Houghton wants to win ICC T20 Men’s T20 Qualifier

AS Zimbabwe plunge into battle in the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier B, which gets underway at two venues in Bulawayo tomorrow, all that should be on the minds of coach Dave Houghton and his players is winning the tournament.

Houghton, who has been working with the team for two weeks after he took over from Lalchand Rajput last month made it clear that all they are talking about is being crowned champions of the eight-team tournament which ends in exactly a week from now.

Zimbabwe being a Test nation comes with the extra burden since the rest of the teams taking part in the qualifier are ICC Associate Members. Houghton believes Zimbabwe should be ruthless with the kind of opponents they will be facing in the coming days.

“We have talked about nothing other than winning this tournament, we are a full blown Test playing nation, we should be taking on these Associate member sides and beating them thoroughly. I know that they have improved, they are better sides now than they have been 20, 30 years ago but at the same time we are a Test playing nation, we should be beating these guys easily and that’s what I expect from us. That’s the mission at the moment, we are not talking about anything else,’’ said Houghton.

Zimbabwe start their campaign with a match against Singapore at Queens Sports Club tomorrow before they collide with Jersey on Tuesday, a team which has Alan Butcher, an ex-Zimbabwean coach before they meet the United States of America on Thursday.

All the group matches for Zimbabwe are at Queens Sports Club. Netherlands, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea and Uganda make up the other group.

The top two in each of the groups will proceed to the semi-finals scheduled for Friday at Queens Sports Club and Bulawayo Athletic Club. Whoever wins those two matches goes through to the final to be played at Queens Sports Club on Sunday with the finalists guaranteed of the remaining slots at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia. Houghton wants his players to play cricket with less fear and believes with that kind of approach they will record more wins than losses.

“What I’ve tried to do over the last two weeks is to get that fear out of them completely. We want to play good positive exciting cricket, that’s exactly how we are going to do it. The positivity of the batting has been the biggest area of concern, our bowling hasn’t let us down, we have focused on the batting side of things, focused on the positivity. In T20 cricket you can’t really afford to back for two or three overs, just block your way, we’ve got to be challenging the boundary every over and that’s what I’ve been trying to do with the guys. We need positive scores, we need batsmen who put bowlers under pressure, that’s been the main focus of this camp,’’ said Houghton.

While the teams that Zimbabwe are playing in the tournament might look weak, USA have recruited ex-South African batsmen Rusty Theron which makes them dangerous opponents. Houghton is of the view that despite the national team struggling to win matches, the game has vastly improved in Zimbabwe.

“I was back here doing franchise cricket with Mountaineers, so I had a good look all-round the country at some of the cricketers, I think the standard of cricket that we’ve got now far outstrips what we had back in the 90s. Back in the 90s, we did have one or two good players but depth wasn’t there, the depth of talent we have around the country, it’s far higher than it’s been for years,’’ Houghton said.

Zimbabwe have a lot of cricket lined up in the coming weeks as Bangladesh are touring this month, with India also headed to the Southern African nation before the Chevrons fly to the land Down Under for three One Day Internationals against Australia.

Houghton has promised that his team will approach the coming assignments with a lot of optimism.

“The change I hope you will see is players playing without fear, a real positivity to our game, this doesn’t mean we will win every single game. We have some tough games ahead of us, not just in the qualifiers but we have Bangladesh, India and Australia. I wouldn’t have wished for hard games. We are going to lose along the way but I want to see positive cricket and compete, if we play like that we are going to win a lot more than we lose,’’ he said.

Entry into the group match and playoffs for the qualifiers is free, with fans only required to fork out US$1 and US$2 for the semifinals as well as the final.