By Perkins-Tino Bare.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – The year 2015 was loaded for Zimbabwe Cricket as we started off by going to the ICC World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. It was also a sad moment for Zimbabwe Cricket as Brendan Taylor announced his retirement, which broke the hearts of many and left a huge gap in the team. The Chevrons went into the tourney with Dav Whatmore the gaffer who took over from a disastrous spell by Steven Mangongo, only to finalise his contract after the tournament. What came out of it was how well our boys could play and mixed feelings of inspiration and disappointment.
Sheer Indiscipline Turns Inspirational Performances into Disappointments
In February the Chevrons got off their 2015 campaign to a flying start as they took part in the ICC Cricket World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The tourney down under showed us what our boys were capable of only for their indiscipline on the field of play left most rather disappointed.
The Chevrons got their campaign off threatening as for a moment, they outwitted the Proteas with the ball leaving them at 64-5. The Proteas however clawed their way back into the match posting a decent total of well over 200. This was to be the order of the days to follow as the Chevrons would always get off to an impressive start only for them to blow up the beautiful foundation they would have set up for themselves.
The following matches saw the Chevrons losing out in the same manner to India and it really got to that point whereby it was now frustrating. The losses to the Proteas and India were expected but the ones to West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland left a bitter taste in the mouths of many. The one to Ireland was a controversial one both on and off the field of play as Zimbabwe Cricket had to apologise for comments made by the Herald`s Senior Sports Editor regards what was deemed to be cheating on the day.
These three matches were the key ones in our group as we had to at least win two of those which would have complemented the one against UAE and put us in a better stead regards qualification. But instead the Chevrons went ahead to lose all three which saw us bowing out at the group stages of the tournament.
The retirement of Brendan Taylor was probably the most emotional moment as we lost what was arguably our best player. Brendan Taylor retired from the game as he opted to play county cricket. He was one of the top performers in the tournament itself including Sean Williams and Chamu Chibhabha.
The year 2015 also saw the ICC announcing that teams would have to go through a qualification phase for the next tournament for the next tournament with only the top 7 ranked teams getting automatic qualification. This was major for the associate nations who felt that they are indeed better than the lesser nations that is the Chevrons themselves and Bangladesh and what remains to be seen is a scuttle for the automatic places with Bangladesh well on their course.
Our boys are just not getting enough game time… Well not!
There was a famous cliché around town from Highlands that the reason the Chevrons lacked discipline on the field and were so sloppy at times was because they just weren`t getting enough game time. It made logical sense back then but what preceded was what was probably one of the busiest periods of playing cricket the Chevrons have ever experienced.
The Chevrons were involved in back to back series from what only seemed to be a busy winter in May stretching all the way to November. We played New Zealand then a week after that India then there was also Pakistan and Ireland. Afghanistan and familiar foes Bangladesh also got in the fix in what was the only series played away from home.
What came out of these back to back series was a daunting affirmation of the fact that maybe our boys were just not good enough. It was back to back series losses from the Black Caps to India. The Chevrons were not utterly pathetic in their play as they managed to notch up wins here and there but still their general outing was a sheer disappointment as they were just losing match after match.
The only interesting thing that came out was the coach`s attempt to address the wicket keeper problem. Brendan Taylor played as a wicket keeper batsman and when he left the coach no longer had that privilege to use that extra slot for a batsman as it now had to be reserved for the wicket-keeper.
In the series against New Zealand and Pakistan we saw the coach toggle around his options between Richmond Mutumbami, Regis Chakabva and Charles Coventry. Mutumbami and Chakabva were both up for the task as they were equally decent in their new roles but Charles Coventry was slacking in his match fitness giving away easy runs. Chakabva was effective particularly as a top-order batsman as he showed a good understanding between him and Chamu Chibhabha. The two rotated the strike well and were not shy to call off unnecessary runs.
What became our greatest undoing was Chevron`s lack of death bowling and it was particularly clear against India when the team was conceding 90 92 and then 85 runs in the last 10 overs of the innings. The Chevrons also failed to build strong partnerships both at the top of the batting line-up and when the team started to crumble no one stepped up. In most cases we would have batsmen fighting a lone battle out at the crease as they ran out of partners.
The analysis that got out of the performance of the team as they were playing these series was the sheer fact that the Chevrons were carrying a lot dead weight around as most players never bothered to show up but still maintained their places in the team itself.
The bulk of the players are well from the U19 World Cup team of 2004 and more than a decade after their heroic showing the team has not developed into a world class team. This saw the dropping of Hamilton Masakadza from the team as was recording low scores back to back. The bulk of the players in the team need to be dropped for they have been underperforming and it`s surely time to give the youngsters a chance in the team.
Players like Neville Madziva, John Nyumbu played pretty well whenever they were given the chance and going forward these are the players to be looking forward to if Zimbabwe Cricket is going to be in search of progress in 2016.
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