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Sharuko On Saturday
IT was like a return from isolation on Mars — about 400 million kilometres from the Earth and an estimated 228 million kilometres from the Sun.
They call it the Red Planet and it’s a dusty and cold desert with a very thin atmosphere with polar ice caps, canyons and a number of extinct volcanoes.
There is some company on Mars.
The Perseverance Rover was sent by the scientists at NASA and it touched down on February 18, 2021.
Its journey from Earth took 203 days, in which it traversed 472 million kilometres and it was one of three spacecraft which man sent there in 2021 alone.
The Hope orbiter from the United Arab Emirates arrived on Feb. 9, 2021 while China’s Tianwen-1 arrived a day later.
They say the Red Planet’s name is derived from the Roman god of war, Mars, who according to ancient Roman myth, was the son of Jupiter and Juno.
Maybe, in a way, this explains the warlike nature of my return to this space, last week, after a seven-month absence in which I took a step backwards, to watch our football politics, and its circus, from a distance.
The target of my fury was the Africa All-Star XI, which is being compiled by SuperSport, to celebrate 30 years of the English Premiership.
I felt there was need to add my voice to the foolish decision, laced by a combination of either ignorance of the history of the EPL or a deliberate plot to try and rewrite it, to suit certain dark arts agendas, to treat Peter Ndlovu’s contribution to that league as a non-event.
Of course, I added my voice and it was humbling to see a flood of support from my colleagues like Alois Bunjira, who has become a football pundit of note, who has been signing from the same hymn book, when it comes to frustration, over the way SuperSport treated Peter in this exercise.
To suggest that Peter cannot make the shortlist of 30 players, who are being considered for the votes to choose the All-Star Africa XI of the last 30 years, in the EPL, is at best a sick joke.
And, at worst, it is an aberration, which could only have been expected from Aliens who have been living on Mars the last three decades.
There are graphic fault-lines in the flawed process and, in more ways than one, it appears to be a system that was meant to mock Peter’s contribution to the EPL in the last 30 years.
I questioned the presence of El Hadji Diouf among the top 30 given that this was a player who, despite costing Liverpool £10m, a huge transfer fee back then, he scored just three goals in 55 matches, including two in his first game.
This is a guy who scored an average of ONE goal for each of the three years he spent at Anfield with Liverpool paying, on average, £3.3 m for every goal he scored.
The Senegalese star scored in the 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers in March 2003 and didn’t score again the rest of that season.
As if that was not very bad, Diouf didn’t score a goal during the 2003/2004 season.
His former teammate at the Reds, Jamie Carragher, who is now a Sky Sports pundit, had this to say about Diouf in what was a brutal condemnation of his sterility in front of goal:
“He has one of the worst strike rates of any forward in Liverpool history. He’s the only No. 9 ever to go through a whole season without scoring.
“In fact, he’s probably the only No. 9 of any club to do that.”
Others will probably argue that his legendary status played a part in him being placed on the shortlist but, if that was the case, then George Weah, who played for Chelsea and Man City and scored more goals for each of these teams than what Diouf scored in three years for Liverpool, would have deserved to be included.
WE FORGET CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME
Maybe, in a way, we deserve to be snubbed because we can’t expect to be treated right by foreigners when we can’t treat ourselves right.
They say charity begins at home and that’s as basic an English phrase as they come.
SuperSport had the presence of mind to remember that this is the 30th anniversary of the EPL.
Let’s give them credit for that.
Others will say the 30th anniversary of the EPL should have been celebrated last year because the league got underway in August 1992.
But, the inaugural championship race spilled into this year and I think it’s fair for organisations to use these months to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the EPL.
While poking our eyes into what SuperSport are doing right, or wrong, in terms of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the EPL, and getting hoarse in clamouring for Peter’s inclusion, we should not forget our shortcomings at home.
Some will say it’s because of those shortcomings that others, like SuperSport, then get the freedom of the continent to ignore us, especially the likes of Peter, when it comes to their initiatives of celebrating the stars.
For goodness, this year marks 30 years since the inaugural season of our domestic Premiership was held in 1993.
But, for all the significance of this year, when it comes to the life and times of our PSL, you won’t hear any noise about celebrating it as a landmark season in the history of our top-flight league.
They will not even care to tell you that the first champions of our PSL were Highlanders with 40 points, from 30 games, in the era when there were just two points for a win, instead of three, as is the case today.
Given Bosso won 16 games that season, and drew eight, simple mathematics will show us that, in today’s world, they would have accumulated 56 points.
They will not even care to tell you that CAPS United finished second in that inaugural championship race, five points behind Bosso, and Chapungu, back when the airmen were the real ‘Warumwa Warumwa’ finished third.
They had the same number of points as the Green Machine but were beaten for second place by an inferior goal difference.
They have virtually disappeared from the big time, as they struggle in the lower leagues which, despite their current misery, still gives their fans some hope that a revival could still be possible.
The same cannot be said of Eiffel Flats, the goldminers from Kadoma, the home of greats like Joseph Zulu, Barnabas Likombola, Ephert Lungu, Robert Godoka, Richard Manda, Byron Manuel, Wonder Phiri, Amos Chiseko and Victor Mapanda.
If you go there, the elders of the community will tell you that, in this country, there has never been a footballer as good as Joseph Zulu.
They even say that he was so good they nicknamed him ‘Omo’ because, like that legendary soap, “aigeza vanhu.”
Manchester United once came knocking on the door, they will tell you, to try and sign their Omo but the Rio Tinto management blocked his move because his significance to their community was worth more than any financial rewards, which the English giants could bring.
After all, these elders will tell you, Rio Tinto, as a company, was a million times richer than Manchester United and with gold flowing from its mines around the Kadoma area, Patchway included, money was nothing to them.
Today, Eiffel Flats has disappeared from geography, when it comes to our football, and is only found in the history books.
These are the stories that our football fans want to hear, and read about, the history of their game is as important as its future and it can only be told when our leaders remember the significance of celebrating anniversaries.
Oh, by the way, just in case you were wondering, Dynamos finished fifth in the inaugural PSL championship race.
Maybe, their legendary chairman, Morrison Sifelani, had put more effort into the establishment of the PSL, he forgot his Glamour Boys also needed leadership.
Shu-Shine and Ziscosteel were the two clubs who had the misfortune of carrying the tag as the first clubs to be relegated from the PSL.
IGNORING AGENT, FORGETTING OUR HISTORY
There are so many good stories to celebrate from the inaugural championship race, notably the crowning of Agent Sawu as the Soccer Star of the Year in 1993. We should be celebrating that milestone because, in a way, it’s celebrating the contribution which a club called Zimbabwe Saints made to our top-flight league.
They were called ‘Chauya Chikwata’ and five years before the establishment of the PSL, they touched the heavens by winning the league championship in a style which remains a model of a combination of success and entertainment.
Only people who don’t really place a value on their history, like us, will ignore a chance to celebrate the exploits of a man who in the inaugural season of the PSL won the Golden Ball even when his team could only finish eighth. This is the same man who, when the ’94 World Cup qualifiers ended that year in ’93, found himself finishing second to Nigerian legend, Rashidi Yekini, in the Golden Boot, in Africa, with six goals.
Yekini scored eight goals.
To appreciate how good Sawu was, one only needs to see that Hossam Hassan, a legendary Egyptian forward, finished on four goals during those qualifiers.
Kalusha Bwalya, the first footballer from this part of the continent to win the African Footballer of the Year, finished on four goals.
Titi Camara, who would move to Liverpool, completed the qualifiers on three goals.
There were only two goals for Francois Omam-Biyik, who — three years earlier — had scored the winner against Diego Maradona’s Argentina at Italia ’90.
When one considers that the championship, which Bosso secured in 1993, was only the second league title in this proud club’s history, one should understand that this was not an ordinary success story.
It was unique because it had not been done before, a champion being crowned in the era of the PSL, and Bosso were full value for their triumph. Right now, we all love to talk about Bosso last winning the league championship 17 years ago, 2006, to be precise.
Fair and fine!
But, shouldn’t we also use the celebrations of 30 years of the PSL to also celebrate that Bosso have won SIX league titles, in the era of the PSL, while Dynamos have won EIGHT.
Isn’t it important to remind each other that, somehow, in every year which ends with a THREE, since the PSL came along, Bosso have never finished with less points than DeMbare in the championship race?
In 2013, the two giants ended with the same number of points (54) but Dynamos won the championship race by virtue of a superior goal difference.
These are important facts and figures which history should record and it looks odd that we are challenging the composition of the SuperSport EPL All-Star XI when we can’t put together our PSL All-Star XI.
Ironically, both leagues are celebrating 30 years of their journey.
Maybe that’s why I am now staying on Mars.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brunoooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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