Logan Cup

The Logan Cup is the prize for winning the national first-class cricket championship of Zimbabwe.

Origin
In the 1898–99 season, an English cricket team visited Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) for the first time. Led by Lord Hawke, they played two matches in Bulawayo. Accompanying them by rail from Kimberley was businessman James Douglas Logan, who was a prominent figure in South African cricket.

Logan wanted to commemorate the visit by Hawke's team, and proposed the purchase of a suitable trophy to encourage cricket in Rhodesia. Hawke agreed to buy one at Logan's expense when he returned to England. He found one which cost 100 guineas, and had it delivered to Logan. The trophy is 2 feet 6 inches tall and made of solid silver. It is inscribed with:

Presented by the Hon. J. D. Logan, MLC, to the Rhodesian Cricket Association in commemoration of the first visit of an English team of Lord Hawke's, March 1899.

The Rhodesian Cricket Association named it the Logan Cup, and initiated (began) a competition between teams representing the colony's provinces: Manicaland, Mashonaland, Matabaleland, and Midlands. It was first contested in 1903, but only as a weekend contest of two-day matches. That remained the tournament's format for the next ninety years, apart from a few three-day matches which were played in the 1920s.

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