Baseball team readies for Durban tourney
THE Zimbabwe senior baseball team is expected to start its camp at Hamilton High School in preparation for the Easter tournament slated for Durban, South Africa, from April 3-7.
The national side will face South African provincial sides at the annual baseball event.
“The boys will start arriving for camp tomorrow. We are travelling with a 17 member squad to the tournament where we hope to do well.
“The South African provincial sides are very strong because of the high performance academies they have and that places them at a higher level than us,” said national baseball coach Washington Nyika.
Zimbabwe won bronze at last year’s meet and Nyika believes that his charges are capable of doing better at the competition.
He sees the tournament as an opportunity to measure Zimbabwe’s performance levels at an international stage.
“The level of competition for places is very high, which is what every coach wants. Our goal is to assess the players and incorporate new boys into the squad. We are keen to do well in South Africa and are working hard to ensure that.
“In South Africa they play Elite baseball, which is what we as Zimbabwe are moving towards. Working with experienced guys like Bart Bratcher, a technical expert, helped us a lot and now it’s time to put what he taught us into practice,” Nyika said.
In preparation for the tournament, the team held a training camp in December conducted by United States coach Bratcher. Last month seasoned coach Americo Juma took the provisional 35-man squad through a gruelling three-day training programme. DYNAMOS assistant coach Biggie Zuze believes it could be too early to start pressing the panic button in the wake of the simmering discontent among the supporters who caused a scene at Rufaro following the sensational collapse in the match against Shabanie Mine on Sunday.
A section of supporters on Sunday protested against the team when they gave away a threegoal advantage in the last 22 minutes of the game to settle for 3-3 against Shabanie Mine.
The Glamour Boys were hoping to atone for the 1-0 defeat they suffered at Chicken Inn in their season-opener but a brace from Shabanie’s David Temwanjira and another strike from former DeMbare man, Richard Kawondera shattered their dreams.
And Dynamos, like they have done in the past few seasons, are likely to face a difficult take-off again this year, with more difficult assignments awaiting them during the upcoming Easter weekend.
Dynamos are scheduled to travel to Ngezi Platinum on Thursday and return home to host Highlanders at Rufaro on Easter Monday.
But the two points they dropped in their last match at home has brought the Harare giants under the spotlight, especially the quality of the personnel at their disposal.
“I think we don’t have to press the panic button now. We have the team and they are playing good football. Only for the lack of communication in defending but I think we will recover. We just have to regroup as a team. We know a lot of things will be talked about but as long as the team remains intact I think we will recover because we have only played two games. You cannot win the league after two games; you cannot get relegated when you have just played two games. We are still shaping the team with the new youngsters coming in.
“We are also happy with the way some players like Raphael Manuvire performed. So we have got more positives than negatives.
“Whether you are winning or you are losing the pressure is always there. If you win 1-0 some people will say we should have won 3-0. It’s always like that,” said Zuze.