Memories of Zimbabwe 2004

Cricket in Harare between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka invariably stirs memories of that fateful tour 21 years ago, a series that put Sri Lanka on the world map for more reasons than one.

- BY REX CLEMENTINE

It was in Zimbabwe in 2004 that Muttiah Muralitharan, the smiling assassin, toppled Courtney Walsh's record to become Test cricket's highest wicket-taker. From then on, Murali and Shane Warne were locked in a neck-and-neck tussle, trading blows like prizefighters until Warne's retirement left Murali to reign supreme.

That series, though, was more than just leather on willow.

'Zimbabwe 2004' was littered with drama both on and off the field. For us reporters, it was a crash course not only in cricket but in the dark underbelly of a nation.

At the helm stood Robert Mugabe — once a freedom fighter, but by then a despot whose policies were driving his nation into isolation. Unlike Nelson Mandela, who united South Africa and bowed out gracefully, Mugabe clung to power with the stickiness of a bat refusing to leave the crease. In trying to curry favour with the black majority, he alienated the white minority and eventually his innings ended in chaos.

Cricket, too, was unravelling.