Early years Back when the country was
Rhodesia, the national hockey team qualified for the
1964 Olympics in Tokyo after beating the
United Arab Republic. Team captain
Lloyd Koch was
Rhodesia's flag bearer, and the team won one game against New Zealand. Koch scored two goals in the tournament.
1980s – Rise in Africa after Independence Zimbabwe got independence in 1980. Soon after independence, various attempts were made to establish sports in the country.
Women's team won the inaugural Gold medal in
1980 Olympics. Men's team picked the graph and went on to perform decent in the International games. They won silver and bronze medals in 1987 and 1991
All-Africa Games respectively. The team also bagged bronze medal in
Hockey African Cup for Nations in 2000 by defeating
Ghana. They managed to hold a strong position in the African continent for almost two decades.
Decline and re-establishment Zimbabwe saw a drought in sports after the year 2000. They couldn't manage to maintain their spot in the African region and fall down to sixth in the continental ranking. To revive the game of hockey in the country,
2011 African Olympic Qualifier were organised in Zimbabwe. But the problem was the stadium was not ready by that time.
Zimbabwe asked help from
South Africa. On 8 July 2011 The Hockey Association of Zimbabwe announced that the ship with the containers holding the new carpet for the Khumalo Hockey Stadium (KHS) was due to dock in Durban, South Africa. Chairman of the Hockey Olympic Qualifiers local organising committee Gavin Stephens said in a statement that the carpet should be delivered to Bulawayo by 16 July. "This will keep the project on course for commissioning by the end of July. It is understood that the Ministry of Public Works is rushing to meet the deadline, with their work schedule lagging behind." In response to a call from the Matabeleland Hockey Board (MHB), approximately 60–70 people arrived at the Khumalo Hockey Stadium on Saturday, 2 July 2011. About 20 of these were labourers from Petra School, Burger & McBean and Precast Concrete Products. The other 50 were made up of hockey players, parents of hockey players, and members of general public. The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, arrived to lend his support, while both current and former national and provincial hockey players were also present. Zimbabwe performed poorly in the tournament and lost 4 out of 5 games with a draw against Morocco. Later on, Zimbabwe hosted African Hockey Club of Championship in 2014 and won silver medal after losing to
Kenya by 7–0.
2015–2018 Since then, Zimbabwe are regularly organizing local competitions and events. They registered their biggest win in
2015 African Olympic Qualifier by defeating Botswana by 19–0.
Matthew Williams scored record 6 goals in the game, becoming first Zimbabwean ever to score more than 5 goals in a match. He emerged as highest scorer for Zimbabwe in the tournament by scoring 11 goals. In 2018, Zimbabwe played a 5 match test series against their arch rivals
Namibia and lost all the games.
Tendayi Maredza, who is currently the skipper of the team is regarded as one of the finest players in the African continent. Maredza was included in the International XI side that toured
South Africa in 2016.
Pritchard Matambo has emerged as the unsung hero having defended the team for more than a decade.
2018–19 Men's Hockey Series Open The
2018–19 Men's Hockey Series Open was the first stage of the 2018–19 edition of the Hockey Series. It was held from June to December 2018. Zimbabwe participated and hosted the Bulawayo pool. Despite being the hosts, the Chevrons failed to qualify for the Olympic qualifiers and lost the spot to
Egypt. Tatenda Kanyangarara emerged as highest scorer for Zimbabwe. ==Tournament history==