Hope springs eternal for Zim Cricket
CRICKET has many qualities, but surely one of its finest is the ability to act as a sort of social barometer, providing a reading on the state of a country whilst marking the passage of time.
As an example, it is more than 12 years since Zimbabwe last played a Test match in South Africa, and rarely in the post-War period has so much water flowed under the proverbial bridge in between two meetings.
In March 2005, Zimbabwe was in a dire state. Robert Mugabe was closing in on 25 years as President of a country that had descended into chaos since the turn of the millennium. Fuel and basic goods were hard to come by, hyperinflation had reached world record levels and the Zimbabwe dollar had become almost worthless.
Inevitably, cricket had been affected. The previous year, a bomb of simmering issues had detonated, and captain Heath Streak had walked away with 14 other white players following in his wake. Without them, Zimbabwe went from being a competitive international side to a youth team. “There was no one else,” remembers Graeme Cremer. “The rebels had just left, so we were the next best players. We were basically the Under-19 team with a few of the old national guys.”
A string of predictably poor results followed. Two months before landing in South Africa, Zimbabwe lost their first Test and series to Bangladesh. Yet there was a glimmer of hope that things might improve when Heath Streak and Andy Blignaut accepted an olive branch from the board and agreed to return for the South Africa tour. That hope lasted just two days.
In the first Test in Cape Town, Zimbabwe won the toss, elected to bat and were bowled out for 54 - their lowest Test score. “We were a bit shell-shocked,” says Cremer, “but we thought there was something in the wicket for the seamers. Then they came out and just smashed us.”
With Graeme Smith scoring 121 at better than a run a ball and Jacques Kallis recording the fastest Test fifty in history, South Africa reached stumps on day one on 340 for three. It had taken them just 50 overs, and their lead of 286 broke the record for the biggest lead on a first day’s play, beating England’s 233 at Lord’s in 1896.
Cremer was just 18 years old, and had left school the previous year to pursue his cricket career. In a sane world, nobody would ask an 18-year-old legspinner with a handful of first-class games to bowl to Jacques Kallis in a Test match, but sanity had gone out the window in Zimbabwe.
“I’d never bowled to anyone of that calibre. To see how he timed the ball and how easy it was for them...I’d never seen that,” he says. “At that stage I also thought that because it was Test cricket and I’d watched it on TV, I had to have the field up. I didn’t even realise that if teams are going like that you should push the field back and force the batsmen to hit over the fielders in the deep. It was that young mentality of, ‘It’s Test cricket. We need to at least have mid-on and mid-off up’. They took full advantage of that.”
Cremer has no trouble recalling his figures. “Nine overs, 3 for 86. I remember it like it was yesterday.” Figuring that they would neither show Zimbabwe mercy nor waste anybody’s time, South Africa declared overnight. They were held up in a two-hour period either side of lunch by a 98-run stand between Dion Ebrahim and Hamilton Masakadza - and later by a typically belligerent 61 from Blignaut - but still wrapped the game up with an hour to spare on day two.
The second Test was little better for Zimbabwe. South Africa were handicapped by an injury to Charl Langeveldt early on, but still won by an innings inside three days. Their ruthless attitude was summed up by Mark Boucher, whose continuous sledging of Tatenda Taibu at Centurion was captured by the stump microphone, although Streak believes there was another motive involved. Smith, Boucher and Kallis had all been in contact with Streak during the rebel saga, and Boucher was targeting Taibu, who had taken over the captaincy when Streak left.
“I think it was more in support of those of us who had been given the hoof,” Streak says. “I think there was a strong feeling among some of the South African guys that some of the players in our team had, in a way, let others down by playing rather than forcing the board to sort out the issues with (the rebels). If I’m brutally honest, all our careers were cut short by people who were involved then. A lot of us were coming to the peak of our careers and we had that curtailed. I think a lot of Bouchy’s comments were in support of us.”
The situation rather summed up the disharmony and distrust within Zimbabwe cricket at the time. By the end of the year, Streak, Blignaut and Stuart Carlisle had all given up again. “We came back hoping there would be a change and felt that hadn’t materialised,” says Streak. “Having had a taste of county cricket and how professional that was, to come back into a team in disarray with a lot of young players, it was a difficult phase.”
In retrospect, Cremer believes that the series against South Africa should not have happened. “I think at that stage it would have been better if the ICC had just said, ‘We’ll give you three years to just play domestic cricket, with ‘A’ team tours and stuff.’ But to throw guys in the deep end like that...I mean it was a good experience and it will either make you or break you I suppose. But I think a few guys are still scarred.”
Cremer, Streak and Taibu have all walked away from Zimbabwe cricket at various points in the last 12 years, disillusioned by the way the game has been run. But a twist of fate sees them all involved in the Boxing Day Test, with Cremer captaining Zimbabwe, Streak coaching them and Taibu selecting the side. Brendan Taylor and Masakadza also played in the 2005 matches, and while it would be exaggerating to say that they were “made” by the experience, they will also step out in Port Elizabeth. AB de Villiers is the only survivor from the South African side, although Makhaya Ntini will be there as Zimbabwe’s bowling coach.
While there was an air of doom and gloom about the 2005 side, this Zimbabwe squad arrives with its spirits lifted by the recent political developments that removed Mugabe from power last month.
“There’s been a lot of positive talk, people are still walking around with their flags and stuff,” says Cremer.
“There’s been some nice hype in the country and the new president has made some changes already. It looks positive and I’m sure that will filter into sport, and once the country starts taking off there will be a lot more interest back in Zim, which we haven’t had for a long time.”
A similar turnaround is happening on the field, to the extent that Cremer is able to laugh at some of the 2005 experiences — and even close the story with a light joke. “Guys are a lot more experienced now and read the game a lot better. Having said that, it’s something new for us again, being a pink-ball Test and a four-day Test. The game will probably move that much quicker. The scoring rate will be a little higher, so we’ll have to adapt to that. But with the team we have, I’m pretty sure we can go more than two days.” — Cricbuzz