AS GOOD AS IT CAN GET

THE Chevrons marked their return to England for a cricket showdown with an innings loss at the hands of the hosts at Trent Bridge in Nottingham last week.

It was a defeat which just about everyone in cricket, including the Chevrons fans, expected because of the gulf in class between the two sides.

England are now one of the top three Test playing cricket teams in the world and the Chevrons are down the pecking order.

One of the reasons we are down there is because our men haven’t played as many Test cricket matches as they need to really compete with the heavyweight nations like Australia, India and England.

The other reason is that the English conditions are different from anything our boys had seen in the last two decades.

None of our players had also played a Test match in the English conditions and the expectation from some critics was that our boys would struggle to even get a century on the board, as a team, in both innings. Many spredicted that this would be the worst humiliation in the history of cricket.

But, it is to their credit that our boys fought long and hard and almost took the game into the final day.

Brian Bennett, one of the young rising stars in our team, was the star of the first innings with his fine century in which, at times, he made the English attack look ordinary.

He is only the third Zimbabwean player to get a century against England after Andy Flower and Murray Goodwin.

That speaks volumes about the talent of Bennett that he was able to join this illustrious class of some of the finest cricketers to wear our shirt at this eary stage of his career.

The ageless Sean Williams was the star of the second innings and was unfortunate not to get into three figures.

But, this was never just about cricket.

There was more to this tour than what was just unfolding on the pitch.

That is why we were happy to see scores of Zimbabweans making the trip to Nottingham to support their team.

These men and women showed that even though they now live and work in England, home is where their heart is still found.

We saw black and white Zimbabweans coming together to celebrate their nationality and wave their flag with pride.

They showed the world that while we might have our challenges at home, it doesn’t mean that we are not proud of who we are.

Zimbabwe is our country, the only one we have, and our pride in being Zimbabweans is there for everyone to see.

In an era where fake news of white genocide in South Africa have been spread far and wide, it was beautiful to see Zimbabweans showing the world that we are a people who are not divided along racial lines.

In those few days in Nottingham, we showed the world that we are a united nation.