The Pro50 Championship, formerly known as the Faithwear Metbank One-Day Competition, Metbank Pro40 Championship, Faithwear Inter-Provincial Tournament, and Coca-Cola Metbank Pro50 Championship is the premier

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

cricket tournament in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

, organized by

Zimbabwe Cricket Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), previously known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) until 2004, is the governing body for the sport of cricket in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Cricket is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), and administers th ...

. This tournament was started after the

Zimbabwean cricket crisis Cricket in Zimbabwe suffered a crisis that lasted from 2003 to 2011 where player withdrawals such as the "Black-armband protest" by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga along with a mass loss of players in 2004 due to a general strike resulted in very poo ...

, recommended by the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC). It is jointly sponsored by Metbank and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

Participating teams

Mashonaland Eagles The Mashonaland Eagles is one of five cricket Zimbabwean cricket franchises. They are based in the Harare Metropolitan and Mashonaland Central area and play both first-class and limited overs cricket. They play their home matches at Harare Spo ...

Matabeleland Tuskers The Matabeleland Tuskers is one of five Zimbabwean cricket franchises. They are a first-class cricket team, based in the Bulawayo Metropolitan and Matabeleland North area. They play their home matches at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. They were ...

Mid West Rhinos The Mid West Rhinos is one of the four cricket Zimbabwean cricket franchises. They are a first-class cricket team, based in Midlands Province and the Mashonaland West area. They play their home matches at Kwekwe Sports Club in Kwekwe. History ...

Mountaineers Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

* Southern Rocks (2009–2014) and (2021–)

Former Teams

2002-06 Seasons

Manicaland Manicaland is a Provinces of Zimbabwe, province in eastern Zimbabwe. After Harare Province, it is the country's second-most populous province, with a population of 2.037 million, as of the 2012 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census. After Harare and Bulawa ...

Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. Currently, Mashonaland is divided into four provinces, * Mashonaland West * Mashonaland Central * Mashonaland East * Harare The Zimbabwean capital of Harare, a province unto itself, lies entirely ...

Masvingo Masvingo is a city in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city is situated close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and close to Lake Mutirikwi, its recreational park, th ...

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi r ...

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

(2004–2005)

2007-09 seasons

* Centrals * Easterns * Northerns * Southerns *

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

Franchise era teams

* Rising Stars (2017–2018)

Champions

This table lists all the champions of the Pro50 Championship.

Tournaments

Before the reorganization of cricket in Zimbabwe, this tournament was known as the Faithwear Inter-Clothing Tournament or Faithwear Inter-Provincial One-Day Series.

2002/03 season

* Champions: Mashonaland * Runners-up: Manicaland * Official Website
2002/03 Faithwear Inter-Provincial Series
on

ESPNCricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

Four teams participated in this inaugural tournament (before the Zimbabwean cricket crisis). They included Mashonaland, Manicaland, Matabeleland and Midlands. Star players like

Andy Flower Andrew Flower (born 28 April 1968) is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and a former cricketer. As a cricketer, he captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team. He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for more than 10 years and is, statistically, the greatest ...

Grant Flower Grant William Flower (born 20 December 1970) is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the current batting coach of Sri Lanka cricket team and Sussex. He is rated among the best Zimbabwean cricketers in history for his consistent ...

Guy Whittall Guy James Whittall (born 5 September 1972) is a former Zimbabwean international cricketer who played 46 Test matches and 147 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and captained Zimbabwe in four ODIs. He played as an all-rounder and was known as an a ...

Mluleki Nkala Mluleki Luke Nkala (born 1 April 1981) is a Zimbabwean international cricketer. He took the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar with his second ball in senior international cricket in 1999. He also took five wickets against England in a test match in Nott ...

Craig Wishart Craig Brian Wishart (born 9 January 1974) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs for 10 years. He played domestic cricket for Mashonaland and Midlands as well as the Zimbabwean national team. Currently he is self-employed in ...

Henry Olonga Henry Khaaba Olonga (born 3 July 1976) is a Zimbabwean former cricketer, who played Test and One Day International (ODI) cricket for Zimbabwe. In domestic first-class cricket in Zimbabwe, Olonga played for Matabeleland, Mashonaland and Manicalan ...

Heath Streak Heath Hilton Streak (born 16 March 1974) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer and cricket coach who played for and captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team. By his statistical record, he is the best bowler to have played for Zimbabwe. He is the a ...

Stuart Carlisle Stuart Vance Carlisle (born 10 May 1972) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played 37 Test matches and 111 One Day Internationals for Zimbabwe. He was captained the side briefly, leading them in six Tests and 12 ODIs, and achieving a 2–3 res ...

Sean Ervine Sean Michael Ervine (born 6 December 1982) is a Zimbabwean former cricketer. Ervine played as an all-rounder who batted left-handed and bowled right-arm medium pace. Ervine was born at Harare in Zimbabwe and played for his country in the 2003 ...

and

Brian Murphy Brian Murphy may refer to: Sportspeople * Brian Murphy (Jamaican cricketer) (born 1973), Jamaican cricketer * Brian Murphy (Zimbabwean cricketer) (born 1976), Zimbabwean cricketer * Brian Murphy (baseball) (born 1980), American head baseball coach ...

took part in this tournament. Mashonaland won the tournament, defeating Midlands chasing a target over 300. It was quite unsurprising considering that the Mashonaland team had both the Flower brothers on their side. When Midlands batted first,

led the way with 121. He got valuable support from the top order that included

Terry Duffin Terrence Duffin (born 20 March 1982) is a former Zimbabwean international cricketer, who played Test matches and One Day Internationals, captaining the side in ODIs. International career Duffin has played two Test matches for Zimbabwe against ...

Travis Friend Travis John Friend (born 7 January 1981) is a former Zimbabwean international cricketer and commercial pilot. During his short international career. he made sporadic appearances for Zimbabwe having played only 13 test matches and 51 ODI matches. ...

and

Dougie Marillier Douglas Anthony Marillier (born 24 June 1978), known as Dougie Marillier, is a former Zimbabwean cricketer, who played Tests and One Day International cricket for the national side. He is a right hand batsman known for his unorthodox technique ...

. After Wishart's departure

hit a lightning unbeaten fifty that took the score to an imposing 300/5. Midlands began their fielding display well, dismissing both openers with the score at 31, but no match is won unless the Flower brothers are dismissed. Both the brothers struck centuries at better than a run-a-ball, in an unbroken partnership of 279 runs. So dominant were they that they still had 28 balls spare when the winning runs were scored. With Manicaland losing in Bulawayo, Mashonaland were crowned the inaugural Faithwear One-Day Series champions, winning five of their matches, against three each by Matabeleland and Manicaland.

was the highest run scorer with 482 runs at an average of 160.66, while

was the highest wicket-taker with 13 scalps.

2003/04 season

* Champions: Mashonaland * Runners-up: Midlands * Official Website
2003/04 Faithwear Inter-Provincial One-Day Series
on

Mashonaland successfully retained their title in this tournament, coasting to victory by six wickets against Midlands in the final. Midlands had a steady opening partnership only to see a middle-order collapse and were bowled out for 168. Mashonaland coasted to the victory with

Elton Chigumbura Elton Chigumbura (born 14 March 1986) is a Zimbabwean former cricketer, who played for Zimbabwe national cricket team between 2004 and 2020. He was educated at Churchill School (Harare) and made his debut at the age of 18, amidst the rebel cr ...

scoring 49*.

Piet Rinke Harry Peter Rinke (born 5 November 1981) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who debuted for the international team against Kenya in 2005–06. International career Rinke made 168 runs during the four-match series, more than any other Zimbabwean bats ...

top-scored in the tournament with 269 runs, while

Blessing Mahwire Ngonidzashe Blessing Mahwire (born 31 July 1982) is a Zimbabwean cricketer who plays first-class cricket for Mashonaland and has also made appearances for the Zimbabwean cricket team in both the Test match and One Day International forms of the ...

was the top wicket-taker with 13 wickets. Mashonaland had also finished first in their group.

2004/05 season

* Champions: Matabeleland * Runners-up: Namibia * Official Website
2004/05 Faithwear Inter-Provincial One-Day Series
on

For this season,

was added to the number of participating teams. They immediately made an impression, finishing runners-up finishing behind only champions Matabeleland. Matabeleland easily was the strongest team in the tournament, and the team particularly weakened was Mashonaland who finished bottom of the group league, as they were coupled by the loss of the Flower brothers, after the player walkout of 2004. Matabeleland won the tournament after their fourth successive victory against Midlands by 58 runs. After Sean Williams's 61 ensured they reached 222, Midlands were bowled out for 164, with

Keith Dabengwa Keith Mbusi Dabengwa (born 17 August 1980) is a Zimbabwean cricketer. He was appointed head coach of the Denmark national cricket team in October 2021. Dabengwa is an all-rounder who made his First class debut for Matabeleland in 2000, taking ...

taking 4-20. On the other hand, a shell-shocked Mashonaland side who had finished bottom of the league, called back 2004 rebels

Trevor Gripper Trevor Raymond Gripper (born 28 December 1975) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer. He was born in 1975 in Salisbury - now Harare. Gripper was a somewhat solid opening batsman, who once spent four hours 23 minutes inching his way to 28 in a match aga ...

and

Neil Ferreira Neil Robert Ferreira (born 3 June 1979) is a Zimbabwean cricketer. Having also tried his hand at sports including tennis, squash, and hockey, he made his name as a left-handed opening batsman for the academy and for Manicaland. He is also a wi ...

who had performed well in club cricket (although it is unclear whether

approved their selection). Both Gripper and Ferreira led Mashonaland to victory, with Gripper scoring 71 and Ferreira 45. They beat Manicaland by 14 runs, but it was nothing more than just a consolation. Particularly, Matabeleland's

Mark Vermeulen Mark Andrew Vermeulen (born 2 March 1979) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer, who played Test matches and One Day Internationals. He is a right-handed opening batsman and occasional off spin bowler. Domestic career He was former captain of Z ...

had a wonderful tournament being the top run-getter with 271 runs at a vastly impressive average of 90.33 and a top score of 105.

Christopher Mpofu Christopher Bobby "Chris" Mpofu (born 27 November 1985) is a Zimbabwean international cricketer. He has represented Zimbabwe at Test, ODI and Twenty20 International level. Early life and career Mpofu spent time in Brisbane, Australia at the Na ...

also rose to prominence by being the top wicket-taker with 11 wickets.

2005/06 season

* Champions: Matabeleland * Runners-up: Masvingo * Official Website
2005/06 Faithwear Inter-Provincial One-Day Series
on

This was the last tournament played with the traditional teams, with Masvingo being an additional team now. Masvingo repeated Namibia's newcomer success the previous season by finishing at the same second place behind champions Matabeleland. Matabeleland once again retained the title they won the previous season. Mashonaland's performances were better than it was last year, finishing in fourth place, but it was no where near the peaks it once ruled. In the series decider between Matabeleland and Masvingo, the Matabeles retained the title at a canter, crushing their opponents by eight wickets. Masvingo never recovered from the early heap of wickets and only Robertson Chinyengetere (34) built any substantial innings as

Tawanda Mupariwa Tawanda Mupariwa (born 16 April 1985) is a Zimbabwean cricketer. He is a right arm fast-medium seam bowler who was brought into the international side after the record low 35 all out in the third One Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka ...

(3/29) and

Greg Strydom Gregory Mark Strydom (born 26 March 1984) is an international cricketer. He played 12 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Zimbabwe national cricket team, Zimbabwe in 2006, and a number of T20 Internationals (T20Is) for Cayman Islands national crick ...

(4/20) did most of the damage. The Matabeles were given a solid start by

(20) and

Tinashe Hove Tinashe Hove (born 1 September 1984) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played domestically for Matabeleland cricket team, Matabeleland, Westerns cricket team (Zimbabwe), Westerns, and Southerns cricket team (Zimbabwe), Southerns. From Tshabal ...

(56*) as Matabeleland romped to the win with more than 23 overs spare. The result meant that they won all the four matches they played.

was the top run-scorer with 116 runs from 2 games, while

was once again the leading wicket-taker with 9 wickets from 4 matches. After the Zimbabwean cricket season of 2005/06, Cricinfo reporter Steven Price wrote an article describing the season detail-by-detail. After the Faithwear Cup was over, John Ward wrote on Cricinfo an article named "A brief history of Zimbabwe cricket". Here, he ended the article by saying that,"The 2005-06 Logan Cup never took place after a disastrous Faithwear Trophy when sides were so feeble as to be embarrassing. ZC revamped the system, removed Mashonaland and Matabeleland (two of the leading opponents of the Chingoka regime) and unveiled a new competition for 2006-07."

2006-07 season

* Champions: Easterns * Runner-up: Northerns * Official Website
2006/07 Faithwear Clothing Inter-Provincial Tournament
at

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

The Faithwear series went without any glitches in 2007, with the Mashonaland selection issues having been, for the most part, buried. While the quality of cricket wasn't all that high, there were some close contests, such as Centrals last ball win over Westerns, thanks to Solomon Mire's 79 not out, and Westerns 2 run victory over Southerns. But there were also some absolute drubbings, with the class of Easterns too much for Southerns, who lost with 117 balls remaining, and Westerns 88 run win, bowling Northerns out for just 133. For 50 over matches, Zimbabwe Cricket would have been disappointed that the average score was in the low 200's. Centrals 8/263 from 43 overs, thanks to a 94 run slog from Solomon Mire – who smashed 5 sixes and 7 fours in his 67 balls – was the highest score of the competition. However, the countries top cricketers were involved in the ICC World Cup in the West Indies, leaving the second tier – such as Tino Mawoyo, Graeme Cremer and Timycen Maruma – with more responsibility than they could handle. The absence of the big name players would have almost certainly been behind the series of low scores throughout the tournament.

2007/08 season

* Champions: Easterns * Runner-up: Centrals * Official Website
2007/09 Faithwear Clothing Inter-Provincial Tournament
at

The Faithwear series ran successfully after many delays which saw the series postponed several months. Unfortunately, the quality of cricket was not all that high, with teams still struggling to score well. For the second year running, Zimbabwe Cricket would have been disappointed that the average score in these 50 over matches was just over 140. The only decent scores of the series came from Centrals and Easterns. Centrals scored 6/237 in their loss to Easterns, with Easterns scoring 2/197, thinks to Timycen Maruma's 83, from 31 overs due to Duckworth-Lewis. Easterns also brought their A game to the "final". The final match of the series was between Northerns and Easterns, who both on equal number of wins, were essentially playing for the title. Easterns scored 9/249, the highest total of the series, which was too much for Northerns who struggled, scoring just 157. After the end of the tournament, Steven Price reported on Cricinfo about the state of cricket in Zimbabwe, where top Zimbabwean cricketers have resorted to black market hustling to survive.

2008/09 season

* Champions: Easterns * Runner-up: Westerns * Official Website
2008/09 Faithwear Clothing Inter-Provincial One-Day Tournament
at

It was the Faithwear series that kicked off the official domestic cricket season in Zimbabwe for 2008–09. This season saw the exclusion of Southerns, the feeling being that reducing the domestic competitions to 4 teams would increase the quality of cricket being played as a result of greater competition for squad places. This turned out to be very accurate with some very promising performances. Centrals, who gained many of Southerns former players, became a much more competitive team, posting 3 scores over 200; Easterns, Northerns and Westerns only reached 200 twice. Despite this, Centrals won the wooden spoon. It was Easterns who continued their domestic dominance with 5 wins from their 6 matches (the other match was abandoned), winning the Faithwear cup. The big news from this series was Mark Vermeulen's return to cricket. After burning down the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy in late 2006 his cricket career appeared to be over. But after being granted a second chance by Zimbabwe Cricket, he made his comeback in the 2008-09 Faithwear series. Many players missed the beginning of the tournament due to the Zimbabwe A tour of Namibia and South Africa. The following tournaments happened after the reorganization of Zimbabwean cricket:

2009/10 season

* Winner:

2010/11 season

* Winners: Southern Rocks

2011/12 season

* Winners:

2012/13 season

* Winners:

2013/14 season

* Winners:

2014/15 season

* Winners:

2015/16 season

* Winners:

2016/17 season

* Winners:

2017/18 season

* Winners: Rising Stars

2018/19 season

* Winners :

2019/20 season

* Winners : Zimbabwe Cricket voided the tournament due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

with no winner being declared.

2020/21 season

* Winners :

2021/22 season

* Winners :

2022/23 season

* Winners :

Notes

also is a development sponsor of

.Zimbabwe Cricket Sponsors
Zimbabwe Cricket Official Website. Retrieved 2 December 2011

References

External links

MetBank Pro40
on

Official Website.
Coca-Cola Pro50
on

Official Website.
Faithwear One-Day Series
on

Official Website. {{Pro50 Championship seasons Professional sports leagues in Zimbabwe Recurring sporting events established in 2002 Zimbabwean domestic cricket competitions List A cricket competitions Professional cricket leagues