Zimbabwe Cricket Team: World Cricket's Clown of the Month, November 2014

It’s been a month in which no cricketer has managed to do anything exceedingly daft. That makes selecting Clown of the Month somewhat tricky.

The award is usually presented to somebody who does something silly, but this month’s award goes to the Zimbabwe cricket team for their horror tour to Bangladesh.

Winless in the Tests, warm-ups and one-day games played in November, the team aren't exactly "ha ha" funny. In fact, the situation's not funny at all, but clown can be defined in various ways.

Throughout the one-day games, Zimbabwe have always looked like they might claw their way back. But every single time, they have found a way to collapse and bring defeat after defeat upon themselves. It’s embarrassing, and being a Zimbabwe cricket fan must feel like hell at present.

While there were some positives to take from the Test series, the one-day series was sheer torture for Zim fans.

In the first ODI, Zim used eight different bowlers as Shakib Al Hasan hit 101 off 99 balls and the lower order put on 210 runs of the 281 total. Zimbabwe started off well, with Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor both scoring steadily. Then, the collapse happened. Zim went from 153-6 after 33.1 overs to 194 all out.

That theme repeated itself throughout the series, and Zimbabwe struggled to find excuses for their continuous failures.

After losing the third ODI by 124 runs, captain Elton Chigumbura didn't have much to say. He did, however, admit that his team kept on making the same mistakes. He was quoted by ESPN Cricinfo as saying:

"

It was another disappointment. Same old stuff, same old mistakes. I guess if we keep repeating the same thing we keep getting the same result. We changed the team, but we repeated the same mistakes. 

"

To add to their woes, Zimbabwe were also fined for a slow over rate during the fourth ODI, with Elton Chigumbura losing 20 per cent of his match fee, as per ESPN Cricinfo. While that wasn’t exactly disastrous, it was just another tick on the list of errors for the team.

With a World Cup just around the corner, Zimbabwe have reason to be seriously concerned. Stephen Mangongo was appointed as permanent coach earlier this year, just before South Africa toured the country. Since then, Zimbabwe have not won a match, which has caused much frustration for the fans.

"

Do they care? "@DavidColtart: Zim Cricket plumb new depths - all out for 128 in 5 ODI v @BCBtigers . Makoni and Mangongo must be dismissed."

— KB Mpofu (@KBMpofu) December 1, 2014"

Some have even questioned whether the coach's appointment was based on reasons other than his ability. Only time will tell whether there is any truth to that. For now, what is clear is that Zimbabwe need a rethink very quickly.

They are fast becoming the laughing stock of the cricketing world. There are some good players in the team, but they have not been able to perform as a unit.

Time in the middle could solve some of their troubles, but Zimbabwe have no further cricket scheduled until the World Cup begins next year. With the horror tour now behind them, perhaps Zim’s players will be happy to just take a step back from everything for a little while.