A time to reclaim lost pride

ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) are on the hunt for a new director of cricket following Hamilton Masakadza's resignation from the post. Masakadza had been in that post since 2019 but decided to quit after a string of poor results. It is quite rare for administrators to step aside over poor results in Zimbabwean sport. Even in politics and business, there is always someone to blame if things go wrong

Usually, it is the coaches that are made the fall guys if favourable results are not comings.

Coach Dave Houghton also left his post after the national men's team failed to qualify for the International Cricket Council T-20 World Cup.

Before that, they had failed to qualify for the 50 over World Cup after hosting the qualifiers.

The team’s failure to qualify for the T-20 World Cup playing against associate sides was a new low.

“This decision has come about after careful consideration of the successes and failures of our cricket and my responsibilities,” Masakadza said in his resignation letter.

“As much as there has been a lot of progress in my tenure, the fact remains that we are the only full member nation not participating at the next T20 World Cup after our shock loss to Uganda.“This was, indeed, one of the lowest points of my career and I take full responsibility as director of cricket.”

Masakadza deserves praise for putting the interests of the gentleman’s game ahead of his own.

By stepping aside, Masakadza is giving those with new ideas to step in and stabilise the ship.

He is showing other sporting codes that one can resign if things do not go according to plan instead of waiting to be fired.

This is a new culture we should inculcate in our sporting disciplines that if your tactics are not working, you leave and give others the opportunity to turn things around.

Things have not been going well particularly for the national cricket team.

ZC needs to refresh and take a different path to try and improve results.

Some associate sides have closed the gap on Zimbabwe and ZC need new ideas on how to steer the game.

Zimbabwe will partly host the next World Cup and they cannot afford to have a weak team for that showpiece.

The Under 19 World Cup will also be hosted in Zimbabwe and there should be a strong team in place.

We hope that ZC will make the right appointments to fill the role Masakadza left.

ZC is on the prowl for coaches to guide the national team as well as the Under-19 after the departure of Houghton and Prosper Utseya respectively.

We hope ZC can make the right appointments so that the national teams can pick themselves up and be competitive again.

It is not the opportunity to appoint allies or homeboys. Our national teams have regressed over the years and we need to halt that slide and bring back the smiles on the supporters who have rooted for the teams in bad and good times. They deserve something better.