Will ZC reap benefits from investing heavily into Victoria Falls Stadium?

Zimbabwe Cricket's (ZC) construction of a flagship 10,000-seater stadium at Victoria Falls has come under severe criticism from the country's former sports minister and mayor of Bulawayo, David Coltart.

The stadium, named the Fale Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium, is scheduled to be ready by August 2026 and is expected to host matches in the 2027 ODI World Cup. It has been called a "misplaced budgetary priority" by Coltart, even as ZC looks to market it as a destination venue for touring teams and the fans, especially from the countries that make up cricket's Big Three.

Fale Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium has already had the main pitch planted, irrigation installed, and grass embankments completed. Work is now being done on the players' pavilion and media centre, as well as with the water and power supply infrastructure.

The development is fully funded by ZC and will cost the organisation US$12 million, money they believe they will recoup through the hosting of 2027 ODI World Cup matches and high-profile international visits. The confirmed fixtures and venues for the World Cup are yet to be decided, but Zimbabwe, who will co-host the tournament with South Africa and Namibia, will have at least two stadia allocated to them.

Post-tournament, Zimbabwe's first target for a Victoria Falls series could be England and their large contingent of travelling fans. If a tour can be agreed, it will end more than 20 years of England cricket's absence from Zimbabwe. England last played in the country in 2004 but relations thawed when they hosted Zimbabwe for a Test in May, after 22 years.

Even with England as a drawcard, Coltart's concern is that ZC are putting all their eggs in one basket, and not a very big one when it comes to cricket development. "Victoria Falls is a small tourist town with a tiny cricket supporting population. The development of this boutique stadium is unprecedented worldwide," he posted on Facebook. "In every other Test-playing nation, the primary investment by their Boards has been to invest in existing stadia in large population centers right across their countries.

"It must be clear that this stadium is not primarily part of an objective to take the game to smaller centers to promote the game. It appears to be mainly to have a stadium in a tourist center to attract foreign teams who will come for reasons beyond the sole purpose of playing cricket.

"Whilst this may be admirable if the financial health of ZC was good, it is a terribly misplaced budgetary priority given the fact that cricket venues in cities across the country outside of Harare are collapsing and there is, as stated above, a near total collapse of cricketing facilities at most Government schools countrywide.

"Unless we focus on the development of grassroots cricket and the game right across the country, our ability to play the game well at international level will continue to erode and ultimately the Victoria Falls stadium will become a white elephant."

ZC has not disguised that they are hoping to cash in on the tourist appeal of Victoria Falls, whose 108-metre-high and 1,708-metre-wide waterfalls attract around half a million people a year. However, they denied that it is their sole financial focus as they are spending a further US$6 million on other projects around the country.

"Victoria Falls is our flagship project, but Zimbabwe Cricket is also investing heavily in other venues," Tavengwa Mukhulani, ZC's MD, said. "At Harare Sports Club (HSC), we have almost completed construction of a new indoor facility, while we will also be reconstructing the famous Castle Corner grandstand and other areas.

"Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo is getting new floodlights this year, while Takashinga is being expanded with new pitches and practice nets. We have also modernised facilities in Masvingo while setting up our new academy facility at Ncema. We are also preparing new sites in Mutare, Gweru and Mhondoro-Ngezi. These investments are about building capacity across the country so that cricket truly becomes a national game."

It is the last of those points that Coltart also contested in his post, where he wrote, "it appears that there is a conscious decision by Zimbabwe Cricket to promote cricket in Harare but little elsewhere," and referenced both fixtures and team selection.

HSC, which is Zimbabwe's only venue with floodlights, currently hosts all of Zimbabwe's white-ball internationals, while Queens in Bulawayo has hosted their last nine home Tests. Zimbabwe have not won a Test at Queens since 2001, and have not won a home Test since beating Pakistan in Harare in 2013.

Their latest string of defeats, which culminated with their heaviest Test loss by an innings and 301 runs to New Zealand earlier this month, has also prompted criticism of team selection. Coltart alleged this is regionally biased and speaks to the lack of development elsewhere in the country.

"It is also increasingly reflected in the composition of National teams, with almost all the players selected coming from Harare. All but one player in the current senior men's team comes from Harare," he wrote. "All but two players in the current men's Under-19 team come from Harare and its environs.

"Is it really the case that the rest of the country isn't producing players of international quality? Cricket is a national game and we can only compete well internationally if we promote the game fairly right across Zimbabwe."

In a press conference, Mukhulani admitted that there is "an issue with the talent pool," but said Zimbabwe's wretched run is the result of them playing much more cricket (11 Tests this year alone) against much stronger opposition. "Given where we were coming from, it was important that we challenge ourselves," he said. "We give the boys the best opportunity to progress. And you can only do that when you play those who are better than you."

The media engagement took place on August 15, the same day as Coltart's post went public and three days after ZC issued a press release condemning what they called a "smear campaign," run by Coltart.

Among the issues between the parties are historical disputes dating as far back as 2003 over Coltart's role when Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands to protest what they called the death of democracy in Zimbabwe, both ZC's and Coltart and relationship with the UK, and differences over team selection and environment and board composition.