 2023 Ashes, now it is Zimbabwe’s turn.
But while a schedule-filler, it would not have come about had relations between the ECB and Zimbabwe Cricket not thawed considerably in recent times, nor had the green light not come from the British government. After the dark days of Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime, and a period of considerable turmoil for cricket in Zimbabwe in which corruption was alleged to be rife, relative stability has returned to the country.
How Zimbabwe will fare in Nottingham next week is tricky to call, with their diet of Test cricket so skinny in recent years. There are just 108 caps spread among their 15-man squad (Joe Root, by comparison, has racked up 152 on his own). As the county kids cut loose to post 330 all out inside 72 overs, including half-centuries from tailenders Sebastian Morgan and Jafer Chohan, it did not augur massively well.
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Equally, there was a creditable 1-1 draw in Bangladesh last month, one that featured Zimbabwe’s first away victory for seven years, and there are players of some promise in their ranks. Blessing Muzarabani, a towering 6ft 6in quick who claimed nine wickets in Sylhet, could pose some problems for England on the right surface – much as New Zealand’s similarly giant Will O’Rourke did during their last outing.
As well Muzarabani, who nicked off De Caires with a sharp delivery that climbed, there is Sikandar Raza, the Pakistani-born all-rounder who has been a world-class performer in the white-ball formats.
Experience comes from Sean Williams and skipper Craig Ervine, both 39, while Gary Ballance, though retired after a brief return to the country of his birth, is sharing local knowledge as their batting consultant.
This short tour may serve to warm up their opponents in the main but for Zimbabwe, out in the cold for more than two decades, there is sunshine breaking through.
