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Sharuko On Saturday
IT was the summer of ’85 – in more ways than one, the collective power of humanity was fighting back against the devastating arm of adversity.
Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie had led the way, writing the hit song, “We Are The World,” and assembling a stellar cast of musicians, to help them sing it.
It became a global theme song as humanity paraded its pretty face in the heat of devastation.
The famine in Eastern Africa had once again cast some light, on the ravages of natural disasters and, through the power of music, the world was finding a way to fight back.
This was a world in union.
Even in apartheid South Africa, one could now marry whoever he, or she wanted, irrespective of race, after the ban on interracial unions was abolished.
In a way, there was a new wave of hope, sweeping across the world, for a better, and brighter, future.
And, for the Warriors, and their fans, this was also the case.
We could now bite and, in that same year, we conquered East, Central and Southern Africa, by winning the CECAFA Challenge Cup, in our backyard.
In today’s world, it might be dismissed as yet another meaningless regional triumph, by a new millennium brigade, seemingly desperate to distort history.
They will tell you this was just another COSAFA, with a different name, and a different cast of teams, no one cared whether they won it, or lost it.
Well, those who lived through it, will tell you this used to be the real deal.
It’s the oldest football tournament in Africa, which was introduced in 1926, in the very same year mighty Bosso, the grand Old Lady of domestic football, were also established.
Another 31 years would pass before the AFCON was introduced in 1957.
And, the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup was a playground, for real football legends, who fought epic battles, as they battled to secure this silverware, for their countries.
Alex Chola, Peter Kaumba, Chitalu, Dick Chama, Wilberforce Mulamba, Bernard Gondwe, Kinnah Phiri, Jack Chamangwana, Bernard “Bomber” Chanda, Young Chimodzi, Frank Sinaro, Godfrey “Ucar” Chitalu, you name them, they all fought, they all won and they all lost.
Chitalu’s name, in particular, is significant, given he is considered by some, as the greatest Zambian footballer of all-time, the goal-scoring machine who scored more than 100 goals, in all competitions, in 1972.
Between 1972 and 1974, Zambia and the DRC, then known as Zaire, were the two most powerful football nations, on the continent.
And, at the ’74 AFCON finals, in Egypt, the two battled in what some believe to be the tournament’s finest final, the only one to be decided after a replay.
Chanda, the Bomber, had scored a stunning hat-trick, in Zambia’s 4-2 victory, after extra-time, over Congo-Brazzaville, in the semi-final.
And, to underline their superiority, Zambia and the DRC were the best performing African countries, in the ’74 World Cup qualifiers, with the Congolese securing the sole ticket, to the finals in Germany.
But, even that fine collection of Zambian players, who made such a profound impact at both the AFCON finals, and the World Cup qualifiers, finished bottom, in their group, at the ’75 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup tournament.
Even though they were playing on home soil, they lost both their group games, with their only goal, in the 1-2 defeat to the Harambee Stars, coming from the great Alex Chola.
If ever there was need, to underline the obvious fact the CECAFA Senior Challenge wasn’t a Mickey Mouse tournament but, a real playground for the finest footballers, then Chipolopolo’s struggles, in ’75, provided just that.
TEN YEARS LATER, THE SUMMER OF ’85, SHACKY, GHETTO
In ’85, the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup roadshow finally rolled into town and, after finishing second in our group behind Kenya, we made the semi-finals, where Shacky Tauro’s 38th minute goal, helped us edge Group B winners, Malawi 1-0.
The final, on October 13, ’85, provided a replay, of our earlier game in Group, A against the Kenyans, which had ended 1-1.
And, a tight duel, before more than 30 000 fans, in a stadium that could have taken in about three times that number, if Rufaro had such a capacity, was still goalless, with just 20 minutes to play.
Then, Shacky, as he usually did, struck before substitute Gift Mpariwa completed the formalities, two minutes from time, to give us our breakthrough victory.
Let’s run the starting XI of those Warriors, at least, for the sake of the new generation of this team’s fans — Japhet Mparutsa, James Takavada, Oliver Kateya, Misheck Chidzambwa, John Phiri, Joel Sambo, David Mwanza, Stanley Ndunduma, Moses Chunga, Shacky Tauro and Edward Katsvere.
M’pariwa came in for Chunga, then still a month short of his 20th birthday, in the 62nd minute.
In a country, which appears to be allergic to its history, where deliberate distortions are as fashionable as the pink kit which Chelsea wore in Seville, on Wednesday night, fighting such grand misrepresentation, appears to be a lonely mission.
It’s easy to understand why the majority of people tend to flow with the tide, appear to be sucked into the euphoria that comes with current events and, in the madness of all this, they tend to forget about the past.
It’s human nature, that’s what we are as a people, it’s what matters today, which we seem to care about, not the journey we have traveled to be here, the challenges we faced, to get this far, and the lessons we should have learnt.
That’s why, suddenly, we now have a constituency suggesting our current generation of national team players are the finest collection of Warriors, ever assembled, simply because they have managed to qualify for three straight AFCON finals.
But, we can’t let people distort history, for the sake of their interests, selfish or otherwise, or simply because they don’t know, because the Warriors didn’t just start playing football, ahead of the 2017 AFCON qualifiers.
The reality is the Warriors started playing this game, a very long time ago, and we can’t let people spread the gospel that we now have our greatest team, ever, simply because we have qualified for three Nations Cup finals, on the trot.
For goodness sake, how can we claim the Warriors Class of ’85, who won the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, can be considered an inferior side, to the one representing us in the AFCON qualifiers, simply because they didn’t make the Nations Cup finals?
This is a group of Warriors who thrashed Eswatini 8-1, on aggregate, in the preliminary round of the ’86 Nations Cup qualifiers, winning 3-0 at home, on October 14, ’84, through goals by Madinda Ndlovu, Boy Ndlovu and M’pariwa.
Then, they went to Mbabane, thrashing the hosts 5-1, in their backyard, on November 4, ’84, with Chunga and Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo scoring a brace and the consistent Ndunduma getting the other goal.
In their first round qualifier, they beat Madagascar 1-0 in Antananarivo, with Stanford “Stix” Mutizwa scoring the only goal, on March 3, ’85, before they hammered the Indian Ocean islanders 5-2 here, with John Phiri, Boy Ndlovu, Ndunduma, Shambo and Chunga on target.
That took them into the final qualifying round and when Ndunduma’s solitary goal, at Rufaro, on August 18, ’85, gave those Warriors a 1-0 win over Senegal, they had one foot, at the ’86 AFCON finals.
However, their campaign imploded, in Dakar, when the immortal Jules Bocande scored a hattrick, for the Lions of Terange, in a 3-0 win.
For Boy Ndlovu, Madinda Ndlovu, Sinyo, Chunga, Shambo, Mashinkila-Khumalo, Ghetto, Shacky, Japhet, Takavada, Kateya, Scania, Chikwama, Madhobha, Stix, the campaign had ended but to suggest this was an inferior collection of Warriors, is stretching reality too far.
It’s tantamount to dragging the history of our Warriors, into a sub-plot, for the script that makes such reality television series like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” where what you see isn’t what is really happening.
It’s an insult to the history of our game, which has to be preserved, and be told, again and again, so that we don’t let it be distorted, by those who want to make a mockery of fine Warriors, whose names should always be printed in gold letters.
Yes, the objective, then, and now, remains the same — to qualify for the AFCON finals – and those who didn’t do so, as was the case with the Class of ’85, came short and, those who did so, as is the case with the current generation, came good.
But, there is a back story, which shouldn’t be ignored, because the playing level has changed, the conditions have changed and what constituted success, back then, and now, is as different as the length of the Zambezi River.
How can we compare two teams, one which has to battle for 23 slots, available for the AFCON finals today, and another which had to battle for just SIX slots, for a place at the ’86 Nations Cup finals?
Back then, only eight teams featured at the AFCON finals, and the hosts and the defending champions were guaranteed places.
One doesn’t need the intervention of my childhood friend Solomon Banda, a genius when it comes to Mathematics, who is a proud teacher at Battlefields, to see that it’s not fair to compare a team, which only had six slots open to it, with one that now has 23 slots open to it.
That’s why, more than ever, it’s important for such authorities like Charles ”CNN” Mabika to keep telling the story of our football, in the ’80s and ’90s, because we can’t let its history be distorted, because we want to make someone like Zdravko Logarusic look like a coaching genius.
EVEN BASIC MATHS, THE NUMBERS THEY TAUGHT US IN PRIMARY SCHOOL, DON’T ADD UP
How is it possible that FAILURE can be used, as a word to describe a team which, as in the case of the Class of ’85, won FIVE of their SIX qualifiers, and lost only ONE?
I’m not really a genius, when it comes to Mathematics but, even the basic, which they taught me, gives me an 88.33 percent success rate, if we convert it to the possible number of available points, and what they got.
Now, how is it possible that SUCCESS can be used, as a word to describe a team which, as in the case of the Class of 2021, won just TWO of their SIX qualifiers, and lost TWO others?
Again, basic Mathematics show us a 44.44 percent, failure rate which, however, was still good enough to take them to the next AFCON finals.
Maybe, the time has come for us to challenge some of the myths and, if need be, come up with radical views where we can argue that winning the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, back in ’85, should be considered bigger than qualifying for a 24-team AFCON finals.
Because, a 24-team Nations Cup finals has now become virtually an invitational tournament, given that half the members of CAF now get to play at the festival.
And, an appearance at such a tournament can’t suddenly become the badge of honour, which can be used as a barometer, to gauge greatness.
It’s a tournament where even Comoros, an island nation with a population of just 869 600 people, which had never won either a World Cup of AFCON qualifier until five years ago, can now qualify, for the first time, with a game to spare.
A country which, since winning that first AFCON qualifier, with a victory over Botswana in 2016, have just had one player, Youssouf Ibroihim Djoudja, moving to play for a foreign club, when he joined Namibia’s African Stars.
This is a tournament where we can win just two qualifiers and, somehow, still make it to the finals.
This is a tournament where we can even afford to lose to a Zambian team, recording their first away victory, in the AFCON qualifiers, in SIX years, and still qualify for the finals.
The last time we played Chipolopolo at home, in the final Nations Cup qualifiers, a draw wasn’t good enough, to take us to the Nations Cup finals.
This is the same Zambian side which, in the last AFCON qualifiers, were beaten home and away, in Lusaka and in Maputo, by a Mozambican side, which can’t even make the next Nations Cup finals.
Yes, we beat Botswana but why is it that since beating Comoros 2-1, in Gaborone, on March 27, 2016, these Zebras have only won just one of their 14 AFCON qualifiers?
In NINE of those games, these Zebras failed to score, including in FIVE games at home.
And, not even once, in that five-year period, did they score more than a goal, in their AFCON qualifiers.
Before we go crazy, and start suggesting our Warriors, who represented us in the past, were a bunch of failures, we have to really consider a lot of factors.
Yes, the current crop of players are doing an excellent job but, in a tournament where even Gambia can qualify, for the first time in their history, just making an appearance doesn’t guarantee greatness.
And, neither does a coach who comes in, wins just one game, against Botswana, loses two, draws one and still drags his team across the line, qualify for immortality.
Numbers don’t lie, it’s as simple as all that, isn’t it?
If the Class of ’85 had to play for an AFCON, where only eight teams took part, maybe we should start judging the current generation, when they start playing in the quarter-finals of the Nations Cup.
That’s eight teams, isn’t it, and the playing field becomes level.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!
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