| Series Name: | Sri Lankans in Zimbabwe 2004 |
| Team1 Image: | Flag of Zimbabwe.svg |
| Team1 Name: | Zimbabwe |
| Team2 Image: | Flag of Sri Lanka.svg |
| Team2 Name: | Sri Lanka |
| From Date: | 20 April 2004 |
| To Date: | 17 May 2004 |
| Team1 Captain: | Tatenda Taibu |
| Team2 Captain: | Marvan Atapattu Mahela Jayawardene (4th ODI) |
| No Of Tests: | 2 |
| Team1 Tests Won: | 0 |
| Team2 Tests Won: | 2 |
| Team1 Tests Most Runs: | Dion Ebrahim (115) |
| Team2 Tests Most Runs: | Marvan Atapattu (419) |
| Team1 Tests Most Wickets: | Tinashe Panyangara (4) |
| Team2 Tests Most Wickets: | Muttiah Muralitharan (14) |
| Player Of Test Series: | Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka) |
| No Of Odis: | 5 |
| Team1 Odis Won: | 0 |
| Team2 Odis Won: | 5 |
| Team1 Odis Most Runs: | Tatenda Taibu (169) |
| Team2 Odis Most Runs: | Kumar Sangakkara (136) |
| Team1 Odis Most Wickets: | Tawanda Mupariwa (4) |
| Team2 Odis Most Wickets: | Muttiah Muralitharan (10) |
| Player Of Odi Series: | Tatenda Taibu (Zimbabwe) |
The Sri Lanka national cricket team toured Zimbabwe in April and May 2004 to play 2 Test matches and 5 Limited Overs Internationals.[1] The next time Zimbabwe played Sri Lanka in a Test match was in October 2016.[2]
The series was preceded by a massive crisis rocking Zimbabwe cricket, with captain Heath Streak sacked and dropped from the team for criticising the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) and several of its policies, including the quota system for non-white cricketers and politicisation of the sport among others.[3] Subsequently, thirteen leading Zimbabwean cricketers, all of them white, rebelled and made themselves unavailable for selection in protest against the treatment meted out to Streak by the ZCU.[4] As a result, a second-string side led by wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu and comprising mostly black cricketers was selected to face Sri Lanka.[4] The side proved to be clearly uncompetitive as the Lankans whitewashed them in both the ODIs and Tests by margins of 5-0 and 2-0 respectively, winning all matches by heavy margins and winning both Tests by an innings.
Due to the shambolic performance by the Zimbabweans, the ZCU scrapped all Test matches involving Zimbabwe for the rest of the year.[5] The series marked the start of the downfall for Zimbabwe cricket which continues to this day.[6] [7]