Cricket in Manicaland alive and well

When times are hard people turn to the things they enjoy and can rely on. In Manicaland this form of refuge for many has taken the form of cricket. The game is being played by all ages and in a couple of different forms, and in our province we encourage the active participation of the females in the community. More details to follow in future issues.

The off season does not exist in our province as the farming community has formed a social league that is fiercely competed between five teams made up of young and old from the communities of Upper Vumba, Old Mutare, Odzi, Hillcrest and Burma Valley. The league, which runs from June through to August, was won by Upper Vumba, although this has been debated over many a cold beer by the elders in our community. Their season ended with a two-day festival that was a resounding success, being won by Hillcrest. This brings together the bulk of our social cricketers from the youngest of fourteen years to the oldest who turned sixty on the Saturday of the tournament.

The Nissan all-weather net facility is being used to its full potential, especially for development with squads from the high schools interacting with the players from the private schools. Not a day goes by when the facility is not utilised. The game of cricket has been resuscitated at three schools and introduced into a further four over the past three years, which does not sound like much but we believe in getting it right the first time and Rome was not built in a day. Some very talented black players are coming up through the system and the future of the game from a player-base point of view has never looked brighter. Notable achievements from some of our younger players recently were the selections of L Gaylard to the Zimbabwe Under-14 team and Tino Mawoyo to the Under-16s. These players both have very bright futures and we wish them well on their prospective representative tours.

The local domestic season is now in full flight with the province being represented in the national first and second league by Mutare Sports Club. Both sides have developed over the past two years and we can honestly state that the pool of players we field on the weekends is the best the province has produced for many years. The assistance on and off the field from the CFX Academy players allocated to the province has had a significant effect on this but the game has to be spread or it will die.

The second team has played two games against Bulawayo-based sides and due to time delays in getting to and from airports the games have had to be reduced to forty overs. In the first game against Bulawayo Sports Club not a lot went our way, losing the toss and batting on a wicket that was only going to get better. We managed a modest total of 152 all out which they surpassed with only two wickets down. The oldest saying in the game of cricket is catches win matches and our guys certainly know this is the case. They picked themselves up and travelled to Harare this last weekend to face B.A.C. This was a great game with B.A.C scoring the huge total of 289 in the allotted forty overs. We had to attack from the start with most batters contributing with twenties and thirties but young Tino Mawoyo, whom we have mentioned before, standing out with an innings of 105. We just faltered at the end, falling just seven runs short with two wickets in hand.

The first XI have played three games, starting against Old Georgians in Mutare. This is one we would like to forget as we were basically out-played in all departments. Batting first, we managed a total of only 103 with Steve Lawson top -scoring with 21. This total was picked off quickly with Craig Evans smashing 51 not out. With our tails between our legs we made our way to Harare to face up to the might of Queens from Bulawayo at Country Club.

Bowling first, we got them all out for 226 which was well within reach, but some unforced errors due mainly to what can only be described as a lack of match practice saw us falling short by 50 runs. Our third encounter finally saw things come together when we hosted Kwekwe Sports Club this last weekend, restricting our opponents to 142 all out with a fine team performance in the field. We coasted to victory with five wickets down and a couple of overs to spare. The rain received the couple of days before made for difficult playing conditions and it looked as though at one stage we would be washed out.

The future of the game in the province is looking very positive and plans to improve the playing facilities at our home ground as well as develop a facility in the high-density suburbs means we have a great deal of work ahead, but it is all for the love of the game.