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Why Zimbabwe Cricket should have moved mountains to ensure Sri Lanka series took place

28th September, 2013
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Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga, left and Angelo Mathews celebrate after beating Australia in the one day international. AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill
Roar Rookie
28th September, 2013
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If the recent Test series between Zimbabwe and Pakistan, levelled one-all by the home side after the mayhem on days four and five of the second Test, proved one thing it is that the hierarchy of Zimbabwe Cricket should have moved heaven and earth to keep the postponed series against Sri Lanka on the table.

Indeed, everything should have been done to ensure that the Test series, originally slated for four weeks in October, had happened and all aspersions against Zimbabwe’s Test status, raised yet again in a wretched series against West Indies seven months ago, be permanently laid to rest.

It was a golden opportunity to drive home their point, shown so impressively in the 2nd Test against the belligerent Pakistanis, and it has been missed, thanks to a terribly inept ZC.

The cricket mother body dropped the ball yet again, crushing the hopes of hundreds of young cricket players and thousands of fans for whom ZC have been entrusted to run the administration of the game.

The series against Sri Lanka is not going to happen and it’s a national shame to cry to Sri Lanka and beg that they stay at their home, because they cannot be accommodated in beautiful Zimbabwe.

This is a crippling shame indeed, only lesser in its embarrassment than the debacles of the national football association, whose decades-long incompetence can never be equalled.

An enthralling series comes to an end and will not be replaced by another any time soon. Instead, the young Zimbabwean lot of Brendan Taylor and company will have to wait almost a year for the next series against South Africa; and in that time, invaluable lessons that these brave young men have learnt, would have been long forgotten.

A thumping against their neighbours at that time might be in the offing. Or maybe not.

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Two years ago, at the end of Zimbabwe’s enforced exile from Test cricket, the inconsistent Bangladeshis, previously cannon fodder for Andy Flower, Heath Streak and teams past, but now judged miles ahead of their bottom ranked counterparts, arrived.

They were talking up a thumping visit against the Southern Africa nation who hardly looked competitive in their five years of exile, at their worst under coach Kevin Curran and utterly confused under Walter Chawaguta.

Englishman Alan Butcher had only brought marginal improvement.

Shakib Al Hassan, the captain of the side, led the talk, and Tamim Iqbal amplified it with the now infamous “Jarvis and Vitori are ordinary bowlers” comment which he grew to regret following a mediocre series, in which he was cleaned up twice.

Bangladesh was roundly thrashed in the ODIs, pummelled in the only Test and only got through by the skin of their teeth in T20s, easily Zimbabwe’s worst format.

When critics weighed the chances of both sides before the series started, Bangladesh were supposed to win quite handsomely and this underestimation of Zimbabwe’s strengths played into the hands of the underdogs.

It is not to claim that it won’t be a skewed series against South Africa, who will handle the pace battery of Vitori, Christopher Mpofu, Tendai Chatara and Shingi Masakadza with ease; but an upset in one Test on a greenish tinged Harare Sports Club, a leveller of sides in a way a flat pitch cannot be, can’t be ruled out.

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Of course, this can only happen if our neighbours do tour next year and in between, a few ‘A’ team tours are arranged. Going by the reports of poor finances by the mother union, a tour of that ‘A’ nature looks remote.

Zimbabwe Cricket’s financial woes are well documented. What started off as inane-sounding grumblings of job cuts and discontent on the various cricket forums that cropped up, has now been widely reported in the media as a major failure in ZC’s finances.

And then Ozias Bvute, apparently a fine administrator by reports, previously pilloried for leading the organization yet not knowing almost nothing about cricket, left.

All has gone downhill since and questions will be asked about the timing of his departure. Air Zimbabwe, the organisation he left Zimbabwe Cricket for, is reported to be doing much better these days.

One wishes him well, while suppressing irritation on how they failed to run Zimbabwe cricket better, so much so that a series has to be postponed, when coaches and players are clamouring for more games to improve and compete against the best.

It will be easy to suggest South Africa will have their way with the home team when they tour next. However, they might not have it as easy as Hansie Cronje’s team did when they last visited for a Test series in 2002.

In those two Tests, they amassed 1000 runs in two completed innings and Heath Streak and company couldn’t dismiss Jacques Kallis even once. All that stood between South Africa and the home side’s total crash to ignominy was the imperious Andy Flower.

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Thus, with the immovable Flower’s heroics remaining selective and a thing of the past, it is not uncommon for people to tell magnificent tales of yesteryear; how John Traicos spun it a mile; how Guy Whittal denied Pakistan and New Zealand for a day and a half; how it is impossible to compare George Shaya with any present crop, even Peter Ndlovu.

Piffle. Players come and go, and players will be replaced. Soccer aside, this side is more talented, and has much more potential than any side that Zimbabwe has fielded in the past.

The side has made some impressive strides and credit must be given where it’s due. If comparisons were to be made, five players – Hamilton Masakadza, Taylor, Sean Williams, Shingi Masakadza, Brian Vitori and Tendai Chatara – would easily make it into the side of Andy Flower’s imperious “Reds”, as they were known.

Only Flower, Heath Streak, Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin would walk into this one. Of the 10 Tests played since its readmission, Zimbabwe has won three of them and came close twice. The other eight victories before 2006 have come off 90 Tests. Decide which one is better.

That they play like clods at major world events like the ICC T20 World Cup and embarrass the nation so immensely sometimes only means they are one step closer to playing like demons.

In the last Test, it was the cricket gods, true blacksmith of talent and fortitude that turned up and savaged Pakistan’s top order. The signs were there two years ago when a heroic Brendan Taylor dared to chase an improbable 342 in the fourth innings against New Zealand in Bulawayo, and came within 34 runs of it.

In their last match, they inched even further to being called a true Test outfit, creating mayhem amongst Pakistani’s bunch of belligerent batsmen as they swung in chase of 264 on the last day.

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The decision to move the said Test from Bulawayo, infuriating as it was, was also pragmatic, wise and admirable.

It was the right thing to do to save a series; but more crucially, why weren’t better and more unpopular decisions made a long time ago, such as trimming a bloated top of huge earners while keeping the coaches, ground staff and B league players – the very life blood of the sport – employed.

Why would executives ride lush Range Rovers in a hamstrung organisation while players go for months unpaid?

It will be nine months in July before Graeme Smith leads his team to Zimbabwe. Yet now, more than ever, was the ideal time to have a continuous run in Test matches for this team, and the board has let the country down. The team is on a good run and brimming with confidence, but left high and dry by Zimbabwe Cricket.

The scenes of elation as Chatara bowled like a man possessed and Tinashe Panyangara ran out the last man Rahat Ali, were highly emotional.

What should have been Zimbabwe’s finest moment after the second Test against Pakistan have ended in an anti-climax, as Brendan Taylor and his team ruminate on a happy outcome while contemplating nine months of Test inactivity.

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