Sanctioned Mavuta seeks redemption
ALL-ROUNDER Brandon Mavuta has pledged to come back stronger following a recent ban from all forms of cricket after being found guilty of using recreational drugs.
This followed an in-house dope test in December.
Together with fellow all-rounder Wesley Madhevere, Mavuta was last month banned from all cricketing activities for four months. Zimbabwe Cricket also deducted 50 percent of their salary for three months starting January.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mavuta (26) said he was looking forward to his rehabilitation ahead of a return to competitive cricket.
“I’m looking forward to joining the high performance programme to make sure I come back stronger. I sincerely apologise to Zimbabwe Cricket and our supporters and aim to pay you all back with my efforts. Believe No Fear,” he wrote.
This is the second time Mavuta has publicly apologised for his actions.
Ahead of the ZC sanctions last month, Mavuta issued a public apology to the game’s stakeholders for his actions.
“I would like to apologise to all the stakeholders that are involved in my cricket career for the incident that happened in the last month. I am deeply sorry for how my actions affected the brands that I was associated with and the national team at large.
“I want to assure you all that it will not happen again as I now take extra precautions in my actions so that they don’t affect my career or the brands I represent. I want to thank all the brands that were associated with me during the period and I also extend my gratitude to the brands that were with me throughout. Now it’s time to focus on my career and do the best for my team Rhinos and the national team.”
This helped his cause a bit as, according to ZC, the decision to ban him for four months factored in the remorse he showed in mitigation.
“In taking the decision, the committee also considered some mitigating factors, with both players showing remorse and having already started working on withdrawing from the habit and getting their systems clean,” said ZC in a statement.
The talented cricketer had slowly turned bad boy in recent months.
Last month’s ban followed another sanction on the domestic scene when he was banned for the remainder of the 2023 NPL after causing the abandonment of a match between Kadoma and Amakhosi.
He was also fined US$400 for three offences, including threatening match officials (a Level 1 offence under article 2.3), bringing the game into disrepute (a Level 2 offense under article 2.17) and use of audible obscenities towards match officials, which is a Level 2 offense under Level 2.22.
The match was abandoned after Mavuta refused to leave the crease after being timed out and Amakhosi were awarded the match.
Mavuta was not ready when a wicket fell and took long, beyond the allowed window, to take to the crease.
He was dismissed “timed out” but refused to leave and attempts to engage him were futile as he hurled insults at match officials.
Mavuta argued that he could not be dismissed “timed out” when he had driven all the way from Harare to Kadoma for the match and declared that the match was not going to proceed if they did not overturn his dismissal.
In the end the match was abandoned.