Midfield icons square off for PSL title
BAC, Emakhandeni in Byo T20 final
THE pre-season Bulawayo Business Opportunities Twenty20 Cricket tournament has reached the final stage with Bulawayo Athletic Club taking on Emakhandeni at Queens Sports Club this morning.
A knock-out tournament, it involved 12 teams from the Bulawayo Metropolitan Cricket Association as well as schools which played as select sides. It started on 27 August with venues such as BAC, Old Mutual Heath Streak Academy and Queens being used. Queens and Roosters were knocked out at quarter-final stage by the select teams.
Last Sunday saw the semi-finals taking place at BAC. Emakhandeni and BAC defeated the select sides to book a place in the final. The select teams will meet in the third place playoff prior to the final.
Gary Nyumbu, a member of the tournament’s organising committee said it was heartening to see business and sporting codes coming together in Bulawayo. His desire is to see the tournament growing bigger to become the competition that players look forward to during the preseason.
“For us it’s very encouraging that we can work with business and sporting codes in Bulawayo. We hope to see this event grow to be one of the tournaments to look forward to every year during the pre-season,’’ said Nyumbu.
A trophy is in store for the winners with Nyumbu indicating that they were making efforts to ensure the champions also get rewarded with cash. Individual accolades will be given to the most outstanding players in the tournament.
Some of the sponsors who have made the tournament a success are Titan Law, Nyaradzo, Dulys Motors, Econet and Schweppes. THE Castle Soccer Premiership today stars young and exciting talent that did not have the privilege to watch two of perhaps Zimbabwe’s most refined midfielders to emerge to date.
Out of the misty, fog-lined ranges of the Eastern Highlands emerged the mercurial Lloyd Mutasa. And out of the dusty, populous streets of Njube Township rose football elegance personified in the genius that is Rahman Gumbo.
They each cut their teeth at relatively smaller clubs before upping their game and moving towards earning legendary status with dream moves to super clubs Dynamos and Highlanders. Mutasa moved from his boyhood club Tanganda to Dynamos while Gumbo moved from Eagles to cross town rivals Bosso.
Upon arriving at their new clubs, both showed class dominating rivals in the midfield and earning national team call ups. Retiring prematurely through injury, they both made career switches swapping their 90 minutes of on-field excitement for 90 minutes of touchline pressures associated with coaching.
Fast forward to present day and two of the most talented midfield generals ever seen at Rufaro and Barbourfields Stadiums are involved in a tussle for the 2017 Premiership title. Mutasa is with the club that brought him fame as a player and his rival for the 2017 championship is with Chicken Inn in the City of Kings and Queens.
Both clubs struggled at the beginning of the season and both coaches faced uncertain futures. After weathering the storm with their respective teams, both are now solid and favoured candidates for Coach of the Year Award while their respective teams now seem more than suitable candidates for the league title.
Practitioners of elegant passing, uncanny vision and a quiet yet utterly ruthless midfield presence during their playing days, Mutasa and Gumbo have managed to put together playing squads that have been taking points and charging up the Premiership ladder with stunning resolve. From a purely footballing perspective, Mutasa’s Dynamos and Gumbo’s Chicken Inn currently look like one of them is a shoe in for the Championship. Both have had to fiddle with their squads after losing several key players in the close season. Both coaches have had to bite the bullet and take a chance with young, relatively inexperienced players trusting them to bring home the holy grail of local football. Their genius has been clear as day to all who gave them no chance and wrote them off when the season kicked off. For Mutasa, winning the title this season will enable to shed years of doubt in his coaching abilities. A title will be his first as a coach and will cement his place among the greats at Dynamos that include Sunday Marimo and Calisto Pasuwa, men who won titles as players and led. As the battle for the title between the two retired midfield maestros intensifies, all eyes will surely be on the pair as the season heads towards what will most definitely be an exciting finale to the 2017 Castle Premier Soccer League!
Both have had to fiddle with their squads after losing several key players in the close season. Both coaches have had to bite the bullet and take a chance with young, relatively inexperienced players, trusting them to bring home the holy grail of local football.