The Economics Behind Zimbabwe’s 2025 Test Cricket Revival: How a $19 Million Deficit Turned Into an 11-Test Comeback

ESPNCricinfo’s Firdose Moonda recently wrote a fascinating article on how Zimbabwe are set to play 11 Tests this year—as many as Australia— despite not being a part of the World Test Championship. Even more surprisingly, they’re hosting eight of them!

The first thought that crossed my mind? “How in the world is Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) going to afford hosting 8 Tests?”

So, I went looking for answers.

I dug through 268 pages across four annual reports detailing ZC’s finances from 2018/19 to the 2022/23 season, tracing every ounce of revenue, surplus, and ICC payout…so you don’t have to.

Key Takeaways

• At the end of 2017, Zimbabwe Cricket was $18.9 million in debt. By 2022, they had cleaned up their finances and reported a surplus of almost $12 million.
• ZC remains heavily reliant on direct ICC distributions, which made up 63.5% of their revenue in 2018, rising to 96.6% (2019), 95.9% (2020), before dropping slightly to 90.7% (2021), and 74.5% (2022). Encouragingly, in 2022, they also earned $2.65 million or 16.74% of their revenue from TV rights, diversifying their income streams.
• In 2018, ZC spent $445,763 to host Sri Lanka (2 Tests). The Bangladesh series (1 Test, 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is) in 2021 cost them $993,540, and Pakistan’s visit (2 ODIs, 3 T20Is) added an additional $889,340. Hosting regular World Cup qualifiers also costs ZC around $2-3 million every 2 years, although this is typically offset by an equivalent revenue.
• England agreeing to pay Zimbabwe a ‘touring fee’ is a step in the right direction. Between 2018-2022, Zimbabwe paid $100,000-$400,000 to participate in overseas tours regardless of the format.

Having played just 12 Tests from 2020-2024, Zimbabwe are scheduled to play 11 in 2025 – the joint-most of any team pic.twitter.com/uOJdG5x6KC

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 19, 2025

The Core Issue

One paragraph in Moonda’s article particularly caught my eye,

“….and an ICC suspension for government interference in 2019….Since then, they have cleaned up their finances, in particular and made their annual ICC disbursement of US $13.5 million stretch to fund a five-team domestic system, which includes a first-class competition, the national sides, and to host Tests at $500,000 a pop. This bumper year, hosting Tests will cost them about $4 million.”

This lines up with what I found in my earlier piece, “How Much Does It Take to Host A Test?” where we estimated that hosting a single Test can cost anywhere from $350,000-$1.4 million to host a Test depending on factors like the version of DRS used, size of support staff, logistics, etc.

Understanding Test hosting expenses is only one part of the puzzle.
To get the full picture, we need to look at Zimbabwe Cricket’s overall financial health — how much revenue they generate, what they spend on operations, and how they have managed to shift from a deep deficit to a growing surplus.

ZC’s Statement of Comprehensive Income Summarized

Let’s dive into Zimbabwe Cricket’s annual revenue, operating costs, and overall financial health.

We can see the step-by-step progress made by the board over the last five years.

At the end of 31 December 2017, ZC had a deficit or total surplus of $-18,900,427. Their surplus at the end of each subsequent year was as follows:

• 2017: -$18,900,427 (4 Tests)
• 2018: -$14,182,531 (2 Tests)
• 2019: +$3,307,548 (0 Tests)
• 2020: +$1,568,441, after prior period adjustment of -$533,342 (3 Tests)
• 2021: +1,293,742 (5 Tests)
• 2022: +$11,979,997 (0 Tests)

Operating Surplus per year (Revenues – Operating Cost):

• 2018: +$664,725
• 2019: +$4,730,517
• 2020: -$1,419,949
• 2021: -$332,859
• 2022: +$3,711,218

*Note: This section is a net sum of (i) ‘Gain realised on conversion of local liabilities’ and (ii) ‘Finance charges’, (iii) share of profit of investments in subsidiaries accounted for using the equity method, and (iv) revaluation surplus on land and buildings.

We have used the 2022 Annual Report for both 2021 and 2022 years since there was $297,939 period correction from 2021, where inventory was erroneously marked as an operating expense.

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ICC Annual Contributions to Zimbabwe

Now, let’s take a look at how much revenue Zimbabwe receives from the ICC?

Under the previous ICC distribution model (2016-2023), Zimbabwe was allocated $94 million over seven years, which breaks down to roughly $13.42 million per year on average.

Under the new 2024-27 model, Zimbabwe are set to receive about $17.64 million a year.

Here are the contributions from the last four annual reports. The pandemic years definitely seemed to have an impact on the contribution in 2029.

Note: In addition to ICC loan in 2018, ZCB also took upon Metbank loan and ZAMCO bank loan which totaled their borrowings to $14.4 million.

Operating Costs on Cricket Expenses

Alongside revenue, we also examined how much of Zimbabwe Cricket’s operating costs go toward organizing and administering cricket.

ZC’s investment in the sport has increased post the pandemic-induced break and signals a renewed commitment in growing the sport.

International Cricket Expenses

Apart from these three areas, human resources and depreciation & impairment make the rest of their total operating costs.

The year-by-year and series-by-series breakdowns are provided below.

• 2018
  • CWC Qualifier Event Expenses ($2,515,225), CWC Qualifier Host Fees ($597,888)
  • Australia/Pakistan Tri-Series ($996,742)
  • SA/Bang tour ($201,413), Bangladesh tour ($142,152)
  • Women’s tours ($72,472)
  • Afghanistan series ($47,513), Kenya tour ($46,152)
• 2019
  • Women Regional Qualifiers ($372,594)
  • Netherlands/Ireland tour ($191,232), UAE tour ($170,387), Bangladesh tour ($101,165)
  • Women’s tours ($77,895)
  • Travel/Accommodation Costs ($66,011)
  • Analysis Equipment ($48,000), 2019/20 U-19 Men’s WC ($24,326)
• 2020
  • SL ($445,763), Pakistan Tour ($387,743)
  • UAE tour ($140,793), Bangladesh Series ($134,302)
  • U-19 SA Tour ($50,602)
  • Thailand Women Tour ($27,357), County Cricket ($26,396)
  • Afghanistan series ($4,500), Other ($993)
• 2021
  • Bangladesh Tour ($993,540), Pakistan Tour ($889,340)
  • World Cup Qualifier ($528,550), Cricket Equipment ($408,852)
  • Ire Tour ($214,221), Afg Tour ($168,797)
  • Women’s Tours
    • Pak ($97,949), Bangladesh ($80,311), SA ($77,218), Thailand ($51,357), Botswana ($44,325), Namibia ($31,193)
  • U-19 ($87,069), Other ($17,634)
• 2022
  • 2022 T20 WC Men ($841,730), WC Qualifiers ($54,543)
  • Ind Tour ($749,479), Afg Tour ($682,733), Bangladesh ($674,974)
  • Australia Tour ($178,043), SL Tour ($144,595)
  • Women’s Tours
    • India ($66,010), Namibia ($60,770), SA ($34,428)
  • Other
    • U-19 ($239,711), Zim XI ($160,603), Zim A ($154,769)
    • Other Expenses ($86,218)

How Much Did Test Series Cost ZC?

Let’s look at this a little bit closer and analyze just the Test matches that Zimbabwe played between 2018-2021.

Although these costs include more than just Test matches, we can clearly see the difference between the expenses of an away and home Tour

Number of Test Matches Zimbabwe has played Every Year

1992: 3
1993: 4
1994: 3
1995: 4
1996: 8
1997: 2
1998: 9
1999: 6
2000: 9
2001: 11
2002: 6
2003: 6
2004: 4
2005: 8
2006: 0⃣
2007: 0⃣
2008: 0⃣
2009: 0⃣
2010: 0⃣
2011: 3
2012: 1
2013: 6
2014: 4
2015: 0⃣
2016: 4
2017: 4… pic.twitter.com/qZoz3Oo3mU

— Broken Cricket Dreams Cricket Blog (@cricket_broken) May 20, 2025

Other Interesting Findings

• In 2018, ZCB received $571,949 for hosting the WC Qualifiers, $2.5 million for hosting other events, and $694,013 in sponsorship.
• The cost of repairs and maintenance of ground equipment over the 5-year period was as follows: $120,739 (2018), $22,397 (2019), $110,413 (2021), $476,287 (2022).
• $100,000 was the cost for the kit for their national team in 2018.
• Total Sports Marketing in 2021 was $28,045.
• In 2021, ZCB’s cricket income was made up of ICC distributions, World Cup Qualifier ($367,190), TV Rights ($435,381), and sponsorship/other income ($55,663).
• In 2022, the new National Premier League (NPL) and Zim Afro T10 cost about $254,181. Women and age group tournaments investments also increased from $34,434 in 2021 to $217,073 in 2022.

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Quotes from ZC’s Annual Reports

Since the ICC suspension, Zimbabwe Cricket has been proactive in getting its financial act together. Even though COVID-19 was disastrous for the rest of their operations, during this period, they paid off their old debt, invested in women’s cricket and grassroot cricket, and inaugurated domestic tournaments like the National Premier League (NPL) and Zimbabwe Afro T10.

Here are some quotes from Tavenga Mukuhlani, ZC’s chairman and Givemore Makoni, the managing director in the annual reports over the 4-year period.

2019/20 Annual Report

With the ICC having frozen funding to ZC, our facilities were in disarray, with grass overgrown and the wickets needing a lot of work (Makoni).

“Having ended as badly as it started, the period under review has without any doubt been Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC)’s annus horribilis...At the close of the just-ended financial year, we had whittled the US$27-million legacy debt down to US$1 million, in the process breaking the chains that had enslaved our organisation to an unending cycle of financial troubles (Mukuhlani).

Source: 2019-2020 ZCB Annual Report (Year Ending 31 December, 2019)

2020/21 Annual Report

“With our revenues constrained, we seriously considered laying off staff and cutting salaries as so to future-proof the organisation….So, our only alternative was to live within our budget, which is almost entirely funded through distributions from the ICC” (Makoni).

Source: 2020-2021 ZCB Annual Report

2021/22 Annual Report

“There was a time we genuinely feared the 2021/22 season was going to be a total disaster….The global pandemic had a huge impact on every element of the men’s and women’s game, putting huge pressure on our finances, as tours and matches were either cancelled or postponed and revenue streams destroyed….From a business perspective, we came up with the Zimbabwe Cricket Strategic Plan 2021-2026, which outlines the strategic visions and goals that we have identified to help the organisation realise its full potential and better [fulfill] its mission (Mukuhlani).

Source: 2021-2022 ZCB Annual Report

2022/23 Annual Report

“From a business perspective, this was the first season in which we could begin to put the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, and we did with another clean audit outcome” (Mukuhlani).

“This Annual Report spans what has been one of my most challenging times as Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) Chairman….Over the past five years, we have made significant strides in women’s cricket, including, for the first time in the history of the game in Zimbabwe, giving national contracts to women players and offering allowances to non-contracted women players” (Makoni).

Source: 2022-2023 ZCB Annual Report

*Note: We Looked at the ‘Organisation’ and not the ‘Group’ data in Zimbabwe Cricket’s annual reports.

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Final Thoughts

One day you open up the news, and what do you see?

Zimbabwe will be playing 11 Tests in a single year. They are touring England for the first time in 22 years. A Curran brother has chosen to represent them, Sean Williams & Sikandar Raza are still going, Blessing Muzarabani leads the world in Test wickets this year, and even Brendon Taylor is in talks of making a comeback after serving his ICC ban.

So…did this happen overnight?

Well, it did not. Remember, Rome was not built in a day.

Since the 2019 ICC suspension, COVID-19 crisis, and failing to qualify for World Cups, Zimbabwe Cricket quietly got to work. They focused on cleaning up their finances, restructuring debt, and restoring stability in domestic cricket.

Now, with a bit of surplus in hand and increased ICC funding coming soon, they can finally dream a little bigger.

One Test at a time.

****

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© Copyright @Nitesh Mathur and Broken Cricket Dreams, LLC 2023. Originally published on 05/22/2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Broken Cricket Dreams with appropriate and specific direction to the original content (i.e. linked to the exact post/article).

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