Chronicle Editor
Simba Jemwa, Showbiz Reporter
And the Chevrons have a new supporter!
Well, not new, but new in terms of its someone we didn’t know supported the national team before! Or so we thought!
And it’s one of the biggest stars in the country right now too – Patience Phiri! She called her arrival in Bulawayo ahead of the national team’s match against the Netherlands in the final of the 2022 ICC T20 world Cup qualifiers was ‘like’ a homecoming!
“And not for the Chevrons, but for me,” she told Saturday Leisure.
“For me, coming back home, and I am a Bulawayan all the way, is something akin to heaven. When I see the Bulawayo 40 sign post or pass the toll gate and see Bulawayo 20, I have that excitement. You can feel the energy and that it’s a different type of energy. The people are different, they are nice. You can feel it in your bones literary.
“These feelings, these emotions are amplified and made even better when I know I am coming home to support not just the Chevrons but to show that Bulawayo is deserving of such a grand event.
“As Bulawayo, we don’t usually get national or international gigs so when such events come to city city se celebrate. So from the time I started supporting cricket, that was one of the things we in Bulawayo wanted to show. We wanted the world to see that there is a cricket community that is starved in Bulawayo. In fact, in Bulawayo, they are not even fans but a family who come and support and make noise and push, day in day out.
“And knowing that I had not been to a cricket match since Covid-19, this felt like a homecoming for me, not the Chevrons but for me. I knew I was going to be with my cricket family and to come and feel the joy the excitement and then have them win, that was the icing on the cake for me any day all day,” Phiri says excitedly.
“I’ve been actively supporting cricket for about eight years now and trying to attend as many games as possible. For me it’s been about enjoying the game, learning the game. I’m not perfect yet but I am getting there.
“I love how I can always make new friends every time I go to a cricket match. It’s a family-friendly environment and its relaxed.
Asked about meeting fellow creatives at Queens Sports Club, Phiri was very effusive about the encounter: “Sports and the arts are one and the same industry if you like. So, it was so nice to see creatives watch fellow creatives in the athletes playing cricket. You cannot separate artistes and athletes – both sets need to be creative to make it in whatever professions they have chosen. It was also good to see Bosso (Highlanders Football Club) players supporting the national team. If I had my way, I would like to see rugby players watching a football match and vice versa.”
“The cricket family in Bulawayo is one of a kind. I don’t think there is cricket family anywhere in the world quite like Bulawayo. They will sing and make sure the people on the field feel the energy. It shows who Bulawayo is! There are people, then there are Bulawayo people!
“At Queens, one can make new friends, take pictures, drink and we are all in a good space. We must show synergy and unity, we must show that we are together – we may come from different disciplines but we are one.
“Seeing creatives at Queens was good. We caught up, had drinks together etc. But it would be nice to see music by locals being played when there are cricket matches. We must take advantage of such events to showcase local talent.”
The fast-rising media personality and former Skyz Metro FM presenter, is among a number of local A-supporters who follow the Chevrons and were present at Queens Sports Club when the hosts beat the Netherlands to qualify as tournament winners. And after this win, Phiri said she was happy that the national cricket team will be playing at the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup which will be held later this year in Australia.
The popular celebrity revealed her love for the Chevrons while watching the team qualify for the Australia tournament. She was asked which two teams she would like to see play in the T20 tournament and Phiri, who had travelled all the way from her new base in Harare on the previous Friday to watch her beloved Chevrons said: “I’d want to see Zimbabwe play Australia because the Chevrons are my team and Australia is, well Australia.”
But her allegiance to the Chevrons got us to thinking who else out there in the big wide world of celebrity stardom supported the famous Zimbabwe national cricket team.
Over the last couple years, Phiri has been living and working in Harare. In Harare she has become involved in new pursuits: “I have been learning yoga.”
“I have been trying to establish myself and continue working in the spaces I am trying to make inroads into which are equality for women and children. I am advocating for creative arts to be taken as a business and creating conversations in the country to sell this brand. We have amazing creatives and if the energies are channelled right, the world will see us perform and excel in different platforms. Creatives are ambassadors.
“I also believe in quality and women taking up more decision-making spaces. We don’t want just window dressing but real tangible efforts at empowering women and the girl child. We need women to be active participants and have women make decisions for women not men making decisions for women.”
By the end of that Sunday, Patience Phiri, Ntando van Moyo, Sizwakele Ndlovu, Brighton Ncube, Seagirl and the many journalists that had thronged Queens to watch the Chevrons proved one thing to be fact: sport unifies all and cricket in Bulawayo has proved that. — @RealSimbaJemwa
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