"When I was a teenager, cricket in Zimbabwe was almost exclusively played and supported by white people, Du Plessis says. And besides the accents and topics of conversation, you could tell this by the way they would applaud and chant. It had a particular energy. The most animated fans were usually the ones who had too much beer and hurled abuse at the players on the boundary."
"I think this truly changed during the World Cup qualifiers in 2018. I can't remember who they were playing, but I remember that the crowd was chanting in Shona. You could tell that people were dancing as they sang. It felt like this team was finally getting the love of the majority of the country. It feels like cricket is now a sport for everyone."
"Cricket was seemingly out of step with a country that shed so much blood to reimagine itself after colonial rule. In the late 1990s, that ecosystem produced a golden generation. Andy Flower rose to the top of the ICC's Test batting rankings. Heath Streak carried the attack. Zimbabwe beat South Africa at the 1999 World Cup en route to the Super Sixes. They were plucky, precise and competitive. But they were also almost monochrome."
Dean du Plessis, a blind cricket commentator, observed Zimbabwe's cricket transformation through audio cues. Historically, Zimbabwean cricket was dominated by white players and supporters with a particular applause style, producing a golden generation in the late 1990s with players like Andy Flower and Heath Streak. However, the sport remained disconnected from the broader nation's post-colonial identity. The pivotal shift occurred during 2018 World Cup qualifiers when crowds began chanting in Shona and dancing, indicating the majority population's embrace of cricket. This democratization continued as Zimbabwe exceeded expectations in the T20 World Cup, defeating Australia and Sri Lanka despite taking a difficult qualification path.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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