Zim Cricket mustn’t tolerate mediocrity
WHEN Heath Streak, one of the greatest cricketers to emerge from this country, was handed the job to coach the Chevrons, we were the first national newspaper to publicly throw our full support behind him because we believed his knowledge of the game and team and passion for our country would be a winning combination.
In fact, before Streak had been handed that role, we went out of our way to openly call on the Zimbabwe Cricket leadership to pass the baton to him because we felt he was the best candidate for the job and he had earned his stripes, working in Bangladesh and in the Indian Premier League, to now be handed the responsibility of coaching our Chevrons.
Our backing for Streak was based on expectations that once he gets that role, with his commitment to the job and what he had learnt abroad, he would turn around the fortunes of a team which now means a lot to millions of Zimbabweans.
Cricket has undergone a revolution in this country to position itself as a mass sport after years of being just a discipline for an elite few and this was confirmed by the thousands of Zimbabweans who thronged to cheer the Chevrons in their battle to try and qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales next year.
In terms of the sheer numbers of followers, cricket is now the second most popular sporting discipline in the country after football and there were capacity crowds in Bulawayo and Harare when the Chevrons were fighting for a place at the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Unlike domestic football, which is predominantly played and supported by the black community of this country, cricket has a following that cuts across all the races of our proud motherland and the make-up of the team is a rainbow of the colours of what we are as a nation — black, white, coloured and Asian.
The entire country, including President Mnangagwa, backed the Chevrons in their adventure to try and qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup and images of delirious Zimbabweans partying at various stadiums made their way around the world and made all of us feel proud.
The mission for us was clear — to qualify for the World Cup — we had the advantage of playing the final qualifiers in our home conditions, which we are very familiar with, something that matters a lot in this game surfaces can be prepared to suit the strengths of the hosts or exploit the weaknesses of the visitors.
In the end, all we needed was to beat the United Arab Emirates, one of the weakest sides at the 10-team qualifiers and clearly, the weakest side — by a distance — among those who remained in the Super Six stage where two teams would make it to the World Cup.
As we described it in this newspaper, this was, for those with a football inclination, something like being asked to score a penalty, where the opposition goalkeeper was not in goals and go to the World Cup finals.
Somehow, we failed to do that and what has been emerging from that disaster makes some sorry reading — the controversial decision to leave opener Cephas Zhuwao from the team, which was kept a secret from him and his fellow black players until moments before the game, the decision to leave out Tendai Chisoro who had come handy with the bat and ball and the decision to push Craig Ervine down the order.
To fail to beat UAE was a calamity and the situation is not being helped by the stories that are now coming out of the team where some questionable decisions, which eventually proved fatal to our cause, were made by Streak and company.
The Zimbabwe Cricket authorities, who decided to dismiss Streak and his lieutenants after this failed campaign might have a lot of their shortcomings, but we believe if a coach, whose primary objective was to take us to the World Cup failed to do that — with all the controversial changes that were made to the team at the last-minute — the authorities have a right to wield the axe.
If we can’t beat UAE at home, to qualify for the World Cup, surely what else can the coach and his staff say they will achieve with this team going forward when we play tougher opposition which, as shown in that disastrous tour of Sharjah, we slumped to a 1-4 series humiliation at the hands of Afghanistan?
It’s sad that the usual suspects like David Coltart, who believe that cricket can only be played in Zimbabwe when certain white people are in key positions — whether administrative or technical — have jumped onto the bandwagon and are calling for the dissolution of the ZC board.
The same Coltart who conceded he helped pen that ridiculous statement released by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga ahead of the 2003 World Cup, that there was a dearth of democracy in this country to further his political interests and the same Coltart who persuaded England not to come here for their World Cup match.
He believes he is the godfather of local cricket, which he only wants to use for his political interests and it’s ironic he was the one singing praises of this same ZC leadership when they employed Streak and now, because they have terminated that employment, he believes they are rotten administrators.
Why didn’t he raise issues when Makhaya Ntini was forced out of the technical team? Is it because he was black? Coaches are judged by results and failure to get to the World Cup comes with costs for them, especially if they can’t beat a team like UAE.