Zimbabwe Board XI coach calls for more four-day games

Steven Mangongo, the Zimbabwe Board XI coach, has stressed the need for more international four-day games for cricket to develop in the country. His charges lost both four-day games and all three one-day matches against the visiting Pakistan Cricket Academy (PCA) recently after squandering the advantage on several occasions during the series.

"It shows the boys are not experienced. When you get into strong positions you need guys that are experienced to kill off the game," he told Zimbabwe's IndependentSport. "Our guys don't play enough longer-version games. The remedy here is to play more international four-day games. You must have consistency. If you only get to play again after six months it's like you are starting afresh. We must be careful not to kill the momentum."

Mangongo was satisfied that both first-class matches went into the final day. "It shows that the boys can apply themselves. In the second game, we scored 300 runs plus in two innings after being bowled for less than 200 in the first," he said. "In fact, we saw quite a few 50s from guys like Bornaparte [Mujuru], Timycen [Maruma], Regis [Chakabva] and Friday [Kasteni]. So you definitely can see on the graph that the boys are learning the demands of Test cricket."

One major difference between the PCA matches and previous home series was that the Zimbabwe Board XI side wasn't packed with national team members, giving second-string players a taste of international cricket. "For a country to do well, you need variety. In the past we used to have national team players also playing in the A and Board XI sides. This tour was a positive change because almost all the guys were development players."

The other positive that Mangongo drew from the series was the performance of the bowlers in the one-dayers. "In all three games, we took out the top batsmen. In terms of strike bowling the boys did well," he said. "What was disappointing was the batting, but in the last match we got into good positions twice. So there was improvement."