dyton mupawaenda
Brandon Moyo
ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) High Performance Programme and Emerging team head coach, Stephen Mangongo has said that the sport’s governing body in the country has the right systems in place to foster the development of the game.
Mangongo was speaking at the back of the conclusion of their series against South Africa Emerging at Queens Sports Club on Saturday afternoon. Zimbabwe Emerging won the third and final one-day game by three runs to save face as South Africa Emerging had already taken a 2-0 unassailable lead going into the encounter.
As Zimbabwe Emerging were up against South Africa Emerging in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe A are on tour in the United Kingdom (UK), and are presently playing a three-day game against Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Second XI. Zimbabwe A has been on tour for a month and Mangongo believes that is the right foundation for development.
He added that the platform created by ZC has allowed players such as Emmanuel Bawa and Brandon Mavuta to prosper.
“We must also look at the bigger picture, that Zimbabwe Cricket has got two basically development teams, one in England and one playing here (Bulawayo), giving the platform and in this platform, we can see young Bawa. In this platform, we can see Brandon Mavuta showing us that if he works well, the discipline is right, he’s got the skills.
“We must not underestimate the importance of having the right environment to play international cricket and I think in that regard, it takes a lot of financing to bring international teams into the country and us having South Africa here and another team in England, we saw the results in terms of talent identification that there is young Bawa, Arineshto Vezha, these kids can play, so at the end of the day, this is the only way that is going to make us better,” said Mangongo.
Mangongo also added that another key to developing players is making sure that they play as much international cricket as possible at their development stage which is Under-19. However, he believes that in playing more international games, focus should be on quality.
The gaffer said getting basics right, training hard and playing regular international cricket is the way forward for emerging players.
“It’s giving these kids international exposure in their formative years which is at the emerging side which is at Under-19 level then we can build a good quality player base. Playing enough cricket is not good enough, but are we focusing on quality and what I saw today in Bawa, Musekiwa, Vezha and the young Victor Chirwa, I saw quality and I think we can go forward.
“ZC has put in a good platform, we got the high performance, which is a full-time environment for our players, and it’s based here at Queens. A lot of these boys are going to stay in the high performance centre. That is polishing and honing their skills and to me, that is the immediate way forward, it’s to make sure that we train well, we get our basics right and then from there we need to have our emerging players, every three or four months to play international cricket.
“ZC has already started these programmes and I believe that’s the way to go. Identify talent, put it in the right platform that is high performance, organise international games then I’m telling you, that we will have quality players coming in within the next two to three years, to then have a good player base,” he said. — @brandon_malvin.
Online Reporter