We could have done better in Sri Lanka

the Zimbabweans folded meekly, once Ajantha Mendis had come into the attack, and handed him a record wicket haul of 6-8 for this format of the game in an embarrassing 82-run walloping. In that game we once again fielded like rank amateurs, failing to handle the pressure that comes with the big occasion, and handing Sri Lanka lifelines that they barely needed given the quality in their team.
For a team to lose by 82 runs, in a game that is played over just 20 overs, is as bad as it can get and that it can happen at a big stage like the World Cup simply magnifies the feeling of betrayal that the fans have right now.
Then, when we expected our boys to bounce back and show their quality against South Africa, they simply hid into their shell and by the end of this embarrassing no-contest, we had slumped to a 10-wicket loss, unable to even take the consolation of grabbing one wicket. It can’t get any worse than that.
The batting, once again, was very poor if not downright kindergarten stuff with our batsmen unsure of what they wanted to do and nowhere was this demonstrated better than the foolish way skipper Brendan Taylor gifted his key wicket.
For some strange reasons he decided to fish a wide delivery from Morne Morkel, even surprisingly exposing his stumps to give himself room, and without any balance, the result was inevitable once the ball made contact with the bat.
Taylor was dismissed in controversial circumstances in the first match against Sri Lanka, for a duck, but he was to blame for his exit on Thursday, when his team needed their skipper to stand out and be counted and questions should now be asked about his big match temperament.
Statistics will show that he only scored four runs in two innings for his team and, as its best batsman and leader, that is too negligible a contribution and after the disaster in Sri Lanka we now have the right to ask if we are under the right captain.
That Taylor is a good player is beyond question, but it’s pointless to always see his class, or whatever it is, in matches that are of no significance when, come to the big stage, he falls short.
He is not the only one. Elton Chigumbura was another huge disappointment at the big stage once again following up on his failure at the World Cup for the 50-overs format on the same Indian sub-continent. For some time now, Chigumbura’s place in the team has been a case for debate, but somehow, he continues to survive. But after his latest failure, it’s pointless sticking with him as the all-rounder when he isn’t delivering.
Hamilton Masakadza was left out of the 50-overs World Cup and, after playing himself into form in the Tri-Series at home, we all expected him to explode in Sri Lanka.
But there have always been questions about his temperament on the big stage and his performance in Sri Lanka this week underlined those fears and it’s hard to see him doing any better at future major events. Just about everyone in this squad, save for Craig Ervine, who seemed to know what he was doing when he batted against South Africa, should be asking themselves serious questions.
At least, we can look at Brian Vitori and hope that he can get better with time and experience. The same, sadly, cannot be said about Ray Price and probably it’s about time we give the spinner his due retirement and thank him for a wonderful service to his country. Our national team is crying out for the injection of fresh talent and there was an excitement when Richard Muzhange was included for this World Cup tour of duty, but as it turned out, he was taken just to be another tourist.
Interestingly, this week coach Alan Butcher told the BBC that he wanted to stay longer in this country, well beyond the time when his contract expires next March, but basing on what this team has done on the big stage under his guidance, maybe the time has come for fresh ideas.
Butcher is a good coach, no doubt about that and has made a huge contribution to take us from a position where we barely had a team to one where we can field a team in the World Cup.
But we want more because we can’t be content with just competing, we want to make a huge impact and it’s an area where Butcher and his coaching staff are coming short.
South Africa and Sri Lanka, admittedly, were always going to be difficult teams to beat and we won’t be surprised if one of them emerges from this three-week competition as the winners of the tourney. They are very powerful sides and if we had played our best game and Sri Lanka and South Africa had played their best games too, chances are that we would still have lost.
But it’s not losing that is the issue here.
It’s the way we have failed to compete, and been embarrassed in the process, which is the talking point.
The Zimbabwe Cricket leadership really need to ask themselves so tough questions because they, too, have to provide some of the answers as to why our national team has suddenly become very bad.