Heath Streak wants victory over Kenya

Wednesday night with the legendary bowler challenging his troops to give him a perfect present with a victory over Kenyain their last World Cup Group A tie against Kenyain Kolkata on Sunday.
Streak, who is now the team’s bowling coach, turned 35 on Wednesday, the latest member of the team to celebrate his birthday during this World Cup tour after skipper Elton Chigumbura marked his 25th birthday in Sri Lanka on Monday.
The Zimbabwe cricketers were hosted by Streak’s Indian manager, at a private function in the Bhadra neighbourhood of Mumbai, and as drinks flowed on a special day for the former national team captain, he said the best present would be a win over Kenya.
Kenya are winless at this World Cup while the Zimbabweans have won one of their five group matches.
But the Kenyans have improved marginally in recent weeks and, while they were beaten by world champions Australia, they were certainly not humiliated and, crucially, put more runs on the board, against the same opponents, than Zimbabwe.
Streak’s presence in the team is a reminder of an age when the Zimbabwe side had genuine fast bowlers they could count on to get wickets and stem the flow of runs.
Ironically, the lack of a pace spearhead in this team has been blamed for Zimbabwe’s failure to bowl out teams, especially the established Test sides, during this World Cup.
New Zealand powered to a 10-wicket win, with their openers successfully chasing the Zimbabwean target, while the Sri Lanka openers helped themselves to a record World Cup opening stand before a clutch of wickets fell as the batsmen went for slog shots at the death.
Chris Mpofu has struggled with a side strain during this World Cup tour while Tinashe Panyangara was given a baptism of fire, in his comeback game at this level, by the Sri Lanka batsmen.
Streak made his Test debut for Zimbabwe during the tour of Pakistanin the 1993/94 season and took more than 100 Test wickets and 100 ODI wickets during an illustrious career in which he also transformed himself into a genuine all-rounder.
The Zimbabweans, who resumed training yesterday after taking a day off on
Wednesday, are scheduled to leave for Kolkata today for an Eden Gardens date with the Kenyans.
Zimbabwe’s practice session was held at the Mumbai Cricket Academy, which was also the venue for Kenya’s practice session with the East Africans arriving just around the time Alan Butcher and his men were leaving.
There was time for veteran Steve Tikolo to chat with some of the Zimbabwean cricketers he meets regularly on the domestic scene where he plays for Southern Rocks.
Zimbabwe will be hoping to put a better batting show against Kenya, something that they have not done in most of their matches here, and show that there was indeed a gap between the two teams in terms of quality.
Convener of Selectors Alistair Campbell said his team could have done far better at this World Cup, than their statistics will show, but said rather than panic there was need for the game’s leadership and players to continue working towards improving the team’s fortunes.
“It’s a continuous process to try and make the team better and we can’t stop now because we had a disappointing World Cup,” said Campbell.
Campbell said he was still convinced that they got most of their decisions, in terms of player selection, right and if there was one player they would have called, with the benefit of hindsight following the way most of the wickets played here, it would have been Chamu Chibhabha.
Zimbabwe all-rounder Greg Lamb said all the players understood that they fell short in this World Cup and the challenge was on every individual to go back home and try and get his game back on track.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean fans continued to express their feelings on the team’s World Cup show using The Herald’s Facebook forum created specifically for that debate.
On Wednesday the majority of the fans believed a change in the team’s captaincy was necessary with either Ray Price or Tatenda Taibu favoured to replace Elton Chigumbura.
Chigumbura, who has battled injuries and lack of confidence, appeared to be coming back to form in the last game against Pakistan when he was left stranded at an unbeaten 32, his best World Cup score, in a rain-curtailed match at Pallekele.
The 25-year-old all-rounder was honest enough to admit that his form has been patchy but made it clear that he was working on his game and a decision, on whether he remains as skipper, was not for him to make but one for the ZC leadership. Yesterday the fans continued to make their voices heard regarding the World Cup show.
Here are some of the views:
Eric Mourinho Chipangura: I don’t think Ray will make a successful captain and with all due respect to his passion, talent and experience, the outspoken lad won’t be my choice for the key decision-making post. Yes, Ray is the most experienced guy in the team, and probably the best performing lad at the tournament, but to hand over the captaincy to him I won’t buy that.
Let him be the senior citizen in the team, and be consulted by whoever has the captaincy.
Louis Makomeke: I personally think that the selectors blundered by leaving some of the experienced players.
The selection should be on merit not loyalty nor race. Zimbabwe cricket is the best sport so far to reach that peak. The captaincy is another area that needs to be looked at, he is not that fire-power guy needed for the captaincy.
The coach is the best at our disposal and he should stay, zvasiyana nekubhora kwekuti coach ndiye anozvisarudzira ma players aanoda.
Ngonidzashe Kutwa: Our guys just don’t have the fighting spirit. They go into the field wearing the underdog tag and accept it. They need someone in their camp to take care of their confidence.
Otilia Kamukondiwa: I think our players go into battle thinking they are underdogs and then they perform like underdogs in the field. They need confidence and someone who can tell them they are better off than most teams. The performance was very poor I felt like crying. I love cricket.
Vheruke Nhemachena: I think we need engine down, total overhaul, with an exception of a few young players, for us to make it in the future.
Trev Chinembiri: The talent and potential is there but the team needs consistency, especially the top order. We have got good players in Taylor, Taibu, Ervine but they need to get going and put big scores on a consistent basis. We also need to play competitively, probably through a return to Test cricket and let’s also allow our players to play abroad for exposure.
Nkululeko Mawite: I think complacency iri kuuraya vapfana vedu. Vagarisa muteam and they are now big-headed.
Alexio Matsika: It’s high time we show a lot of seriousness to all sports disciplines, not only cricket, because the lack of funding is one of the major reasons why we are performing so badly.
With funding we can not only train well and prepare well, but an atmosphere of competition for the players is created as well as for the coaches.
Again, let’s not just assemble new teams before tournaments. We are lacking consistency. The young team we have is cool but it is not ready to stand the heat against the big teams.
Mduduzi Mathuthu: Elton Chigumbura, as captain, has led the way in pointing out what’s wrong with our performances -chiefly a failure of batting. But, far from leading by example, he has singularly been a poor performer with the bat.