ZC works on first class structure for women

HAVING introduced a professional set-up for women’s cricket in the country and awarding players central contacts, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) is now working on having a proper first-class structure for women.

ZC chairperson, Tavengwa Mukuhlani said they are looking to have a solid base that will enable the Zimbabwe women’s cricket team to be able to compete against the best in the world.

Mukuhlani said they will be hoping to start from club level going up.

He added that ZC is already looking at planning for the future for both the men’s and women’s teams.

“Interesting times ahead of us and interesting times behind us over the past four years. We will be sitting with stakeholders to come up with a roadmap for 2027 and that is underpinned by our development.

“What are we doing in schools, what are we doing with our clubs and what are we doing with our first-class so that when we get to 2027, we have created a base in the selection pool that is competent, that is able to compete.

“The same process will be done for the ladies. We need to re-look at our ladies’ programme. Yes, we have put in place a professional structure for the ladies but I think more needs to be done in terms of; how do we get them to play club cricket, how do we have a decent and credible first-class structure for the ladies for them to compete and the same for the Under-19s,” said Mukuhlani.

Mukuhlani also gave credit to the Lady Chevrons head coach, Gary Brent who has been instrumental in the growth and development of women’s cricket in the country.

However, the Lady Chevrons also suffered a close defeat that hindered their progression to the T20 World Cup last year.

“Our ladies, when we brought in Gary Brent to take over, have improved, sadly we couldn’t cross the line again, we lost by four runs to Ireland and did not qualify for the World Cup. But you can see real growth in women’s cricket in Zimbabwe, we now have a professional set-up for the ladies. We issued new contracts,” said Mukuhlani.

In August last year, ZC announced it has offered central contracts to the Lady Chevrons for the 2022/23 season. Team captain Mary-Anne Musonda, vice-captain Josephine Nkomo and Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano were awarded grade A+ category contracts as ZC handed 19 contracts.

It was a move which ZC director of cricket, Hamilton Masakadza said will go a long way in boosting the morale of players and play a part in the growth and development of the game in the country. — @brandon_malvin