Coach Dave Houghton reviews Zimbabwe's season so far

Dave Houghton talks to John Ward about the progress (or otherwise) of the Zimbabwe team since the World Cup.

JW: Dave, after returning from the World Cup, what sort of preparation did our guys have for the new season?

DH: We took a bit of time off as we'd been playing for quite a while, and we have a very busy season ahead of us. We had about a month off and then got together about two weeks prior to the Singapore tournament. We just had net practice, physical fitness training and so on. Then it was off to Singapore, short one-day tournament there, back here, Kenya another short one-day tournament, and then straight into the Australians. So really, pre-season for us was about two weeks' net practice and that was it.

JW: Did that turn out to be a problem?

DH: No, I don't think so. The major problem we had during the season until Christmas was the fact that we had injuries to key players. We're not big enough yet as a cricket body, certainly in terms of players, to be able to miss two or three key players and be able to survive. The absence of Streak who plays a huge role in our side, the absence of our leg-spinners was another big blow to us - Huckle had retired, Strangy was struggling with injury - and of course Neil Johnson not bowling, so in those three areas for us, while we have youngsters coming through who may be ready to play are not experienced enough to be able to cope with the situation at the moment.

JW: Singapore must have been quite a disappointment.

DH: The season for four months was a disappointment, to be honest, because so much was expected of us, we expected a lot of ourselves, but we really weren't up to it until Christmas. The holes left by those particular players were very difficult to fill.

JW: And also many players who have performed better in the past weren't up to their usual form.

DH: Yes, our batting hasn't been good all season, but a lot of that stems from the fact that our bowling attack is quite weak, so our batsmen are trying to get scores that are beyond our reach. We end up trying to do too much, and end up with what is less than par score. A lot of that comes from the fact that we were not confident we could protect any score, to be quite honest, with the bowling attack we had. So our batting has been poor this year; it's starting to get a little bit better when we played in South Africa. But going away now to West Indies and England it's so important that the top-order batsmen especially start making some big scores.

JW: Have you any other comments to make about Singapore and Kenya?

DH: Not really. We didn't play well at that time at all. Having said that, there's still a big distance between ourselves and Kenya and Bangladesh; even when we're playing badly, we still manage to beat them quite comfortably. But really, for us to win games against the other eight nations in the Test arena, we have to be way above our par performance; our guys have to play at 110%, and when we play at 70% we're not a contest for any of them.

JW: I gather at those one-day tournaments that our bowling was pretty erratic as well; bowlers who had done better in the past just couldn't find their line and length.

DH: It was erratic, but as I say we weren't playing very well, and once you start losing your confidence goes, and one thing just catapults into the next. As far as I'm concerned that's part of our history: we played for four months, we got beaten quite a bit, but we learnt a fair amount out of it. I certainly don't harp on it; it's not something I look back on now as a major negative of Zimbabwe cricket. We weren't playing well at the time, and as I said we need to play above ourselves, not just on a par. So when we're not playing well as a unit, we're going to get beaten.

JW: What do you have to say about the home series against Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka?

DH: Australia are by far the top side in the world at the moment. I thought we played really well in the Test match except that we dropped four catches. That could have been a big difference in that Test match, which would have set our season off quite nicely. Once again we were competing really well with Australia there; Streaky was playing again, the last game he played for us until after Christmas. We missed him, but we were competitive in that Test match, and I believe Steve Waugh quite rightly said that afterwards. It was just the dropped catches, which were inexcusable.

The Tests against South Africa: we weren't really in either of those. They outplayed us on both occasions. We also went through quite a bit of bad luck around that time when we lost ten tosses in a row, and where just about every wicket we played on was a really good wicket to bowl on on the first day. We lost the toss and were batting first every time and were 170, 200 all out in our first innings, which in a Test match means we're in trouble from day one. But we were outplayed, and there are no excuses.

JW: Are you able to say anything about the change in captaincy?

DH: I think Alistair bore the brunt of the team performing badly. Alistair must certainly be recognised as the most successful captain this country has had. He's achieved a lot in his time as captain, but unfortunately when things are going badly things change. The captain goes - as I say, he's taken the brunt for the team performing badly - Andy has taken over and we have new ideas, which is good for the side. Since he's taken over, things have changed around a little bit; that's not to say Alistair was a bad captain, but you need new things to be injected when you're going through a bad patch.

JW: In South Africa, things overall looked to be better, although we still seemed to be erratic.

DH: We are erratic because our batsmen are not performing consistently. We've got our bowling attack back again, we've got our fielding back again, we're working like tigers in the field, but we're not batting well enough. Even though we're not batting well enough, we still managed to win two of the five games we played, and we were competitive in the others, other than the one against England where we lost comfortably. So the batting is the problem. We've got to sort that out now and get the guys back batting where somebody is scoring hundreds in every game, or getting big scores in every game in the one-dayers. I'm quite confident they can do it; we're carrying people with five and six Test hundreds under their belts. Johnno's got a Test hundred; Murray's got a Test hundred, so we've plenty of people who are capable of building big scores. It's just a case of getting the confidence right, and away we go again.

JW: I just wondered if part of the problem was that, after winning our first Test series last year and making the Super Six of the World Cup, subconsciously some of the players might have thought that we've got as far as we can go, there are no new mountains we're capable of climbing, and because of that not have been quite as mentally prepared at the start of the season.

DH: No, I don't think that was the case. It's hard to say there are no new hill to climb - every single series we play against every side is a hill. Australia, South Africa - you couldn't have wished for better Test series to play. And Sri Lanka as well, who are a good side again now. Every series is a hill for us. There may have been a bit of complacency for us in the thought that we've been playing well so that's fine, but I don't think our players think like that. The one thing about us is that we know exactly who we are and what we can do. It's really just a case of understanding that we've got to play way above ourselves and hope the other side have a bad day for us to win. You can't afford to be complacent. We go now to the West Indies and from the West Indies to England. We're playing two very good cricket sides in their own back yard. There's no chance of us being complacent.

JW: It's a but difficult to know what to expect in the West Indies.

DH: It's difficult to know what to expect from us. If we start batting properly, we'll be very very competitive for the next five months. If we're going to bat inconsistently again, then the inconsistency in the results will show again. That is the difficulty with us - we're up and down, up and down. As soon as our batsmen start firing as a consistent unit, putting decent scores on the board, then we'll start winning games again.

JW: And in the West Indies it's difficult to know what to expect from the opposition either.

DH: We don't really know what state they're in mentally. We know that they've taken some beatings recently; we also know they've changed their coaching staff, they've changed their coaching staff, they've changed their captain, so we don't know what to expect. Maybe that's the tonic they need to turn their cricket round, because they're a great side and they're a great cricketing nation. They've got some world-class bowlers, particularly in Ambrose and Walsh, and their batting is very strong around Brian Lara, Chanderpaul, Sherwin Campbell and so on. So they have some world-class players there. They probably haven't played so well as a team of late; again one has to wait and see when we get there, whether this turn-around in their coaching and captaincy has made a difference to them or whether they're still down. The thing for us is to get out there and play really well in the first couple of games. If we can get them under pressure straight away, maybe we'll have a good couple of months there.

JW: With this being the one place in the world where we haven't played before, there should be more excitement, more incentive.

DH: That's right. That's one of the advantages of being a professional cricketer - you get to travel the world, and the West Indies is a tour that everyone has been looking forward to their whole careers. I've never been there other than a short trip to Barbados with Worcestershire. But we don't play much in Barbados this tour unless we get to the final of the one-day series. So everyone is looking forward to it - it is by all accounts one of the nicest tours we ever go on, so it should be great for us.

JW: Do you have any further thoughts at the moment on what you are planning when your contract expires?

DH: Not really. I've always been a little hasty in making decisions and I've got time on my hands still, so there's no need for me to make a rush decision about anything. Obviously I'll still be involved in the Academy; I'd like to do some coaching there at times, but I haven't any fixed ideas of what I would like to do yet. I really would like to sit back after the tours and take a couple of months to reflect and see where I want to go next.

JW: Hopefully you will still be in a position to pass on your expertise to the team.

DH: Definitely with the Academy, which I think is the most important thing. We will be getting kids who have more knowledge coming up into the national side; at the moment, without the Academy, kids are coming up out of club cricket and trying to survive as Test cricketers. It's too difficult. This way maybe we can pass on the right information at a younger age, and they'll come in a little more prepared for what's going to hit them in Tests.