Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Sports Reporter
FORMER Zimbabwe captain and top order batsman, Hamilton Masakadza, now Zimbabwe Cricket’s (ZC) director of cricket, has been told in no uncertain terms to turn around the seemingly sinking ship after the Chevrons’ series loss to Bangladesh.
The tour by Bangladesh was almost a series whitewash had Zimbabwe not notched one T20 International win to lose 2-1.
However, Zimbabwe lost the one-day internationals 3-0 and were hammered by 220 runs in the one-off Test.
It’s nearly two years since Masakadza, the Chevrons’ fourth highest run scorer in both Tests and ODIs, was appointed ZC director of cricket after retiring from the game.
The director of cricket post was a new role created by the ZC board in August 2019 as part of its management restructuring.
As director of cricket, Masakadza is responsible for defining policy, strategy and programmes of best practice through all Zimbabwe’s teams.
He is also accountable for the recruitment, management and interaction of senior cricket technical staff and is tasked with ensuring that coaches and captains are providing effective leadership to the national teams.
Following his appointment in September 2019, there was hope that at least someone that understands the game was now at the helm of national cricket teams.
Optimists said the future of Zimbabwe cricket was in good hands, as someone that played in a number of Cricket World Cups and faced the game’s best players was now in charge.
And it all looked promising when the Chevrons lost one test and drew one in a home series against Sri Lanka in Masakadza’s first games as the cricket boss early last year.
The next was a tour of Bangladesh, in all three formats of the game and Zimbabwe were humiliated in the one-off Test, losing by an innings and 106 runs, followed by an ODI series that they lost 3-0 and a T20 series they fell 2-0.
A tour of Pakistan was next and Zimbabwe only won one ODI, losing the series 2-1 and losing all three T20s.
Things have not gone according to plan for both Masakadza and ZC, as the Chevrons haven’t won a series since he was appointed.
This certainly does not bode well for the average Zimbabwean fan, who has watched the team fail to win.
Even when the team puts on what is deemed a healthy total on the board, like the final T20 game against Bangladesh where they posted 193 runs, there was still no faith that the Chevrons would defend the score, and the longsuffering fans were correct in their skeptism, as they failed to do so.
There is consensus though among cricket lovers that Masakadza has made positive changes since coming in, especially in the local game, where there were now more regular games and the franchise season actually finished with all games played unlike in previous years.
Players are also being paid on time, which is a huge positive.
But what Masakadza should know is that his legacy rests on results and not just holding the title of director of cricket.
A successful tenure as director of cricket will certainly cement his legacy.
Former Chevrons’ captain Andy Flower won the Ashes against Australia in 2009 as the England team director at home.
They followed that success up with another win in the Ashes on Australian soil the following year and in 2013, Flower led England to a 3-0 drubbing of Australia to earn his place among the greatest England coaches in addition to being Zimbabwe’s best cricketer of all time.
He was eventually inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame last month.
The long and short of it is that Masakadza should look at where Flower is right now; how his CV looks like and ask himself how he wants to be remembered.
Being the ZC director of cricket is no longer about politics of the game, but how he will be remembered after he steps away from that role.
The more Zimbabwe keep losing, the more he muddies his already unfavourable reputation as a player, particularly in his last playing days.
Zimbabwe cricket fans are an impatient lot and who can blame them?
They have had to endure disappointment after disappointment for years due to the Chevrons’ performances that tend to spike their pulse rate with each outing.
They have had to watch them fail to qualify for a Cricket World Cup with home advantage.
Even when there is hope for the team to win a game, most fans now adopt a wait-and-see approach to avoid disappointment.
They seem to know that the Chevrons will lose the game from a strong point of possible victory. The move by ZC to issue an ultimatum to Masakadza is a wake-up call for the former skipper to pull up his socks to introduce new ideas that will turn around the Chevrons’ fortunes.
Zimbabweans want results and the more the team fails, questions about his boardroom abilities will continue to mount and soon there will be calls for him to be removed from his role.
Fans want to see the pool of cricketers growing compared to the current system where it’s a just a rotation of the same losing players.
Masakadza has to consider restructuring of the current franchise system where ZC imposes national team players on them, instead of them being allowed to hunt for players from their own localities.
That way, the player base will grow and genuine new players will be bloodied into the Chevrons and not the same failures being shuffled for different series. — @bonganinkunzi
Online Reporter