CricInfo week a resounding success despite weather

Jupiter Pluvius again interfered with play on the final day of the CricInfo Week for Zimbabwe primary schools at Prince Edward School in Harare, but at least there was a fair amount of play possible before the presentations had to be carried out in an on-off heavy drizzle.

The selections for the national age-group team were as follows, with comments by the convener of selectors, Mr Tony Brous, who is also head of Carmel School in Bulawayo:

Gary Balance (Springvale School and Mashonaland East) - a good left-hand bat who will probably open.

Stuart Cameron (St John's and Harare North) - the captain of the side and a good bat who bowls off-spin.

Liam Graham (Rydings and Mashonaland West) - the wicket-keeper.

Ryan Higgins (Heritage and Harare North) - an all-rounder from a new school that hasn't been represented before.

Brendon Hunt (Portland and Matabeleland) - bowler.

Barry Mansfield (St John's and Harare North) - an all-rounder.

Keegan Meth (Whitestone and Matabeleland) - a very fine bat.

Shallan Pema (Petra and Matabeleland) - also a fine bat.

Glenn Querl (Springvale and Mashonaland East) - excellent bat.

Krishna Sivakumaran (Hartmann House and Harare North) - I understand he was born in Sri Lanka; he bowls spin and bats.

Cuan Taylor (Hillcrest and Manicaland) - a fine leg-spinner.

Stuart Torr (Barwick and Mashonaland West) - an all-rounder.

The manager will be Graham Brown from Lomagundi College. This side will play the Northerns team tomorrow from 8am to 4pm at Prince Edward, which should be quite an interesting game.

Mr Brous also had this to say: "I was very pleased to see that the standard of cricket has improved from last year, and that was pretty evident on the Tuesday, once the boys had got rid of their nerves. We then saw some fine cricket and some excellent matches. Unfortunately the rain disrupted that trend on the Wednesday.

"I thought that this year the batting was very strong; there was some very fine batting. We lack penetrative spin bowlers this year, I felt, but I didn't think conditions were conducive to spinners. There were three very good keepers who showed promise; with a bit of coaching I think they would be very good. The fielding was generally good, but then the conditions here are absolutely excellent for fielding, so there is very little excuse for poor fielding on these magnificent fields. The conditions here are absolutely superb, comparable I think with anything anywhere in the world. Bearing in mind this [the primary school level] is the largest playing base in Zimbabwe, this is really where it must expand from. I just hope the Zimbabwe Cricket Union recognizes this.

"I think the sides that were probably the best were the Harare North side, Matabeleland and there were some excellent players in Mashonaland East. Manicaland were largely made up of Hillcrest School and they had an excellent leg-spinner in Taylor. It was also interesting that Matabeleland were the only side to beat the South Africans. And it was also a pleasure that Matabeleland beat the Harare side by nine wickets! That gives me great pleasure!

"Even the less strong sides like Midlands and Manicaland had very good games, and I believe the competition will enhance and give them greater encouragement to improve. This is the first time Manicaland has played as an independent province after it has usually been combined with other provinces, and although we've had a Midlands `team' for many years this is the first time they've had an actual unit. Before this they were combined with part of Mashonaland West."

First of all, the missing scores for the rain-ruined Thursday were as follows, all matches being drawn:

MANICALAND 181 (D Denyer 21, O Fernandes 29, I Baines 23, J Teague 35; R Ervine 3/56, B Stewart 4/29, A Buchanan 2/42). MASHONALAND WEST 26/3. Men of the Match: J Teague (Man) and B Stewart (Mash).

MASHONALAND EAST 246/6 (G Querl 100*, G Balance 56*; D Lawson 4/65, M Rose 2/57). COMBINED HARARE 53/1 (D Lawson 32*). Men of the Match: D Lawson (Harare) and G Querl (Mash).

NORTHERNS 181/5 (J Lochtenberg 66, W van Vuuren 50). HARARE DEVELOPMENT 20/6. Men of the Match: T Maruwa (Harare).

MASVINGO 83 (B Mansfield 4/18, K Sivakumaran 2/12). HARARE NORTH 76/2 (D White 21, B Mansfield 46*). Man of the Match: D Mansfield (Harare).

MATABELELAND 175/6 (S Pema 39, S O'Callaghan 38, B Hunt 39; R Austin 2/29, D Ashforth 2/36). MIDLANDS 35/0 (D Pichard 26*). Men of the Match: B Kinsey (Mid) and S O'Callaghan (Mat).

Unfortunately comments at the end of the Week could not be obtained from all the managers, as a number of them had to dash off at the earliest possible moment. Manicaland's officials stayed to celebrate a highly successful week, though, which they completed by defeating the strong Matabeleland side.

Matabeleland manager Luke Dancer said, "We were put in to bat on a very sticky wicket and the ball hopped around quite a bit. The Manicaland team played extremely well and passed our score with only two wickets down. Well done to the Manicaland side. The Matabeleland side played well, winning their first two games with one draw and then our loss today. Probably the Man of the Week for Matabeleland was Keegan Meth, who bowled and batted extremely well."

Manicaland manager Cedric Hitz said, "We have had a pretty enjoyable festival and our boys have done very, very well. We had a good game this morning, and I think winning the toss was the main criterion today because the wicket was very sticky and the ball moved around a lot. Matabeleland batted first and struggled to 41, and we overtook that with two wickets down. Cuan Taylor bowled exceptionally well as a leg-spinner and took five wickets for 21. I think the boys have grown tremendously. Of the four matches we have played we won three and drew the one that was rained off yesterday after being in a good position. I think we've performed adequately and that augurs well for next season. We have a lot of Grade Six boys in there, so hopefully we will do even better next year. This has been one of the most balanced teams I've brought to this festival in terms of all-round ability." He awarded Matabeleland's female player Robyn Williams the `Man' of the Match award.

Rain prevented a result in the match between Combined Harare and Harare North. The Combined Harare coach, Robin Mafigo, said, "They scored 260 which was a big score for us, but later on our score was 98 for two which was a great score, compared to some of our other scores this week. I had two guys who were good players - Ryan Swan and Michael Rose who captained the side and really made some superb runs during the week."

Harare Development, saved by the rain from heavy defeat at the hands of Northerns on the Thursday, fought back with a fine victory over Mashonaland East. The East manager Paul Brous gave opportunities to a couple of players who had not had them due to the rain. "We were bowled out for 112; our boys bowled well enough but I thought the Harare Development side batted very, very well indeed. They passed our total quite easily with only two wickets down. I thought the standard of play was fantastic.

"Over the week I thought the batsmen especially were above the normal standard - there were some supreme batsmen out there. The bowlers have a bit to work on, but the spinners came to the fore this week. There were a lot of leg-spinners, which is unusual - very controlled leg-spinners, which is a good sign for the future. I was a little disappointed with the pace attack; there weren't any really fast bowlers out there. But you never know for the future; as the boys get a bit stronger, some of them may come through."

None of the other managers were available for comment, but there was a high-scoring match between the two Harare teams, with only seven wickets falling while 358 runs were scored. Rain prevented what might have been a very interesting finish with the Combined side on 98 for two chasing 260.

Rain perhaps also deprived Mashonaland West of the chance of beating Northerns, as they needed only another 53 runs with eight wickets in hand after the South Africans' declaration. There was much lower scoring as Masvingo narrowly beat Midlands.

One of the selectors, Lazarus Zizhou from Masvingo, who has agreed to become CricInfo's correspondent for that province, was very enthusiastic about his team. He especially praised Grade 5 all-rounder Desmond Kruger, from Kyle School. "He has had good knocks and in the first game he got 40 runs, then followed it with 30, and he has been taking wickets. Considering his age he has done great things for the team. He still has two years in junior school and I see that he has the potential of making the Zimbabwe junior school side next year or in 2002."

Scores: MATABELELAND 41 (C Taylor 5/21, I Baines 3/17, D Burmester 2/1). MANICALAND 96 (R Hunter 22, I Winwood 25; Y Wiesenbacher 2/23, K Meth 4/35, R Williams 2/18). Manicaland won by eight wickets. Men (?) of the Match: R Williams (Mat) and C Taylor (Man).

MASHONALAND EAST 112 (M Sanderson 25, B Lang 22; T Maruma 4/27, K Kondo 5/27). HARARE DEVELOPMENT 123/? (B Denhere 39, K Kondo 26; Y Augusto 2/25). Harare Development won by eight wickets. Men of the Match: B Denhere (Harare) and M Sanderson (Mash).

MASVINGO 95/9 (D Potts 33; R Austin 2/13, D Ashforth 2/11). MIDLANDS 88 (S Valdal 32; D Kruger 3/19, D de Waal 3/5). Masvingo won by seven runs. Men of the Match: S Valdal (Mid) and D Potts (Masvingo).

HARARE NORTH 260/5 (S Durrad 25, B Mansfield 53, R Higgins 58*, S Cameron 57*; D Lawson 3/74, T Holland 2/49). COMBINED HARARE 98/2 (D Lawson 25, M Rose 28*). Match drawn. Men of the Match: R Higgins (North) and R Swan (Combined).

NORTHERNS 183/5 (S Botha 75, U Birkenstock 23; C Hulley 2/64). MASHONALAND WEST 131/2 (B Stewart 71*). Man of the Match: B Stewart (Mash).

The Week's organizer, Mr Rick Pettipher, head of Bryden School, had this to say. "Apart from the rain, which put a bit of a damper on it and obviously put the selectors under a little bit of pressure, I think the standard was pretty good and it augurs well for Zimbabwe cricket. The venue is absolutely stunning and it's really great that Prince Edward let us come here. So we look forward to another good Week next year. Possibly we may look at changing the format, maybe inviting a few more South African sides up and then having a Week to follow this Week, so our national side can play a few more internationals."