About

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. In 2009, Zimbabwe Cricket announced a major restructure of domestic cricket in Zimbabwe and the traditional provincial sides were replaced with regional franchises. Midlands was renamed Mid West Rhinos and based in the mining town of Kwekwe. With the new franchise system in place the season got under way on 14 September 2009. Current captain Vusimuzi Sibanda was the first person to score a hundred under the new 'Mid West Rhinos' name as they convincingly beat the newly titled Matabeleland Tuskers by 135 runs. Sadly for the Rhinos, the season ended in a tense draw that saw the Mashonaland Eagles triumph narrowly. The 2010/11 season was a promising one as the Rhinos retained the services of a number of top Zimbabwe players. Once again, they failed to win any trophies despite winning 4 games and only losing 2 in the newly branded Castle Logan Cup. Throughout the following seasons, the Rhinos have had many successes but failed to win any trophies. Despite a delay to the start of the 2014/15 season, the season began with the Mid West Rhinos tipped to be one of the stronger sides in both the four day and one day competitions. However, off field issues affecting both the Rhinos and Zimbabwean cricket as a whole meant that the first part of the season saw mixed results. The only win for the Rhinos in the Logan Cup before Christmas came as a result of a poor performance by the Mashonaland Eagles in the season opener. After the Christmas break, the Rhinos showed some strong performances, bolstered by Vusi Sibanda and Malcolm Waller both of whom did not travel to the 2015 World Cup, but the One Day performances were abysmal. At the end of the season, the Rhinos won just 2 Pro50 matches but finished 2nd to Tuskers in the Logan Cup by only 3 points.