Zim need help to turn things around

Tristan Holme

AS Zimbabwe crumbled to another Test defeat against Sri Lanka yesterday, thoughts turned to that age-old question — what are the ingredients for an effective turnaround for Zimbabwe cricket?A lot has changed over the last 15 months.

A new board and a new chairman have taken charge.

The backroom staff at the national level have all changed, and there is a new head coach now in Heath Streak.

Tatenda Taibu has taken over as the new convenor of selectors, and has the responsibility of setting up a new structure below the national team.

There are some promising new players coming through. What’s more, Streak has infused positivity into a group of players that had for some time seen survival as their only goal.

Further evolution is in the pipeline.

Last season’s Logan Cup, the country’s first-class competition, comprised just six rounds, with the national players missing most of them.

Although the fixtures of the upcoming season are awaited, the number of matches are expected to double.

The four first-class provinces that will contest the Logan Cup will also be supplemented by five Associate provinces who will make up a feeder league.

One might look at all this and wonder what else is to be done to improve a Test team that has now failed to take 20 wickets in a match in eight games, and has conceded more than 500 runs in the first innings of its last five Tests.

An obvious answer is to entice players who have left — such as Brendan Taylor, Kyle Jarvis and Solomon Mire — back into the fold, but that may not happen in the short term.

A less obvious one is to provide better support for the players they’ve got.

Streak pointed out that, as a coaching unit, the resources at Zimbabwe’s disposal in an increasingly technological age are miles behind even those of Bangladesh, and said he would be asking Zimbabwe Cricket for backing in this regard.

Further questions arise.

Is it possible for Zimbabwe to move forward whilst ZC remain saddled with an asphyxiating debt that, in truth, calls into question the viability of its domestic plans?

One also wonders whether anything can really improve until there is a turnaround in the country’s economy.

In short, there are numerous problems to tackle, but there are some good men doing their best to come up with solutions.

The question then is what could happen in the global game that would assist Zimbabwe?

Since returning to Test cricket in August 2011, Zimbabwe have played just six away Tests, three of them in a single series in Bangladesh.

Without more international games, especially Tests, Zimbabwe are unlikely to get far even if they reform themselves in every possible way. — Cricinfo.