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Sports Reporter
EAGLES received a timely boost ahead of the defence of their Domestic Twenty20 title at the weekend after they were confirmed champions of the 2022/23 Logan Cup four-day competition.
The Harare-based provincial side are scheduled to get the ball rolling in the latest T20 campaign when they face Tuskers at Harare Sports Club this morning.
The match is billed to start at 9.30am, the same time that Mountaineers will be entertaining Lions across town at Old Hararians Sports Club.
Rhinos and Southern Rocks clash at Harare Sports Club at 1:30pm to complete the day’s action.
With Zimbabwe Cricket opening the gates free of charge to all cricket enthusiasts, the tournament is set to get the stage alight this week, with fast-paced cricket action expected across the two venues, in the run-up to the final on Sunday.
The traditional five provincial sides — Tuskers, Mountaineers, Mid West Rhinos, Southern Rocks and defending champions Eagles — have been joined by national academy side Lions, who are the current NPL T20 Blast champions, for this year’s edition.
Eagles will feature in the first game of the day again tomorrow when they take on Mountaineers at Harare Sports Club, with Old Hararians hosting the fixture between Lions and Rocks first, before Tuskers and Rhinos lock horns at the same venue in the afternoon.
Then on Wednesday, Harare Sports Club will stage a double-header featuring Rhinos versus Mountaineers and Lions against Eagles, while Rocks and Tuskers will meet in the morning at Old Hararians.
The teams will rest on Thursday and then action continues on Friday, with the round-robin fixtures concluding on Saturday.
The Domestic T20 Competition will end on Sunday at Harare Sports Club, with the third-place playoff warming up the stage first at 9.30 am, before the top two sides meet in the final scheduled to start at 1.30 pm.
Eagles are the holders of the T20 title following last year’s two-wicket win over Mountaineers in the final.
They begin this year’s campaign with their tails up after Zimbabwe Cricket confirmed they have already secured this year’s Logan Cup, although there is still one round of the four-day first-class cricket competition to be played.
Douglas Hondo’s side have already completed their eight-match programme and finished with 122 points, a tally that cannot be overtaken by any other provincial team as it stands. Even if the second-placed Mega Market Mountaineers are to win their last match with all the possible bonus points, they can only accrue a total of 121 points.
Eagles began the season well, with three victories in their first four matches as they defeated Southern Rocks, Rhinos and Tuskers.
They then suffered their only defeat in the return match against Rhinos, and mainly due to wet weather their remaining four matches have all been drawn.
Before their latest success, Eagles had last lifted the Logan Cup in the 2015/16 season.
The current campaign will officially end with Southern Rocks facing Rhinos and Tuskers taking on Mountaineers in matches scheduled for 29 March-1 April.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Cricket Chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani’s influence in the administration of the global game continued to grow following his latest appointments to the International Cricket Council positions.
Mukuhlani is now the interim vice-chairman of the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), while the International Cricket Council has co-opted him as a member of the ICC Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee.
ACA Chief Executive Officer Cassim Suliman said: “We are fortunate to have Mr Mukuhlani — a visionary man I have known from the days of the late Peter Chingoka who was the ACA Chairman for seven years — joining our leadership as interim Vice Chairman.
“We are looking forward to him being productive, like he is doing at ZC, to help the ACA move forward in terms of cricket development and growing the women’s game across Africa.”
Apart from his inclusion in the ICC Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee, Mukuhlani also chairs the ICC’s Cricket Kenya Committee that has been helping Cricket Kenya in resolving its governance issues, including coming up with a new constitution.
He recently served on the ICC Audit Committee and chaired the ICC Membership Committee, while he has also been part of the ICC task force spearheading a bid for cricket’s inclusion in the Olympic Games from 2028 onwards.
At the helm of ZC since 2015, Mukuhlani has overseen a turnaround that has brought financial stability to the organisation and is now steering cricket towards becoming Zimbabwe’s number one sport.
Online Reporter