adminHOBART. – There was a bit of a stir when Zimbabwe finally unveiled their men’s T20 World Cup kit, just a few days out from their first game of the tournament, against Ireland on Monday.
The crimson red had been replaced by a fiery yellow, with an image of the bird that symbolises an independent Zimbabwe.
That bird isn’t a phoenix, but, in that orange against the clear yellow, it looks almost aflame, ready to rise from the ashes.
Which is perhaps apt.
Because just four months ago, it looked like Zimbabwe wouldn’t need to design a World Cup kit at all.
They had just played T20I series at home against Namibia and Afghanistan, and lost both. And at the World Cup qualifiers, one loss could have put paid to their chances. Their chances of getting to the tournament were iffy. But they made it.
No player’s fortune embodies what Zimbabwe cricket went through in this time – both the nadir and the rebirth – as well as Brad Evans, the 25-year-old fast bowler, made his debut against Namibia in May.
With Zimbabwe losing the final two games of that series, it would perhaps have felt more like a hazing ceremony than an induction.
“As a Zimbabwe side, we are starting almost from rock bottom,” he tells ESPNcricinfo. “When I joined, we lost to Namibia in a five-match T20 series. That’s rock bottom.”
He doesn’t want to talk much about his time under former coach Lalchand Rajput, pointing out that he wasn’t there long enough to form a nuanced opinion. But when he speaks about Dave Houghton arrival, he sits up in his chair.
The eyes sparkle; the contrast he draws need not be put into words.
“Forget the cricket. The changing room between the two series that I played is such a different place. It’s jovial, guys are making jokes. It’s just a happier place,” Evans said. “The only thing that Dave has come in and done is said, ‘Guys, I don’t care if you get out, but I want you to play your shots’. So you’ll see someone play a terrible shot and you’ll think, ‘Oh, my god, what do you think the coach is going to say to him?’
“But Dave will actually just ask him about his thought process and say, ‘Maybe try this next time; but I like the way you batted today’. That gives that same guy the freedom to go out next time and still try and express himself. He doesn’t hammer guys for getting things wrong because at the end of the day, we’re all human.”
“If you have 11 guys being aggressive, the chances are two or three of them are going to come off on any given day,” he says. “And the day that five or six guys come off on a day, we’re going to beat anyone in the world”
In the last three months under him, Zimbabwe have scorched their way through the World Cup qualifiers, beaten Bangladesh, come within inches of a win against India and won a first ever ODI in Australia. – Cricinfo
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter