HARARE - Although Zimbabwe has never been a highly-ranked cricketing nation, it is astonishing to note how many players from this country have represented world XI teams.

The leader of the pack was Dave Houghton of course, who played for several world invitational teams throughout his career.

In fact, his average for world XI teams was considerably higher than when he represented Zimbabwe in one-day internationals.

 Former players such as Heath Streak, Paul Strang, the Flower brothers and Tatenda Taibu had all represented world invitational teams at some point of their careers.

 The advent of the various T20 tournaments around the world has once again given Zimbabweans a chance to show their skills to the rest of the world.

 The Bangladesh Premier League is about to get underway, and three Zimbabweans have been invited to play in this rapidly growing tournament.

 Brendan Taylor, Hamilton Masakadza, Elton Chigumbura as well as Charles Coventry will be winging their way across to Bangladesh to be part of the competition, as well as former Zimbabwean all-rounder Sean Ervine.

Taylor, Masakadza and Ervine have become household names around the world, and although Coventry momentarily shared the highest individual score in ODI cricket, he has sadly been labelled a one-hit wonder.

 So the opportunity to be a part of this tournament will hopefully do his confidence and self-belief the world of good.

 And, if he get’s the opportunity to play, and makes it count, you may just see his name pencilled in for future tournaments around the world, and more importantly, he may once again be back in the national team.

 It is quite amazing to see a country as small as Zimbabwe produce such talent over the years, and one can only hope that Taylor, Masakadza, Chigumbura and Coventry will take the opportunity that has been presented to them with both hands, and make it count by scoring runs which will undoubtedly put them in the right frame of mind when they tour the West Indies in February.