The Sri Lanka national cricket team toured Zimbabwe in April and May 2004 to play 2 Test matches and 5 Limited Overs Internationals.CricketArchive – tour itinerary . Retrieved on 14 December 2010. The next time Zimbabwe played Sri Lanka in a Test match was in October 2016.
The series was preceded by a massive crisis rocking Zimbabwe cricket, with captain Heath Streak sacked and dropped from the team for criticising the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) and several of its policies, including the quota system for non-white cricketers and politicisation of the sport among others.Heath Streak was loved, and he knew it Subsequently, thirteen leading Zimbabwean cricketers, all of them white, rebelled and made themselves unavailable for selection in protest against the treatment meted out to Streak by the ZCU.Zimbabwe hit by players' rebellion As a result, a second-string side led by wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu and comprising mostly black cricketers was selected to face Sri Lanka. The side proved to be clearly uncompetitive as the Lankans whitewashed them in both the ODIs and Tests by margins of 5-0 and 2-0 respectively, winning all matches by heavy margins and winning both Tests by an innings.
Due to the shambolic performance by the Zimbabweans, the ZCU scrapped all Test matches involving Zimbabwe for the rest of the year.Zimbabwe Agrees to Play No More Test Cricket Matches in 2004 - 2004-06-10 The series marked the start of the downfall for Zimbabwe cricket which continues to this day.Zimbabwe's decade of hurtZimbabwe fails to qualify for T20 World Cup as African nation’s sad downfall continues
Squads
Zimbabwe Sri Lanka Tatenda Taibu (c; wk) Marvan Atapattu (c) Dion Ebrahim Prasanna Jayawardene (wk) Elton Chigumbura Mahela Jayawardene Douglas Hondo Kumar Sangakkara Blessing Mahwire Sanath Jayasuriya Alester Maregwede Tillakaratne Dilshan Stuart Matsikenyeri Thilan Samaraweera Tawanda Mupariwa Dinusha Fernando Mluleki Nkala Chaminda Vaas Tinashe Panyangara Muttiah Muralitharan Brendan Taylor Upul Chandana Prosper Utseya Ian Daniel Mark Vermeulen Rangana Herath Thilina Kandamby Farveez Maharoof Nuwan Zoysa Russel Arnold
ODI series
1st ODI
2nd ODI
3rd ODI
4th ODI
5th ODI
Test series 1st Test CricketArchive – 1st Test scorecard Cricketarchive.com, Retrieved on 14 December 2010.
2nd Test CricketArchive – 2nd Test scorecard Cricketarchive.com, Retrieved on 14 December 2010.
References