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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Cricket is mourning the death of one of its best coaches both at franchise and national level cricket, Shepherd Makunura, who died yesterday morning at a private hospital in Harare.
Makunura was 46 years old and was doubling up as fielding coach for the senior national men’s cricket team and head coach at provincial side, Southern Rocks.
“It is with great sorrow and heavy hearts that Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) announces the death of Shepherd Tichaendepi Makunura at the age of 46,” read a statement from ZC.
According to ZC, the Harare-born Makunura began his cricketing career in the late 1980s at Chengu Primary School in Highfield and earned a scholarship that took him to Prince Edward School for his secondary level.
As one of the brightest prospects to emerge from ZC’s development programme for high density areas, the right-handed batsman made the Zimbabwe Under-14 and 15 team. Makunura, in Form One in 1990, started his club career as one of the pioneering members of Takashinga.
The late unsung hero made his first-class debut for Mashonaland A in the 2001/2002 season where he played three matches, scoring 62 runs against Midlands in his second game and 41 runs against Mashonaland in his third outing. He however, did not play any first-class cricket again until the 2006/2007 season where he appeared twice for Northerns.
Makunura took up coaching after an Achilles tendon cut short his playing career in 2007. In his early coaching days, he had stints in charge of the Zimbabwe Under-14 from 2005-2007 and Under-19s from 2008 to 2010.
He went on to coach Zimbabwe A in the tour against Canada and Kenya in 2018, the same year that he took the Zimbabwe XI side to the Africa Cup tournament in South Africa. It was also in 2018 that he joined the senior men’s team as fielding coach, a position he held until his death.
Makunura will be remembered for being the first coach in Zimbabwe to win three consecutive Logan Cup first-class cricket titles between 2017 and 2019 with Mountaineers. He made it four successive titles in the following season after he joined Southern Rocks.
Givemore Makoni, the ZC managing director described the late Makunura as a wonderful person and one of the best coaches who was instrumental in unearthing and nurturing talent.
“On behalf of Zimbabwe Cricket, our deepest sympathies are with his family, colleagues and friends as they come to terms with losing such an affable and wonderful man. We have lost one of our very best coaches, an unsung hero of our game who has been instrumental in the unearthing and nurturing of many of Zimbabwe’s talented players.
“We are grateful for his immense contributions to the sport in Zimbabwe and beyond and the void that he has left will be hard to fill. Sheppy was a much-loved and humble person and his smiling face and positive attitude will be sadly missed.
“Our thoughts are with Sinikiwe, his family and friends at this devastatingly sad time,” said Makoni.
Makunura is survived by his wife, Sinikiwe Mpofu, a former Zimbabwe international cricketer who is the Zimbabwe senior women’s national team assistant coach, and two children. – @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter