tawandamusarurwa
Deputy Sports Editor
IN the last few months, Harare Sports Club has been at the centre of Zimbabwe’s sporting excellence.
It hosted most of the recent ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers, where huge crowds rallied behind Zimbabwe.
While the campaign ended in a heartbreak for the Chevrons, Harare Sports Club was a theatre of pomp, fanfare and festivities for cricket fans for the duration of the tournament.
Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams and Richard Ngarava were the toast of the Chevrons side that came agonisingly close to qualifying for the World Cup.
The cricket fiesta also continued with the Zim Cyber City Zim Afro T10 Tournament, which wrapped up recently with the Durban Qalanders being crowned the inaugural champions of the competition.
For 10 days, this historic cricket tournament boasted some of the games’ biggest names, both past and present, such as Robin Uthappa, Mohamed Nabi, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohamed Hafeez, Yusuf Pathan and former England international Eion Morgan.
It was even a homecoming of sorts for Tom Curran – son of late former Zimbabwe international and coach, Kevin Curran – and brother to on-demand England international Sam Curran.
One man who probably has been watching all this — packed stadiums, big-name players and swashbuckling cricket — with glee and envy is the assistant coach of the Zimbabwe Sevens rugby team, Ricky Chirengende.
Chirengende and his boss Graham Kaulback hope their team will get the same attention soon as Zimbabwe have been chosen to host the Rugby Africa edition of the 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers from September 16 to 17.
This means 12 of the continent’s top rugby sides will converge on Harare Sports Club for the two-day event.
“It is a huge honour to host a tournament of this magnitude, especially with the calibre of teams coming here, like Kenya, South Africa and Uganda,” said Chirengende.
“I think we have all seen what cricket has done over the last couple of weeks; a lot of excitement engulfed the nation as people came out in their numbers to create a huge atmosphere at the games.
“Young kids could be seen trying to emulate and become a young Raza, Sean Williams or Craig Ervine because they got the opportunity to see these guys do their things up-close.
“We just hope it will be the same kind of energy at this tournament, and (we hope) our boys do well to inspire the next crop of rugby players . . .”
The tournament is expected to attract some of the continent’s heavy hitters in Sevens rugby like South Africa’s Blitzboks and Kenya, both of whom ply their trade in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
Uganda are an emerging threat, while Zambia, Madagascar, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Algeria, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire complete the list.
With only two slots available, qualification will definitely be a huge ask for Kaulback and his charges.
However, Chirengende says they will give it their all in trying to secure an Olympic berth.
“Our chances of success — and I am going to be quite bullish — are good . . .
“While we didn’t do well at the Challenger Series in Stellenbosch (South Africa) earlier this year, there were lessons on offer and we have to go about it differently this time around.
“We had challenges with getting some of the players we wanted, and we also need to professionalise how we train, even with the little that we have in terms of resources,’’ he said.
“A simple example can be seen in how we used to mix the gym and fielding training, and that affected both tenets as we couldn’t give each adequate time.
“We also need to beef up our squad, and efforts are being made to make sure we identify and bring in the foreign-based players we will need.”
The Cheetahs have already begun their preparations.
The foreign contingent is expected to troop into the country on August 21, after which Zimbabwe will host the Zambezi Challenge.
They will then hold a week-long high-performance training camp in Pretoria, South Africa.
Online Reporter