Playing first-class cricket for the first time since 2017/18, Graeme Cremer picked up 9-144 for the Mid West Rhinos in a Logan Cup match.
Between 2005 and 2017, Cremer had played 19 Test matches for Zimbabwe, picking up 57 wickets and scoring 540 runs. He also played 96 ODIs and 29 T20Is. He led Zimbabwe towards the end of his international career.
Cremer’s last first-class match had been the Boxing Day Test in South Africa in end-2017. He played limited-overs cricket for Zimbabwe after that, but quit professional cricket altogether after December 2018.
Cremer then settled down in Dubai to look after his children as his wife worked for the Emirates airlines. Over this period, he took up various coaching stints. He returned to cricket earlier this year. Zimbabwe included Cremer in their squad for the T20Is against Afghanistan at home, but he did not get a game.
Cremer finally played a professional cricket match in the 2025/26 Logan Cup, for the Mid West Rhinos against the Southern Rocks at Kwekwe. After rain washed out the first day’s play, the Rocks finished the second day on 202-4 after Roy Kaia won the toss and opted to bat. Cremer claimed three of these wickets, while Michael Chinouya got Kaia.
Rain prevented any cricket on the third day as well. When play eventually resumed, Panashe Taruvinga (93) and Tafadzwa Tsiga (100) helped the Rocks reach 347 as Cremer picked up the six remaining wickets. He finished with 9-144 from 46.2 overs, the second nine-wicket haul in first-class cricket (and the first by a spinner) in Zimbabwe.
The Rhinos batted out time to score 49-1 in the remaining time.
