Online Reporter
Zimpapers Sports Hub
FORMER Matabeleland Tuskers and Zimbabwe Under-19 captain Dumisani Mankunzini has delivered a stinging critique of the country’s grassroots cricket coaching standards, warning that poor development structures are at the heart of the senior national team’s persistent underperformance.
Mankunzini, a former leg-spinner who captained Zimbabwe at youth level, says the gap between talent identification and elite performance is being widened by a lack of qualified coaches who can develop players beyond the basics.
“In Zimbabwe, we have some serious talent, more than South Africa,” he told Zimpapers Sports Hub.
“I will use the example of Wesley Madhevere. Wesley was doing well in South Africa, coming up through their development ranks.
“But you will see that these players, when they get to first-class cricket or the national team, they don’t do well. It’s because of our development programmes.
“You will have coaches who are okay enough to teach a kid how to hold the ball, but you won’t have a coach to teach the kid how to control the swing. You won’t have a coach to teach the kid what length to pull, what speed to pull it.”
Mankunzini questioned whether developmental coaches were effectively equipping players to perform at the elite level.
“We can coach kids their cricket, teach them how to bat and all that, but are they scoring hundreds?” he said. “Why are they not scoring hundreds? Are the coaches teaching them how to score hundreds?
“. . . a player must be taught how to bat for longer periods and score hundreds. A player must be taught how to get ‘fifers’ when they are bowling. I can teach you how to hold a cricket ball, how to swing it, but how do you take wickets?”
He called on Zimbabwe Cricket to invest in proper training for grassroots coaches, adding that without a solid foundation, the country’s abundant talent would continue to go to waste.
“It is important for our mother body, Zimbabwe Cricket, to train these coaches and we can complement the efforts because the talent is there,” said the former Tuskers captain.
Mankunzini compared the situation to the broader coaching crisis affecting Zimbabwean football.
“If you look at football right now in Zimbabwe, there are no more coaches. That is why people keep talking about Sunday Marimo (Chidzambwa). Sunday is now old.
“He has done what he could do. But who is coming after him? We’ve got the same problem in cricket.”
The outspoken former U-19 skipper admitted that he had once misunderstood the distinction between playing, leading and actual coaching.
“I noticed myself, after I finished playing cricket and went into coaching, that I was a non-playing captain, and not a coach. So, most of us are non-playing captains and not coaches.
“We are not understanding the difference between coaching, playing and captaining. The talent is there; plenty of it. But what we don’t have are the coaches. People are quick to put the blame on players and the executive, but what we don’t have are the coaches,” he said.
