Cry my beloved Warriors

against Cape Verde, one analyst said the only refreshment was that we had time to prepare for our next assignment.
After the loss in Bamako on Saturday, the big question is – Did we prepare for that game?
It is tragic yet again, that our beloved Warriors find themselves on the verge of failing to qualify for the 2012 Afcon tournament.
Football is not about quick wins and let alone quick fixes.
It’s a culmination of sound administration, hard work and long hours of painful preparation.
The Zimbabwe result was so hard to swallow considering that, little Botswana had written their piece of history by posting an away win in Chad and booking the ticket to the Afcon 2012.
What a Cinderella story coming from a team that is guided by a local coach and without a competitive local league.
They have achieved it against the backdrop of criticism from prophets of doom and armchair football theorists who have always been saying that Botswana are winning at home because of bad refereeing at the tiny University of Botswana Stadium.
What all the Botswana critics are conveniently ignoring is the fact that the team won in Tunisia, and posted another away win in Chad, and had 16 points out of a possible 18.
We should have learnt from the Botswana model.
A local coach made them proud and took the Zebras to their first Nations Cup qualification.
What went wrong with our campaign?
We were certainly in a group, which at best, could be dubbed the group of life, but is now turning to be a group of death for us.
Our biggest threat was Mali, we believed, and we had the perfect arrangement in that we had the opportunity to play in Bamako first and then the return leg in Harare.
We, at best, needed a draw and then hammer them in Harare.
Was our preparation for the match good enough?
Football teams need consistency, especially in the key coaching department, and we are not providing that when it comes to the Warriors.
Why?
I believe it’s about the chaotic structures that we have in our football and some of our so-called leaders who don’t add any value to the game?
The cancer of African football is found in its corruption and any team travelling to international assignments will inevitably return home with tales of suspect refereeing and the difficulties of succeeding abroad.
Two years ago in Ghana, two teams on the verge of promotion both needed victory on the final day of the season.
The matches ended 31-0 and 28-0 respectively.
Poverty on the continent and the win-at-all-cost attitude of some of the clubs and nations makes referees susceptible to bribery and other inducements.
In the qualifying series for the 2002 World Cup, Nigeria gave their opponents Ghana US$25 000, after the Super Eagles beat the Black Stars to qualify.
It caused a lot of controversy, but the Nigerians declared that it was a gift in line with African culture.
The Confederation of African Football conveniently looked the other way.
Even today Caf is still looking the other way and referees are being given gifts in line with the African culture.
The quality of our local league, and interest in them, has been undermined by the departure of the stars and, simultaneously, by easy access to European football on satellite television.
However, the same could be said for Uruguayan football, a country that sends nearly all of its best players overseas for their bulk of their career and whose domestic football is a poor state.
But the Uruguayans compete very well in the World Cup.
A strong domestic league is no guarantee of success either.
England, with the richest league in the world, have struggled and Italy and France, whose top leagues have incomes that exceed all of Africa’s leagues combined, have gone home early.
South Africa’s’ domestic league is considerably richer than any other African country, but this has not translated into results for either its representatives on the continent or the national team.
Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2010 Nations Cup and played at the 2010 World Cup in a wildcard that comes with hosting and, inevitably, became the first host nation to crash out of the first round.
We haven’t sent the right signals in our game by accusing players of being corrupt and at the same time retaining them to play for the national team.
It has confused the players, who don’t know what their future holds, and left them vulnerable.
After, the chaotic nature of the appointment of Tom Sainfiet as the Warriors coach, and the subsequent termination of his contract, we did not expect another boob from Zifa.
We had six months to prepare for the Bamako Battle but sadly we wasted that time, played a friendly against a listless Mozambique that is losing to everyone and did not send the coach, who would guide us during Afcon, to work with some of his players at CHAN.
We were told Charles Mhlauri would be coming and he didn’t. Then we saw Mapeza coming back on board and, still, there didn’t seem to be any unity, at board level, over that appointment.
The history-making Botswana coach Stanley Tshoasane indicated that their success was all down to thorough preparations, good corporate and Government support.
“We needed to make changes to the players here and there to make the team work, the new blood was necessary to work with the experienced players,” he said.
Corporate support was crucial as the team could afford such basics like a team psychologist.
Compare that with our Warriors.
The Botswana Government has pledged P20 000 to the players for making it to the Nations Cup finals.
The technical team will get P10 000.
It is quite ironic in Zimbabwe that our national team can only survive, thanks to the benevolence of the Zifa President.
But for how long?
The current crop of the Zimbabwe warriors has some promising young talent, but the bulk of the team is largely overrated and the coach needed time for the team to gel, rather than for us to expect, miracles after four days of preparations.
Mapeza needed the support of everyone and giving him four days to bring a result from the Bamako Battle was too much.
South Africa appointed Pitso Mosimane as their head coach, after he had been understudy to Carlos Alberto Parreira, and he has built a strong team, which beat three-time African champions Egypt in Johannesburg over the weekend.
We should trust our local coaches to deliver for us and we should also be patient rather than cry for quick returns when we are giving them four days to prepare the team.
A road map for the Warriors is crucial, as we approach our final three matches, and companies and the Government have to play their part.
The football leadership must be held accountable for the national game, and national team, and currently it appears that there is a casual approach to issues of national significance. While I remain positive that we could still qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals, I believe we need to be realistic and start preparing for the 2015 CAN to be hosted by Morocco.
Milton Nyamadzawo is a Zimbabwean human resources expert who works in South Africa. He managed Mwana Africa to qualify for the Caf Confederations Cup.
He can be contacted at [email protected]