ZC defends Twenty20 team selection

Mehluli Sibanda Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE senior national cricket team convener of selectors Kenyon Ziehl has defended their choices for the International Cricket Council World Twenty20 in India next month.
Questions have been asked how the selection panel opted for two suspected unfit fast bowlers in Tendai Chatara and Tinashe Panyangara who seem to have been rushed back into international cricket fray soon after recovering from injury.
Chatara had been sidelined by a leg injury suffered while playing social soccer last year while Panyangara returned from the team’s recent tour of Asia with a back problem.

Chatara played four matches for Mountaineers in the Domestic Twenty20 recently held in Bulawayo where he picked up just one wicket in the 15 overs while Panyangara appeared once for Midwest Rhinos at the same competition where he bowled four overs for 27 runs. That appeared enough to convince the selectors that the two bowlers were ready for a return to the international game.

However, there are some who feel that a gamble was taken on the fitness of Chatara and Panyangara which could backfire. This is despite Donald Tiripano being chosen as back up for the two just in case one of them gets injured before the start of the tournament. That seems not good enough to quell critics who feel that fit bowlers should have been selected.
“What message did they (selectors) send to all the bowlers in the country when they took guys who are not one hundred percent fit,’’ said a critic of the team selection.
Ziehl, however, feels that with the two were the best seam bowlers the country has and with opportunities having been given to other bowlers without success, they were right in recalling Chatara and Panyangara.

“They were the best, their line and length and consistency. Chatara has done some severe training with Makhaya Ntini. With his record and history, we have tried these other bowlers and they have been expensive. That is why we have Donald on standby. We have six warm up games before the first qualifier, we play West Indies in two games in the UAE, one against UAE and then one club game,’’ said Ziehl.

“Four of the matches are matches in UAE, two warm up matches organised by the ICC when we arrive in India. We have to name the final squad until 1 March so if one of those bowlers does not make it we can bring in Tiripano.’’