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Zimbabwe Cricket and Cricket Australia.
Zimbabwe needs a number of matches, against touring sides, to help the local players in their development programme and the Australians have been playing their part.
Australia A coach Cooley, who is returning to Harare for the second time in as many years after leading the A side last year, said they hope Zimbabwe will give them a good run.
“We are happy to be here again this year. We had a good game last year when we won our matches and I remember that the South African team was also here,” said Cooley.
“It was a good outing in the field.
“Now it is only Zimbabwe we are going to play on this brief tour and we are looking forward to our match on Thursday.”
The Australian team is being captained by Aaron Finch.
They were joined by David Warner who was dropped from the Ashes squad for the battle against England after his altercation with the home side’s opening batsman, Joe Root, in an Australian pub in Birmingham.
Warner watched from a distance as his teammates fought long and hard and were unlucky to lose a close contest, in the first Test at Trent Bridge, by just 12 runs after a courageous last-wicket stand that almost took them home.
That epic Test contest will also be remembered for the wrong reasons and Warner, who provided the ugly sub-plot in the countdown to the first duel with his pub brawl, now knows that he is not alone among the bag guys.
One of those bad fellows is England all-rounder, Stuart Broad, who refused to walk, after nicking one into the slips, and only survived because the umpire missed it and the Aussies had run out of reviews.
Wicket-keeper Tim Pain is also among the players who were part of the squad that toured Zimbabwe last year along with Mitchell Marsh and Shaun Marsh and Nic Maddinson.
The Australians arrived on Sunday for the short tour and yesterday they took time to conduct a coaching clinic with young cricketers from Chipembere at Highfield’s Takashinga Sports Club. Cooley said he was impressed by Zimbabwe Cricket’s efforts to develop grassroots cricket.
“We have been in Zimbabwe for a few days and we are enjoying our stay.
“Today (yesterday) we got a chance to go around and we met the development team Chipembere whom we gave a bit of coaching. It was good, there is lot of talent,” said Cooley.
Australian A vice-captain Alex Doolan said the Chipembere team had the potential to play a big part in the development programme of Zimbabwe Cricket and also the future success of the country’s national teams.
“We have seen a lot of talent and I believe if Chipembere continues to have more practice they will help in building a strong team for Zimbabwe.
“We enjoyed giving them our knowledge on the sport,” said Doolan.
The Australian team did not just stop at Chipembere as they went on to Old Hararians where the visited the Zimbabwe women’s national cricket team who are currently preparing to go for the World Cup qualifiers to be held in Ireland.
Australian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Matthew Neuhaus, was present during the tour of Chipembere and watched the young cricketers as they went through their paces.
Neuhaus said it felt good to see his fellow countrymen giving a hand to the development of cricket in this country.
Zimbabwe development officer, Nick Singo, saluted the Australia A team.
“Our young cricketers were happy to be close to the Australian squad, seeing them helping assist in the basic skills of the sport means a lot to the Chimpembere players, so we are glad to have them around,” said Singo.
Chipembere all-rounder Sasha Godo said they learnt a lot from the coaching clinic.
Online Reporter