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By Perkins-Tino Bare.

Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Zimbabwe Cricket has made a huge appointment of South African great pace man Makhaya Ntini which could see the fortunes of the team changing for the better. The appointment of Makhaya Ntini as the bowling coach is also coupled with the appointment of Marvin Attapatu (hope I got that right) as the batting coach in a major shake-up of the technical department after the team`s embarrassing performances which are slowly becoming their trademark.

Makhaya Ntini signed a 2 year contract with Zimbabwe Cricket which runs from the 16th of February. He replaces another decent but well respected bowler in Douglas Hondo who was the bowling coach for the Chevrons. Marvin also comes in as the batting coach with the Pakistani boasting of a playing career of 90 tests and well over 200 ODI`s.

This move by Zimbabwe Cricket is certainly a make or break one because as far as the technical department is concerned, that is a recipe for success. Dav Whatmore a world cup winning coach, Makhaya Ntini a Proteas great and Marvin Attapatu if they fail to crack the winning formula then they are dealing with mere duds who don`t deserve to be in the national team and it just calls for the whole playing staff to be disbanded.

The Chevrons have hit probably an all-time low in their performances after they just lost to Afghanistan in their recent tour. Right now they are probably already in Bangladesh where they are going to receive another copping. The Chevrons are scheduled to play 4 T20`s in 8 days but their performances of late have now evolved from that point of disappointment to sheer embarrassment.

What hurts the most is that the Chevrons started off their previous season which led them into the doldrums on a high after the appointment of Dav Whatmore. What he was able to do in over a small period of time with the team had us thinking for a while that hang on, maybe all that team is a little discipline and they would be decent cricketers. But ever since the team has only got worse and all we can ask now to the guys for the man`s sacking is what more can the man do?

That`s just the whole point for we can flatter ourselves but the hard questions need to be asked at this moment. These changes should be taking place in the playing staff itself where some players should just be noble enough to accept that they are not good enough for the national team. We`ve fired coaches from Waller, Makoni and now Hondo but over the past few series we`ve all seen that something is lacking in the players themselves which is that desire to win.

The Chevrons have lost series after series but the appointments of these two guys right here should bring some change and I surely hope Bangladesh will be the first to feel the effects. Nine should be able to help the lads especially with their death bowling which has been disappointing of late. The Chevrons have a tendency of holding teams by the scruff of the neck only to fail to knock in the final nail in the coffin which just leaves teams to crawl their way out of the trouble and give them that how dare you smack.

The bowling department is not entirely pathetic as a few changes here and there will certainly see it becoming a good side. Guys like Neville Madziva can develop into strong openers if they work on their pace. He surely brings those early wickets home but then he seems a bit costly at times. At the same time we also have some decent spinners who like John Nyumbu who can stop waiting for big teams like Australia to pull over their flukes and develop that real talent into something genuine.

On the batting department it seems Brendan Taylor was the man solely holding together that batting line-up and the Chevrons have struggled immensely ever since his departure. Rigt now it`s just Chamu Chibhabha and Sean Williams holding it together and if they leave as well it will certainly crumble. Sikander Raza chips in here and there but it’s never enough and that is the whole point. When one sparkles the other falters which leaves the team without any meaningful partnership.

Ntini has immense experience from his playing days with the Proteas and one thing that he`s certainly going to bring to the table for the Chevrons is sheer mental aptitude. He boasts of a bucket-load of experience in all formats of the game but one thing that will certainly get the revolutionists going is what the man did off the field of play for the game of cricket.

He made us all believe that even a black boy who`s only been a herdsman could also play the white man`s game. He made us all believe that all you needed was passion and through a lot of hard work and dedication you could surely even be in the national cricket team. Well the same ideology was employed and this is where it got us.

#SayNoToRacism

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