adminBlessing Malinganiza
CRICKET is now the number one sporting discipline in Zimbabwe.
That is the view of ZC managing director Givemore Makoni.
“It is now a foregone conclusion that cricket is now the country’s number one supported sport, by the time the usually followed sporting codes wake up from their slumber, we would be unmatched,” he said.
“We are expecting this wave to continue and remain permanent leading into the ICC World Cup Qualifiers scheduled for Harare and Bulawayo in Harare.”
Zimbabwe Cricket officials could not have been happier at the turn of events as fans turned out in their thousands at Harare Sports Club for the deciding One Day International match against Netherlands.
Their union with local sports company, Oracle Sport, in a fan engagement initiative appeared to be a futile exercise when it was started last year in April.
But, it is now a success.
“We had no doubt that Oracle could deliver on the mandate set on them to make Harare Sports Club a bubbly fantasy and home for every cricket- loving fanatic.
“Of course, they did not do it alone, our media department was also running a parallel campaign which was meant to achieve the same result,” Makoni said.
Oracle Sport’s task was to fill the grounds during Zimbabwe A versus South Africa A Twenty20 series at Harare Sports Club, a task that appeared insurmountable.
In the recently-ended One Day International series, the Dutch took an early lead in the three-match ICC World Cup Super League series with a three-wicket win in the first ODI.
Zimbabwe hung by a thread, holding on to a one-run in the second match to set up a pulsating final on Saturday.
This was Netherlands’ biggest mistake to let the Chevrons off the hook as a weekend ensured a bumper crowd for the hosts.
Oracle Sport, a local sports consultancy company and ZC official fan engagement partner, invaded the high-density areas with a mini vehicle dishing out fliers and pamphlets, inviting fans to come and support the Chevrons.
Prior to the series against Netherlands, Oracle had been giving out incentives for the fans to come to the ground via their #OracleSport#PaintHarareSportsClubRed#AllBehindTheChevrons social media campaign.
However, for this particular series, they decided to temporarily suspend the giveaways to gauge the game’s popularity.
“Since our relationship with ZC started we have been luring corporates to come on board and affiliate themselves with the cricket brand.
“We had Exide Batteries giving us batteries to give away to the lucky fans.
“We had EatnLick giving us meal vouchers and we saw Seed Co Limited putting their weight behind us through their maize seed donations.
“Lately we had Synstead Investments pouring in USD cash being won by lucky fans at the ground,” Oracle Sport marketing manager, Blessing Chikadaga told H-Metro.
“We then took a deliberate stance to ‘starve’ off any of the usual product lines we were giving in the past just to see how much cricket is supported in the country without any carrot dangled on the fans and the result was amazing.
“The ground was filled to the brim and even when the game ended some were still trying to make their way into the stands which is quite encouraging.”
Online Reporter