admin
Sports Reporter
Zimbabwe’s footballers may have failed to live up to their “golden generation” tag, but their much less heralded cricket counterparts may be closer to justifying the label.
While Norman Mapeza’s men were getting knocked out by East African minnows, Kenya with a crushing 3-1 loss in the final of a four-team invitational tournament in Malawi, the Zimbabwe men’s and women’s cricket teams were winning the gold medal at the African Games in Accra, Ghana.
Eleven days after the women clinched gold in a thrilling final against South Africa, the Chevron men’s team repeated their exploits by blowing away Namibia, by eight wickets in the final.
Bowling first, they were immaculate with their lines and lengths, chipping away at the Namibians with regular wickets. Every time the batters looked to up the ante, a wicket fell, preventing Namibia from forming meaningful partnerships. The innings coughed and spluttered along, eventually reaching 113/7 from 20 overs. None of the batters except captain Malan Kruger could manage a strike rate above 100. The Chevron bowling was miserly with every bowler conceding less than 6.33 runs per over.
In response, the Zimbabwean batters blazed away to a fast start and never looked back. It was a very comfortable chase with Zimbabwe romping home with 5.1 overs and eight wickets to spare. Opener Tadiwanashe Marumani was the chief architect, hitting an attractive 58 runs off 40 balls with six fours and three sixes.
It capped off a brilliant tournament for the men who won every single game and barring a close-fought win against Tanzania, looked a class above the rest. They had earlier also beaten Namibia in the group stages by 35 runs.
On the bowling front, debutant Owen Muzondo was a difficult prospect for batters with his left-arm orthodox spin nabbing eleven wickets at 8.27 and an economy rate of 5.05 was central to all the Emerging Chevrons successes in Ghana.
And while he was saddened by the football team’s failure, the team’s coach, Steven Mangongo said: “It would be nice to think that we are the golden generation rather than the footballers, but we all wanted Zimbabwe to do well in Malawi and that was a big let-down, but I know the boys gave their all.”
The developmental side seems to be enjoying a rapid resurgence under the leadership coach, Mangongo, who was recently appointed National Academy Head Coach.
Zimbabwe have started to show signs of taking their cricket development seriously, following the establishment of a High Performance team, comprising under-25 cricketers, with a decent run against development sides in South Africa that ended with thumping victories in Ghana.
With Mangongo’s return to the local cricket set up, having previously coached the Under-19 and senior men’s teams, a change in approach had happened and Mangongo explained that former first-class cricketers who are part of his coaching set-up, have been instrumental in altering the team’s mind set.
“The great thing my technical team and I have done, is to instill confidence in everyone to back their natural ability on the big stage. That was exemplified in Ghana. It was the way we won our matches, not with carefree and uncommitted abandon but certainly almost a joyous approach – compared with how Zimbabwean teams have approached the game over the past few years.”
He added: “The satisfying thing for us is that we sat down and said we want to be number one in all formats and asked, how are we going to do it? We have plotted our way to this point and everything has gone well. We won the African Games and won them comprehensively – which you might expect against some teams, but possibly not Australia. That is a testament to the way we are playing, but more than anything, it is a testament to the mentality that we are trying to develop among our players.”
Over the years, Zimbabwe has regressed and Mangongo has been at pains to stress how the result of this tournament should not be used as a yardstick to measure immediate success in cricket.
“The world stage is a different game altogether. When you look in our changing room, there are not too many players who have experience at international level.”
From this squad, Jonathan Campbell, Tadiwanashe Marumani and Muzondo are highly tipped to follow.
There have been others too, who have gained a handful of matches at the top level and many others who have played and continue to do so, professionally at the domestic level. However, it is not a straight line from being an Under-25 international to then forging a full career, which is what Mangongo and his technical team have been working on.
It’s hard to say where the Zimbabwe U-25 side will be in a few years, but there is a feeling it could be something of a golden generation in terms of those who do kick on with their cricket careers.
“If they can all keep working hard on their games, there’s plenty who can make a career out of the game. Where they go and how far, will depend on how hard they work, but the raw ability is certainly there for a lot of them. My message after the game was obviously congratulations and enjoy the win, but the most important thing for all the guys now is when they go back and the next game they play is as important as this one and you need to keep getting better,” Mangongo said after the final.
Mangongo’s high performance side includes 15-year-old Malachi Harry, who has played for the Zimbabwe squad against Powerplay Sports during the South Africa tour, after injuries to some of the Under-25 players. His presence in that environment is expected to be priceless.
“I think it helped with all the coaches they had around there and all the players, taking stuff from them, the likes of young Malachi Harry, just soaking up as much as possible. With the training, there’s a lot of stuff, which is mostly what helps us to develop a bit more, which I think has helped the team,” Mangongo said.
However, while some already have their foot in the professional door, for others there are more mundane things awaiting when they get back to camp in Bulawayo, where Mangongo’s team is based.
“He’s sucked the marrow out of cricket since being invited to be part of Mangongo’s team,” Mangongo told B- Metro.
“But he’ll need to get ready for assessment tasks and normal world stuff.”
But a cricket career looks to be in the offing.
“He’s a bit of a student of the game, loves bowling, and is just a really good kid. As someone so young, the future looks bright for him,” Mangongo said.
Online Reporter