Logan Cup
Logan Cup: participating teams
Mashonaland Eagles
2
Matabeleland Tuskers
2
Mid West Rhinos
0
Mountaineers cricket team
0
Logan Cup: First-class cricket home tournament in Zimbabwe
The Logan Cup is a first-class cricket competition that has been held in Zimbabwe for more than a hundred years. The history and name of the Cup are closely connected with the name of James Douglas Logan, one of the three greatest patrons of South African cricket and the co-founder of Cricket South Africa.
Logan was born in 1857 in Reston, Scotland, the son of a railway worker. After receiving a basic education, the enterprising young man decided to move to Africa, where he quickly achieved success. The newly discovered diamond deposits required local infrastructure and communications development, so Logan easily found a job at a local railway company, soon rising to the station manager. He took the transfer to a remote area with enthusiasm: thanks to a successful marriage with a rich heiress, the young man was able to buy an impressive area of land, which allowed him to expand the diamond trade, achieving financial independence in a few years.
An impressive fortune, which Logan never tired of multiplying, opened up great opportunities for him. The Scot, who was dubbed the “Laird of Matjiesfontein” by the local press, not only took an active part in politics, but also helped to popularize his favorite game – cricket. It was he who organized the first ever tour of South African athletes in England in 1901, so it is not surprising that one of the oldest tournaments in the region was named after him.
It is worth noting that the first historically recorded cricket match in the south of the continent took place in the early 90s of the XIX century in Rhodesia. Over the next decade, the games began to be held regularly, and Salisbury and Bulawayo took the most prominent place in the list of participating teams. After conducting a tour of England, Logan offered the Rhodesians an innovation: starting in 1903, the main prize of local competitions was the Cup, which later received the official name Logan Cup.
The Logan Cup received the status of a first-class tournament in 1992 (at the same time, the Zimbabwe national team was awarded test status). Mashonaland U-24 won the debut game of 1993-1994 – objectively the strongest team in Harare, which took a total of nine trophies out of 12 between 1993 and 2005.
In 2005-2006, the Logan Cup was put on pause due to the internal political crisis. A season later, the competition returned in an updated format – it was decided to abandon the traditional “team-province” correspondence and expand the list of participants. Unfortunately, the debutant of the Logan Cup Kenya, despite the public’s high expectations, did not show outstanding results, finishing last.
A new page in the history of the Logan Cup was the era of franchises, which began in 2009. Five teams joined the fight:
- Mashonaland Eagles;
- Matabeleland Tuskers;
- Mid West Rhinos;
- Mountaineers;
- Southern Rocks.
The latter could not succeed for a long time, so in 2013 the organizers decided to abandon the franchise. In the 2017 season, Rising Stars took its place, the core of which was made up of young players (primarily students). In 2021, Southern Rocks again applied for participation in the Logan Cup and unexpectedly won the draw, taking the first serious trophy in its history.
Logan Cup: organization and participants
The Logan Cup is held in a league format and lasts just over two months, although the 2020-2021 draw took more than four due to the forced pause caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Currently, five teams take part in the competition on a permanent basis:
| Team | Home ground | Captain | Won trophies (since 2009) | Finals appearences (since 2009) |
| Mashonaland Eagles | Harare Sports Club | Chamu Chibhabha | 2 | 4 |
| Matabeleland Tuskers | Queens Sports Club | John Nyumbu and Ainsley Ndlovu | 4 | 1 |
| Mid West Rhinos | Kwekwe Sports Club | Prince Masvaure | – | 4 |
| Mountaineers | Mutare Sports Club | Donald Tiripano | 4 | 2 |
| Southern Rocks | Masvingo Sports Club | Richmond Mutumbami | 1 | – |
Logan Cup: team performance statistics
In the era of franchises, which began in 2009, the greatest success in the Logan Cup drawings was achieved by:
- Mid West Rhinos batsman Vusi Sibanda, who scored 1,287 runs in the 2009-2010 season (Gary Ballance from the same team is on the second line, who recorded 1,093 runs in the 2011-2012 season);
- Mid West Rhinos bowler Graham Kramer, who took 59 wickets in the 2009-2010 season (in second place is Tendai Chatara of the Mountaineers with 55 wickets in the 2010-2011 season).
