Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
HARRY Lusengo is a very loose cannon — a wayward boy struggling to transform himself into a young man.
He is a deeply flawed individual, with a foul mouth, who somehow thinks insulting the fans who support the club which his father seized is some form of comedy.
He fits perfectly into what Shakespeare described as a tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.
The other day he was mocking the fans who boycotted the DeMbare games in protest over the way their club was being mismanaged.
Yesterday, he was back again, asking why the same fans were criticising his father Bernard Marriot as if he is a player in the team.
Somehow, in his foolishness, he didn’t ask his father why he has fired a number of coaches as if these individuals also play in the team?
But, the beauty about football is that it will never reward incompetence.
And, isn’t it a humiliation for Marriot that the four clubs leading the championship race are all under the guidance of coaches who were either pushed out or frustrated out of the DeMbare system?
Lloyd Mutasa, Tonderai Ndiraya and Herbert Maruwa were kicked out by Marriot and his gang while Luphahla walked away once he realised MaBlanyo was valued more than him.
Now, Luphahla’s team is top of the table, Marriot’s team is second-from-the-bottom, and will be there next week irrespective of results this weekend, while MaBlanyo was fired.
To imagine that Harry will possibly inherit the team from his father, when he finally leaves this garden of the living, is as frightening as imagining where DeMbare will be if Marriot remains in charge for the next five months.
If we think Marriot has been a disaster as the man in charge of DeMbare then we will see a disaster of epic proportions when, God forbid, poor Harry goes on Facebook to tell us that he is now the proud owner of the Glamour Boys.
I can imagine his first post – Sharuko, Mako Gold, Chizuzu, Murape Murape and DeMbare DotCom can go to HELL.
He will probably tell us that Chunga and Chidzambwa are not Dynamos legends, George Shaya was an overrated individual whose five Soccer Stars of the Year are a shame to the game and David George was a very average forward.
He will probably tell us that Ernest Kamba was a Malawian, who didn’t deserve any stake in Dynamos, as if his father also didn’t trace his roots from there.
And, as if Sam Dauya didn’t also trace his roots from there.
But, life has a way of bringing people like Harry to the fields of reality and one fine day that will happen and this poor fellow will realise what we meant when we said Dynamos belonged to the people.
It’s a measure of how the madness at DeMbare has gripped all of us that elections to choose the new PSL chairman have been relegated into the background.
The elections to choose the man who will replace Farai Jere, will be held next Friday and Dumisani Sisale, Leonard Musariri, Masimba Chihowa and Isiah Mupfurutsa will battle for the top post.
Mupfurutsa’s presence in the race is as much a reminder of the talent, which Marriot and his gang either frustrated or pushed out of DeMbare, who have found success elsewhere in a conducive environment.
The banking executive has a league championship under his belt, after leading Simba Bhora to glory last year where, among his old DeMbare connections, he had Ndiraya and Junior Makunike.
Today, their team Simba Bhora is top of the table while Marriot and his son Harry and their DeMbare imitation are second-from-the-bottom of the table.
And, for the record Harry, Mupfurutsa doesn’t play in the team, he provides good leadership.
THE PSL, JUST LIKE BEN AND HARRY, ARE SELLING US A DUMMY
The PSL elections are important and we should not lose focus about that by dedicating this week’s blog to a rebellious son of a man who is finally feeling the pressure and beginning to finally realise that this property called Dynamos doesn’t belong to his family.
I don’t have a favourite among those who are fighting for the PSL chairmanship and whoever wins will get my support.
But, what worries me is that we don’t seem to take some time to introspect and debate if the PSL itself, as an entity, is something that we need in our football and if its arrival has benefited our game in one way or the other.
I’m not hearing that from the men who want to lead the PSL and that’s quite disappointing.
The reality is that the PSL has been a FAILED project and it has failed its members, failed its fans and failed its partners for the 32 years that it has been in existence after its grand introduction in 1993.
The founding fathers of the PSL sold their members the idea that they were breaking away from direct control of ZIFA because independence would bring prosperity to the clubs.
Yes, the same experiment has worked in England and worked across the border in South Africa but here at home the reality is that the PSL, just like Harry, has been a tale told by a fool, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.
The clubs actually became poorer than they were when they were under ZIFA’s direct control, they can’t point to anything which they can say is a direct benefit they get from being members of the league because, in other top-flight leagues, the clubs get grants and the like.
Instead, here at home the league feasts on its members, the fines keep piling on but when one member, like Kwekwe United, send an SOS that they need help, the league’s leaders just watch from a distance showing zero interest.
Why should the PSL be getting a chunk of the gate-takings from Kwekwe United when the league can’t even send a dollar to try and help the same club when it flies into turbulence and is hit by a financial crisis?
What does the PSL use all the money, which they get from gate-takings and fines, and why isn’t a chunk of that money reserved to help the goose, which is laying the golden eggs, on the occasions it runs into trouble?
To highlight why I believe the PSL has been as disastrous an experiment as Marriot taking full control of Dynamos and, in a moment of madness, appointing Harry to be team manager, I will go to the graveyard which contains former members of the league.
It’s like a hospital, when more than half of the patients who are referred there end up in the mortuary, surely there is a need for a review of that health facility.
There were 16 founding members of the PSL in 1993 and NINE of those members – Eiffel Flats, Zimbabwe Saints, Darryn T, Fire Batteries, Black Aces, Tanganda, ShuShine and Ziscosteel – are now found at the football graveyard.
They were fooled that the PSL was the game-changer and they were going to enjoy remarkable prosperity but that wasn’t true and all these clubs collapsed.
Amazingly, exactly ten years before their appearance in the maiden PSL season, Eiffel Flats, then known as Rio Tinto, ended with the same number of points as Dynamos, the real DeMbare, in the championship race but lost because of an inferior goal difference.
The first two newboys to play in the PSL in 1994 – Blackpool and Rufaro Rovers – also collapsed.
This is a Blackpool team which finished second in ’95, only losing to Dynamos, the real DeMbare, on goal difference, finished third in ’96, finished fourth in ’97 and became the first local side to reach the semi-finals of a CAF inter-club competition.
The next two clubs to play in the PSL in ’95 – Grain Tigers and Lancashire – just like Blackpool and Grain Tigers before them, also collapsed.
And, we have a whole lot of others – Arcadia United, Mutare United, Gweru United, Air Zim Jets, which once featured Benjani, Amazulu, Motor Action, Hackney, Chrome Stars, Kambuzuma United, Njube Sundowns, Shooting Stars, Buymore, Mwana Africa, Monomotapa United, Kwekwe Cables, Gunners, CAPS FC, Easter Lions, Underhill, Lengthens, Bantu Rovers, Highway, Eagles, Douglas Warriors, FC Victoria, Quelaton, How Mine, Chiredzi FC, Tsholotsho Pirates, Flame Lily, Dongo Sawmills, Border Strikes, Kiglon and Mushowani Stars who are in that graveyard.
I had forgotten Blue Ribbon and it’s not because it used to be led by the man who is now the Dynamos chairman.
To appreciate this disastrous situation one just needs to look at the 2008 season.
At the end of that season, of the clubs who finished in the top eight, only Dynamos and Highlanders have not collapsed.
Every other club in that top eight, including champions Monomotapa, collapsed – Njube Sundowns (3rd), Shooting Stars (fourth), Lengthens (fifth), Motor Action (sixth) and Gunners (seventh).
Of the 12 clubs which survived relegation that year only DeMbare, Bosso and CAPS United are still standing today.
Kiglon (ninth), Underhill (tenth) and Eastern Lions (eleventh) all collapsed while CAPS United, who finished twelfth, are still standing.
Amazulu were champions in 2003, Masvingo United should have been champions in 2005 had they not self-destructed in their final match at home to Dynamos, Monomotapa were champions in 2008, Gunners were champions in 2009, Motor Action were champions in 2010 but they have all collapsed.
Surely, the PSL, just like Ben and Harry, are selling their constituency a dummy.
That they both started operating in a year with the number THREE probably bonds them more than we have known.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Sables!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hiltonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
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