admin
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) chairman, Tavengwa Mukuhlani is looking forward to a fruitful 2020 following a difficult 2019 which saw the country come close to expulsion from the International Cricket Council.
A standoff between ZC and the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) led to Zimbabwe’s ICC membership being suspended in July.
SRC suspended the Mukuhlani ZC board after the cricket governing body went ahead with their annual general meeting in Victoria Falls. ICC viewed that as Government interference in the administration of the sport. Zimbabwe faced expulsion from the ICC had the warring parties locally not found each other. The country’s membership was restored in October.
By that time, the effects of that suspension had caused far reaching damage to the game. Zimbabwe’s women’s team was barred from taking part in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier staged in Scotland. Lady Chevrons skipper Mary-Anne Musonda, some of her teammates and coach Adam Chifo were barred from being part of the ICC Women’s Global Development Squad. The men’s team also could not compete in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier staged in United Arab Emirates.
ZC employees, including players, went for five months without getting any salaries after ICC froze funding due to the suspension.
“When we reflect, when we look backwards, we say to ourselves we have done everything that must not be done in sports administration and I believe everyone has learnt that we need to do things differently,’’ Mukuhlani said.
Even with Zimbabwe having failed to qualify for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup held in England, Mukuhlani is of the view that this would have been a great year for the game in this country.
“In our view at Zimbabwe Cricket, in terms of cricket, this would have been our best year ever. We had the greatest opportunity to have our women qualify for their maiden T20 World Cup appearance, we had the greatest opportunity for our men’s team to qualify for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year, I am happy to say that we managed to overcome all those obstacles and we are basically on track now to try and get back in the direction that we think it should go,’’ he said.
The lifting of the suspension by ICC came at the right time to enable the Prosper Utseya-coached Zimbabwe Under-19 to take part in their World Cup in South Africa next month.
What excites the ZC boss is that the Under-19s are an indicator as to where the country is in terms of growing the game.
“Our Under-19s, they are a measure of your development, where you are in terms of your development, they are also a reflection of your schools cricket and the future prospects of the game in the country. I think its best that we are starting the year with our Under-19s going to the World Cup.
I am happy that all parties who were involved in the ups and downs of the year in the past year came to the realisation that we needed to save the Under-19’s World Cup participation and that has come through. It’s an exciting period, this is the second time Prosper is taking the team but now him being in charge, we want to see how far he will take it, he has all our support as the board,’’ Mukuhlani said.
The senior team is starting the year with a two-Test series against Sri Lanka in January.
Later on, in the year will see the start of the ICC Super League, which is the pathway to qualification for the 2023 Cricket World Cup. In the ICC Super League schedule for 2019, Zimbabwe face Australia away in June, India at home in August before Netherlands visit the following month. Zimbabwe will tour Sri Lanka and Pakistan towards the end of the year.
“We look forward to the starting of the ODI Super League in preparation for the 2023 World Cup. So, there is a lot that is coming up in terms of cricket. The restructuring of Zimbabwe Cricket which had gathered a lot of traction will be in full swing come 2020 where targets were put in our strategy which started in 2018 to deal with our creditors, to deal with our loans and to get to a point where we got a decent, clean balance sheet. So, 2020 is quite a busy year from all aspects of the game and the organisation.”
Two English county teams, Derbyshire and Durham are heading to Zimbabwe in March as they build up to the start of the County Championship. Mukuhlani sees this as a warming up of relations between ZC and the England and Wales Cricket Board.
There has been no engagement between ZC and ECB at a bilateral level for over a decade. Zimbabwe last played cricket in England in 2004, the same year that England visited the country. With the British Government indicating that they would not issue visas to the Zimbabwean team, Zimbabwe were forced to withdraw from the 2009 ICC World T20 staged in England. Zimbabwe and England last met on a cricket field in September 2007 when they clashed in an ICC World T20 group match in Cape Town, South Africa.
“We look forward to building on that platform. This is the first time that we are having an English side in Zimbabwe since 2006. More so, that helps our domestic cricket, it’s their winter, it’s our summer and if this can be a permanent arrangement where every winter we’ve got two, three county sides that come to play with our guys , it’s a good game time for our boys, they are playing against quality opposition. This is part and parcel of our long-term strategy to engage the ECB, to try and get games with the England main side,’’ said Mukuhlani.
Even in their darkest hour when Zimbabwe were suspended by ICC, ZC were never a financial burden to Kirsty Coventry’s Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation as they made other plans to send the Chevrons on tour to Bangladesh and Singapore.
“We don’t get any funding from the Government, we have never received any funding from the Government, Zimbabwe Cricket has been in financial turmoil over a period of time but even in that situation, they have never had a bailout from Government. A point in case was recently when Zimbabwe funding had been stopped, ZC managed to send a team to Bangladesh to fulfil their FTP,’’ Mukuhlani said.
Another sad development for the game saw Peter Chingoka, the long serving former ZC chairman pass on at the age of 65.
Hamilton Masakadza, who started playing for the national team in 2001 retired from the international game in September, with the Twenty20 International triangular series against Bangladesh and Afghanistan his last involvement in the game as a player. Masakadza was in October appointed ZC director of cricket, a newly created position intended to change the game on as well as off the field.
The year 2019 was indeed a difficult one for the game of cricket in Zimbabwe and those involved in the sport can only hope that 2020 brings more joy and less misery on and off the field of play.
Online Reporter