dyton mupawaenda
ZIMBABWE cricket finds itself at crossroads following the expected departure of senior men’s head coach Dave Houghton after a humiliating white-ball series loss at home to ICC Associate member Ireland.
Ireland won the three-match T20I series 2-1 and the three-match ODI series 2-0 after the opening match was declared a no result due to bad weather at Harare Sports Club.
This was the first time Ireland claimed series wins against a full member.
Zimbabwe’s batting was embarrassing and Ireland were never made to chase huge totals and also found themselves chasing modest totals.
In T20 internationals Zimbabwe have been over reliant on Sikandar Raza and against Ireland the team struggled and lost the final two matches that they had to play without Raza who had been banned for breaching ICC code of conduct.
Raza found the going tough in the ODIs and with the top-order failing to put together anything meaningful, 200 became a dream for the Chevrons. There have been a number of explanations to the poor batting with Raza attributing the slump against Ireland to the injury-enforced absence by experienced players like Craig Ervine, Sean Williams and Ryan Burl.
However, critics pointed to the fact that the best opportunity for newcomers would obviously be against lesser opponents like Ireland.
As such, the failure to do well at home to the Irish signalled a crisis that needs urgent attention.
While defeat to Ireland triggered his resignation letter, Houghton’s departure was largely a result of the Chevrons failing to qualify for the ICC World Cup in India after losing at home to Scotland and then failing to reach the 2024 T20I World Cup after defeats to Namibia and Uganda.
Given the money at the two tournaments, failure to qualify was costly for Zimbabwe Cricket who struggle to secure financially rewarding home tours and, thus, rely on the World Cup finals for cash windfalls.
At the 50-over World Cup in India, a victory was worth US$40 000 in a format where teams played against all the other finalists in the opening round.
There will also be big money in the 2024 T20I World Cup in the West Indies and the USA given the popularity of the game globally.
When Houghton came in there was hope that the game would transform and grow, especially when he used his influence to get a few world-class players to commit to the Chevrons.
It is largely to Houghton’s influence that record crowds were seen at Harare Sports Club during the qualifiers for the World Cup finals in India in June, July.
But something seems to be problematic behind the scenes and a lot of questions have been raised after Houghton said he had lost the change room after 18 months in charge and felt that a new voice was needed to take the team forward.
This was ahead of a ZC board meeting to review Zimbabwe’s failure to qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 after losing to Namibia and Uganda at the recent regional qualifying tournament and the Ireland series.
That Houghton offered to quit the Chevrons but remain within the ZC structures seems to suggest something is wrong within the senior team that has not been shared publicly.
Houghton himself said he has always had Zimbabwe cricket at heart and, as such, he love to be involved in other areas of local cricket even after the end of his coaching contract for the senior team.
He believes the talent base in Zimbabwe is enormous and he would want to help come up with systems on how they would move players from talented to performing well on the international stage.
That suggests he wants to be in charge of the development project.
But for the game to be alive, the senior team has to be performing and, at this stage, it is important to establish what exactly is causing the poor results.
The situation was not helped by the immediate ban from all cricket on Wessly Madhevere and Brandon Mavuta, pending a hearing, for allegedly breaching anti-doping rules after both tested positive for a banned recreational drug in an out-of-competition case recorded during a recent in-house doping test.
Early this year, two unnamed cricketers were also on the wrong side of these tests and this seems to suggest the drug problem might be bigger than what is publicly known.
It is therefore crucial that ZC board came up with a three-member committee consisting of chairman Lloyd Mhishi, Godfrey Nyadongo and Blessing Ngondo to probe the World Cup qualification failures as well as to review ZC’s cricket affairs structure in a three-week assignment.
We therefore hope that the probe will touch on all the crucial areas that need attention to revive the Chevrons and also attend to what Houghton would have told them as the reasons behind his resignation.
However, it is not all gloomy as the Lady Chevrons have done very well to progress to the final stages of the T20I World Cup qualifiers.
They showed the Chevrons how to deal with minnows, winning all their five matches in Entebbe, Uganda.
Their performance even earned them praise from President Mnangagwa.
It is also encouraging that the ZC leadership has pledged to ensure the women’s team gets the best possible preparations ahead of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier 2024 to be hosted in the United Arab Emirates early next year.
Online Reporter