We are there with the best
It’s done, and dusted. The Warriors of Zimbabwe are on their way to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals following a campaign that will remain forever on the lips of many.
Zimbabweans will look back with pride after the Afcon qualification was secured with one game to spare and for that matter without some of the country’s top stars who were locked out in Europe due to Covid-19.
Now safely on eight points, the remaining game against Zambia is now academic as the Chipolopolo will only finish on seven points should they overcome Zimbabwe, while Botswana too will also end up on seven should they beat Algeria.
Surely, comparisons between the old and the new will always be drawn, but never in their previous successful Afcon campaigns were the Warriors as efficient as they have been this time around.
They went to Lusaka and picked up three points with a 2-1 win, travelled to Francistown and collected three points with a 1-0 victory and a team that does that demands the respect of all.
Their coach Croatian Zdravko Logarusic will also go down in history as the first foreigner to lead the Warriors to Afcon after a host of others from Scotland, Switzerland, Ghana, Poland, Brazil and Germany got their chance and failed.
The foreign coaches came to Zimbabwe with lots of promises, received huge pay cheques, but failed to deliver the goods leaving locals Sunday Chidzambwa in 2004 and 2019, Charles Mhlauri in 2006 and Kalisto Pasuwa in 2017, to steer Zimbabwe to the promised land.
Although comical at times, Logarusic has proved different. Even the critics who never believed in him are dancing to another tune and are singing praises of the Croat after the Warriors opened a huge gap of four points between them and their closest rivals Botswana and Zambia.
In addition, the Zimbabwe team also reduced Algeria’s lead at the top to just three points from five points with only one round of
Sonny Boy Williams recently announced his retirement from Rugby Union having won several World Cups with the All Blacks, but the reason he has retired is not so that he can put his feet up, rather he wishes to resume his boxing career, which at one time saw him become the New Zealand champion as well as the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight champion. In addition, he has also represented New Zealand in Rugby League as well as the New Zealand seven-a-side team that went to the Olympics. Here is a sportsman, a sports man, to be more precise, a man who has played not just one sport at the highest level, but many sports.
He is not unique, however. JJ Williams was a great Welsh rugby wing who also represented Wales in Athletics at the Commonwealth games, while JPR Williams, a brilliant full-back for Welsh rugby won a British Junior Tennis title. Jeff Wilson played rugby and cricket for New Zealand. Eric Liddell played international Rugby for Scotland before winning Olympic Gold in the 400m in Paris in 1924. Then there is a little known fact that the great Viv Richards did not simply represent the West Indies in cricket with such distinction but also represented Antigua in qualification matches for the 1974 Soccer World Cup. AB De Villiers, the great matches remaining.
Logarusic is obviously happy with his newly-found hero status after receiving a barrage of criticism when the Warriors crashed out of the Chan tournament without a single point.
He also stares history in the face of becoming the first Warriors coach since 1980 to lead Zimbabwe out of the group stages of the Afcon finals.
In all their appearances in 2004, 2006, 2017 and 2019, Zimbabwe has crashed out at the first hurdle, and the last time, they picked up only one point from three matches.
To his credit, Zifa president Felton Kamambo too can now walk tall in the streets as his decision to appoint Logarusic out of the 13
South African cricketer was also short-listed for national hockey and football squads, while also excelling at rugby, swimming, tennis, badminton and golf.
In fact, many others have not simply played for their country in different sports at different times, but some have even done it at the same time, combining both careers simultaneously. Ellyse Perry is one such, a lady who has represented Australia in all formats of cricket over 100 times (and is still going strong) while also representing Australia in soccer; appearing in both cricket and football World Cups. Andy Goram was another who combined professional soccer and cricket in the modern era, being capped 43 times for Scotland in soccer and also capped 4 times for Scotland in cricket. applicants for the job has yielded the required results.
When his term expires in December 2022, Kamambo will raise his hand high and say: “During my tenure Zimbabwe qualified for Afcon 2021.”
However, Zimbabweans should also not forget the role that Joey Antipas also played in this success story as his team also collected four of the eight points that Zimbabwe amassed in total.
As we celebrate a fifth appearance at Afcon and a third in succession, let us not forget that this is just a battle that has been won, but the war is still far from over.
There are the Afcon finals themselves as well as the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in which the Warriors are in the same group with
From a different era, Des O’Brien could beat that, representing different countries in different sports. He played rugby for Ireland (and the British Lions) but also played tennis for Wales, squash for Ireland and had trials for hockey for Wales. We could go on, but the point is made: these are sports men and women, people who play many sports, and are rightly called sportsmen and sportswomen.
Others place a different emphasis on the term “sportsman”, when they speak of sportsmanship, that being the quality of playing sport with an attention and priority to fairness, morals, respect, camaraderie and friendship. Sonny Bill Williams, who was mentioned at the start of this article, would also meet this criteria of being a
Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa.
Fine, the Warriors have been efficient, but there is always room for improvement. Logarusic needs serious warm-up or friendly matches against opponents of good standing in African football as a build-up for Afcon and the World Cup.
Caf have lined up their calendar along that of Europe and Zimbabwe will not have any problems in getting their players released by their European clubs should they be needed for friendlies.
Zifa are advised this time around to look elsewhere for other friendly match opponents and abandon the system of always looking at Zambia whenever the Fifa date for international friendly matches arrives.
South Africa too might not agree to a Warriors friendly as they will also play Zimbabwe in the 2022 World Cup in a group from where one team progresses.
It is not good for Zifa to do great sportsman through his actions at the 2015 World Cup, when a young supporter who in his enthusiasm had run on to the pitch at the end of the match to greet his hero was knocked down heavily by a security guard. Williams escorted him back to his family, and then gave him his winner’s medal. Interestingly he saw nothing special about his actions, though. “It wasn’t about being a footy player, a rugby union player, it was just about being a good person. That’s how I was raised, to have good manners.” It is well known that the All Blacks hold to a mantra that says a better person makes a better player and Williams perhaps showed that.
Rudyard Kipling is not known for being a sportsman but many will know his poem entitled If. We might well be able to help our children become great sportsmen and women if we paraphrase the poem in sporting terms, along these lines: If you can stay calm under pressure; have confidence in your own ability even when others do not; show openness to listen to things at the last minute, and the football federation should — right now — start negotiations with potential friendly match opponents so that when the time comes, everything would be in place.
Surely getting the likes of Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt and Morocco to bring their best players to Zimbabwe will not be easy, but there are the likes of Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, and the DRC, who can provide meaningful challenges in the Warriors’ build-up.
Some might see qualifying for the World Cup as impossible but the football record books show that outsiders like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Kuwait, Honduras, Togo and Angola have made it to the global football festival — and the Warriors can also do it. criticism and advice; have patience when results are not forthcoming; ignore abuse without returning it; retain humility; look for progress; readily and honestly reflect on your performances; accept victory and defeat similarly; recover from injury and setbacks with respect and courage; be prepared to take a chance; do not blame others for losses; show resolute determination to keep going through hard times; play with players of all abilities; stay humble in all situations; give one hundred percent at all times — if you can do all that, you will not only be a sports man but also a man. Being a great sportsman — a man or woman who plays many sports and who does so in the right spirit of sport — is important, but it is even more important to be a great man and great woman. Williams did that. Will our children do so?
Tim Middleton is a former international hockey player and headmaster, currently serving as the Executive Director of the Association of Trust Schools Email: ceo@atschisz.co.zw
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