Five issues that Zimbabwe must solve to move forward - Espncricinfo Reporter : Mohammad Isam, Dhaka

[Black Mamba]

Problem with the basics

Uncharacteristic seniors

Pace attack without spearhead

No specialist spinner

Captaincy riddle

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id ... stP16ikjHE

[zimbos_05]

There is only 1 issue really. Solve that issue and everything else gets solved.

[TapsC]

Get rid of Hami should be number 6

[kudet]

https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2020/0 ... interests/

ragged down by vested interestsPosted on March 13, 2020 by The Independent in Sport

Enock Muchinjo

ZIMBABWEAN cricket fans have been put out of their misery after the disastrous tour of Bangladesh ended on Wednesday with the final Twenty20 tie ending in familiar heavy defeat, and as the team heads back home in shame, the institutional problems that have annihilated the game in this country have been further exposed.

Again, we have been left having to answer several pertinent questions. One always dominates discussions: is there any hope of recovery for Zimbabwean cricket?
On this one, I refuse to be a pessimist. This game is part of our heritage and is here to stay.

But is this recovery easily attainable, and are we going to get there incident-free, without the kind of bickering we saw during the bitter battle for control of last year?

Now, this is a cause for major concern because the kind of recovery many of us envisage requires a top-to-bottom overhaul of the game in this country. Because of the many vested interests in the status quo of Zimcricket, I do not see that happening anytime soon.

A tormenting realisation for me during the internal strife of last year was to note that to people involved in Zimcricket these days, particularly those holding positions — quite a lot of them very good guys who love and know the game well — cricket no longer comes first. It’s now simply a matter of survival.
And it’s hard to blame them entirely, because those are the levels many otherwise decent people have been reduced to by the situation in the country.

Zimcricket right now is stuck in a very difficult position where change, instead of it being seen as bringing opportunities, is seen as a source of problems.
“What’s in it for me? What do I stand to lose?”

Last year at the height of the power struggle, one insider accosted me in the street and he was very concerned about his future — would a new administration deem him fit for his current position, or guarantee him a job at all?

While I terribly felt sorry for him, that he had to feel that way, because times are hard in Zimbabwe, his anxiety was somewhat justified because results under his watch hadn’t been satisfactory.

The biggest problem with this kind of insecurity is that it makes it hard to overcome vested interests and safeguard integrity in an environment like Zimcricket, leaving you weaker against competition because those in influencial positions are prone to making decisions that are not sound, but motivated by self-gain.

In this regard, one area quickly comes to mind: selection. Take a look at long-failed players that have been constantly selected for the national team in the past two years. Look at how some of them were also on the just-ended Bangladesh tour. And then you’ll also find some of these same failed players appearing on the squads list for the current tour here by English county teams Derbyshire and Durham.

Quite clearly now, in the eyes of many, there are vested interests at work here. As for the reasons behind it, I will leave it open to different opinion for now.

But what a strong case we have here for the need for Zimcricket to restore organisational integrity all-round in order to rise again.

[sloandog]

That’s a good article, and one that I think we can all agree speaks the truth. Seeing the same old failed names in the squad is what’s killing this side.

[Googly]

He’s wrong in one respect. Cricket is not part of the black African heritage. It’s about as an unAfrican sport as you could dream up. It was a symbol of colonial heritage and entitlement that not only people of colour, but other colonized nations attempted to become a part of to prove equality, to dismantle and eventually when it became professional, to be able to make a living from. The first black folk watching despised colonizers play the most bizarre looking long drawn out game with the strangest of traditions and clothing could not have made them think- “damn this looks like fun, I need to give this a burn!” Their motive would initially have been, “well if they can do it then so can I. I want to be accepted, best them at their own game, be seen as equals etc etc”
It stemmed from being seen as inferior and treated as such and it was a perfectly natural reaction.
Black folk will play soccer at the drop of a hat for no financial reward whatsoever, but are far less inclined to start an impromptu game of cricket just for the hell of it. They want it laid on, they don’t want to dip into their pockets and they want to be well rewarded. That’s absolutely not heritage, maybe in a few generations it will become part of the genetic code and I wish that day would come tomorrow because that’s when you unearth the true custodians of the game because they’re yet to find a single solitary one. They’ve found plenty of people that keep themselves entrenched under the auspices of black empowerment, but that’s a deceitful racist using his/her position to enrich themselves whilst all the while pretending they’re looking after their people, that’s not a custodian, there’s a big difference.
What has happened is that opportunistic “administrators” (I use that term loosely), through political means have ensconced themselves in positions of power to supposedly speed up processes that nobody has been ready for, but realistically all they’ve done is pillaged and dismantled structures that have taken generations to create. Nothing can be built in a day but it takes about that long to mess it up, every facet of our society is overwhelming proof of that.

[Googly]

It’s perhaps why a country like India has become a powerhouse in cricket. They didn’t try and dismantle anything, they kept it going and built on it. They actually embraced their colonial heritage. They’re not multi-cultural so they haven’t faced the same problems as South Africa and Zimbabwe who have used the exact same blue print that kept them out of the game to get into it. It didn’t work the first time around, but what the hell, let’s give it a go because it will get us in the driving seat real quick and then we can sort the mess out later, except they can’t because the urge to dip into funds is overwhelming. It’s tragic because as I said it’s not just cricket, it’s every single thing. I just need to be shown one thing that functions properly in either society. One thing that has not been broken by insatiable greed and incompetence.

[The Robot]

It’s perhaps why a country like India has become a powerhouse in cricket. They didn’t try and dismantle anything, they kept it going and built on it. They actually embraced their colonial heritage. They’re not multi-cultural so they haven’t faced the same problems as South Africa and Zimbabwe who have used the exact same blue print that kept them out of the game to get into it. It didn’t work the first time around, but what the hell, let’s give it a go because it will get us in the driving seat real quick and then we can sort the mess out later, except they can’t because the urge to dip into funds is overwhelming. It’s tragic because as I said it’s not just cricket, it’s every single thing. I just need to be shown one thing that functions properly in either society. One thing that has not been broken by insatiable greed and incompetence.

Folks in our country, sports selection is based on talents, political forces tried to but caste reservation in games many times, but fan base so large and so much vocal that it turned to be a mockery and they had to take back their words.

Cricket has become such a dominating force that political parties thinks 100 times in commenting a single word, even they gets worried about IPL Scheduling, as it helds in summer during elections, governments had to think cricket first then other works, if they tries to dominate their votes get effected. Government recently went for IPL 2020 to be held on close doors but got criticised and now they have bound to give green signal on resheduling IPL fixtures.

Zimbabwe & South Africa are multisport country, to be honest colour politics havent gone well in both the countries, once both the team had great cricket environment but politics snatched that lime light.Racial Quota system was brought for black empowerment and now in cricket even talented black players are running away from both these nation which is quite surprising.Every step in ZC has become politics & friendship, quoutas, deserving ones arent given the places.

[foreignfield]

It’s perhaps why a country like India has become a powerhouse in cricket. They didn’t try and dismantle anything, they kept it going and built on it. They actually embraced their colonial heritage.

If you are interested in how India came to embrace cricket I can point you to no better source than the book which inspired my username: Ramachandra Guha's "A Corner of a Foreign Field. The Indian History of a British Sport". An excellent read.

[Googly]

Cool thanks. Hopefully on Kindle?