Online Reporter
Sports Reporter
A UNIVERSITY of Zimbabwe senior lecturer says the Zimbabwe national football team should dump its nickname because “it carries a lot of misfortune.”
Dr Tafara Marazi, a visually impaired senior sociology lecturer, is also a huge fan of the Warriors.
He told H-Metro yesterday he now fully believes that the Warriors should replace their nickname.
He said it is not a coincidence that the national team enjoyed its finest run, in international football, when it was known as the ‘Dream Team.’
The team was under Reinhard Fabisch and soared to as high as number 46 in the world rankings.
The Dream Team also came within a win, in the final game, to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Dr Marazi feels they would have qualified for the World Cup had Fabisch not left midfielder Shepherd Muradzikwa from the team for the final battle.
“We must look for another nickname,” he told H-Metro yesterday.
“I feel that the nickname is a symbol of misfortune. There is power in the word. We call our team the Warriors.
“The Warriors of what? Where is the nickname coming from? Where are its roots and what is its history? I don’t think our ancestors are happy with us calling our team the Warriors.
“You can see where it came from if you have done some history and I don’t like what it carries and this is giving the team a lot of misfortune.
“Can’t we change the nickname and see what will happen? Fabisch had his Dream Team and we know what happened.
“I reason as a sociologist and in our academic training we stress the role of culture in society, how and to what an extent do they have a place in the current scenario.
“Who gave us this nickname and why?”
Let’s laugh with Dr. Marazi. He is trying to lighten our pain created by perennial loses by our Warriors. “For what’s in a name that which you call a rose would smell just as sweet even if it’s called by another name” taking this from the late English Language Wordsmith William Shakespeare. What is weighing down on the Zimbabwe national football team is not the nickname but the lack of quality in all areas of the game, player quality, coaching staff, football administration and resources. The Teranga Lions (Senegal) will play as well as they do even if called Teranga Chickens.