Cricinfo
By Liam Brickhill
December 25, 2010
After the genuine progress made in 2009, it was tentatively expected that 2010 would be a watershed year for Zimbabwe cricket. In certain respects it has lived up to that billing, and wins over West Indies, India and Sri Lanka suggested that all the hard work was beginning to pay off. A series win over Ireland also calmed a few nerves, but a winless tour of South Africa and the 3-1 drubbing by Bangladesh that followed confirmed Zimbabwe’s continuing limbo status: too good for the Associates but strugglers against the big boys.
The year began on a positive note with the news that both Heath Streak and Grant Flower were chasing the job of coach of the national side. That position eventually went to Alan Butcher, Surrey’s coach until 2008, but Streak was retained as bowling coach and Flower signed on to work with the national team’s batsmen after his final season with Essex. The trickle of former players returning to domestic cricket continued, and with them came another wave of English county and former
international players – many of whom played in the successful second edition of the Stanbic Bank Twenty20 competition.
Brian Lara was the most notable signing, and although he played just three games for Southern Rocks, his participation lent a veneer of class to the week-long Twenty20 competition and helped spark increased local interest. News that he had signed a contract as batting consultant to the national team followed. However, it is widely thought Lara’s interest in Zimbabwe is merely as a stepping stone to the IPL, and the news that he had been paid an extravagant US$30,000 for his fleeting Twenty20 visit was greeted with incredulity.
While good PR may help win influential friends as Zimbabwe seek a steady position in cricket’s mainstream, it doesn’t win cricket matches and there is a strong feeling that the money being spent on Lara could have been used on grassroots cricket, and that it is a decision that needs consideration.
Central to those considerations will be Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwe Cricket’s managing director. Berated as a divisive influence during Zimbabwe’s decline, Bvute can now take plenty of credit for Zimbabwe’s improving image, as can sports minister David Coltart, a former human rights lawyer and one of the founding members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, who has placed a particular focus on cricket. A feeling persists that Peter Chingoka, Zimbabwe cricket’s long-serving and controversial chairman, remains the obstacle preventing the resumption of full international cricketing ties, particularly with England. Bvute has thus taken a prominent role in the running of cricket, with Chingoka now firmly in the background. An injection of youth helped overhaul Zimbabwe Cricket’s media department, and where acrimony had once existed, a healthy working relationship with the cricketing media has been fostered.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson learned this year is that, out of the direst straits of the last few years, it is possible for cricket in Zimbabwe to blossom once again – provided there is a collective will for it to do so. At times the players have shown real determination to improve their dismal reputation, and wins in the first two games of their West Indies tour suggested a corner had been turned after their capitulation for 44 all out to hand a one-day series win to Bangladesh in November 2009.
Brendan Taylor, with three fifties and two hundreds – including a career-best 145 not out against South Africa in a losing cause – has had a year to be proud of and topped Zimbabwe’s ODI run-scoring tables. However, his success was tempered somewhat by the failure of his opening partner Hamilton Masakadza. A stand-out performer in 2009, when he scored 1087 runs in ODIs, Masakadza’s form fell away alarmingly and he ended 2010 with the ignominy of falling to more ducks in ODIs in the year than anyone else apart from Kenya’s James Ngoche, and was struggling to hold his place in the side.
Masakadza and Taylor’s opening partnerships had been a major factor in Zimbabwe’s successes in their home tri-series against India and Sri Lanka, relieving the pressure on a brittle middle order. Zimbabwe’s spinners can also take a lot of the credit, and Prosper Utseya, Ray Price and Graeme Cremer will be a crucial part of the team’s World Cup plans.
A return to Test cricket remains the ultimate goal for the Zimbabweans, and it was with this objective in mind that they originally fielded a team for the first-class Intercontinental Cup, which ran from July 2009 to December 2010. After wins over Kenya, Canada and Netherlands and draws against Ireland and Afghanistan – the eventual winners – Zimbabwe XI were in the running for a spot in the competition final. There is still no escaping the influence of politics in Zimbabwean sport, however, and after Scotland’s decision not to tour the country Zimbabwe forfeited their final game and fell out of contention. An unofficial Test series against New Zealand A in October also tested the mettle of Zimbabwe’s second string in the absence of the touring senior players. Zimbabwe will need to play many more matches of this sort as they look to find their feet once more in the cauldron of Test cricket.
High point
In June, Zimbabwe enjoyed a fairytale run to their first final in a tri-series involving only Test-playing nations since the NatWest Series in 2000. The series signalled the return to Zimbabwe of top-level cricket – although India and Sri Lanka sent relatively inexperienced squads, which took some of the gloss off – and most importantly the hosts tasted victory and emerged from the tournament with a new sense of self-belief. They could not extend their run to the final, where they crashed to a nine-wicket defeat, but the successes set the positive tone for the year.
Low point
The fragility of Zimbabwe’s development was in evidence just a month before their home tri-series success as they imploded in spectacular fashion against New Zealand at the World Twenty20, losing their last nine wickets for 26 runs to be all out for 84. Their collapse was made all the more unforgiveable as they had toured the West Indies just weeks before and should have been familiar with the conditions at the Providence Stadium, where they had recently won an ODI against West Indies.
New kid on the block
Craig Ervine looked like just the sort of level-headed middle-order finisher Zimbabwe had been hoping for when he stroked an ice-cool unbeaten 67 on debut to seal the six-wicket win over India in May. Two single-figure scores followed that effort, but Ervine restored his reputation with innings of 145, 59 and 177 to set up Intercontinental Cup victories over Netherlands and Canada. A frustrating inability to turn good starts into substantial scores and an apparent weakness against spin appeared to have crept into his game as he registered five scores of between 14 and 24 against Ireland and South Africa, but Ervine cemented his position by topping the Zimbabwean batting table on a bowler-dominated trip to Bangladesh, with 134 runs at 44.66.
Fading star
Niggling injury and the pressure of captaincy had a disastrous effect on Elton Chigumbura‘s form during the year. Replacing Utseya as leader after Zimbabwe returned from a dismal showing at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, Chigumbura looked like the man for the job as Zimbabwe reached the finals of their home tri-series in June. That success masked his lack of potency with both bat and ball, and a mediocre season of county cricket with Northamptonshire didn’t seem to help. By the end of the year he was playing as a specialist batsman, and with an average of 19.78 with the bat and 140.00 with the ball as captain, were he not in charge he might be struggling to justify his place in the line-up.
What 2011 holds
Zimbabwe cricket appears to be in robust health, particularly in the domestic game, which has gone from strength to strength under the new franchise system. A return to Tests is imminent, although Zimbabwe could well struggle to beat the likes of Bangladesh, New Zealand and West Indies for some time. Like the country itself, on the surface there is plenty to be positive about but there have been ominous stirrings from Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, with the old man suggesting that the unity government, under which a semblance of stability returned to the country, had run its course, and there’s a strong chance there could be fresh elections in 2011. Whether cricket can survive whatever political turmoil that brings could be the real test next year.
Liam Brickhill is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo