ZCO editorial, 22 December 2000

Welcome to the final edition of Zimbabwe Cricket Online this year. With no cricket being played in Zimbabwe over the holiday period, we will take a break and will return in the New Year, by which time Zimbabwe will have played their Boxing Day Test against New Zealand and will be in the middle of the one-day series there before progressing to Australia.

In Australia Zimbabwe have a very real chance of reaching the finals against the home side, as West Indies, the third competing team, are at a low ebb and will not have Courtney Walsh in their side for the triangular tournament. In a similar situation in England earlier this year, Zimbabwe beat West Indies in all three of their encounters on the way to the final against England. It would be foolish to take anything for granted, but Zimbabwe have done it once already and the players know they can do it again. The wild card is, of course, Brian Lara, and if he plays to his best form there is not much Zimbabwe or anyone else can do about it.

ONLY ONE CAN CHALLENGE AUSTRALIA

That Australia will win that tournament is beyond reasonable doubt. They have such an efficient team and such self-belief that at present only South Africa can hope to compete with them on any pitches outside Asia. Australia have just clocked up a record 13 successive Test victories, which started when they beat Zimbabwe in Harare last year. The sequence does not include South Africa, though.

It seems ridiculous that, since South Africa returned from isolation in 1991, they have not yet played a five-Test series against Australia. Instead they have gone for consecutive home-and-away series, four years apart, of three Tests each, of which mini-series Australia won the last two by a single victory. They will not meet again before next season, four years after they last met at Test level. It will be a fascinating battle, but it would make far more sense, given the balance of power in world cricket at present, to play a major series between the two every two years. This is the contest the world is waiting for.

REPUTATION SULLIED

Australian cricket has reached remarkable heights, and it is sad that their reputation is sullied by their unashamed policy of `sledging' the opposition. This has now officially been declared against the spirit of the game in the latest Law code, but it remains to be seen how serious the authorities will be in enforcing it. The Zimbabwean players have not encountered the worst of it, partly perhaps because they are not competitive enough against Australia and partly because like the Australians themselves they do not carry on-field antagonism off the field with them.

Other nations, notably South Africa and New Zealand, can be just as bad on the field as the Australians, but that is not so well known, and some Australians even seem to take a perverse pride in it, perhaps as a misguided `macho' image. They are quite good enough to win their matches without it. Similarly, when West Indies were terrorizing the rest of the cricketing world ten years ago and more with their bouncer-happy quartet of pace bowlers, I said then that they were quite good enough to win without all that. Yet when, after Australia won the World Cup last year without resorting to sledging, Steve Waugh was asked by a West Indian journalist for an assurance that Australia would in future play the game without resorting to `bullying' tactics, his answer was short and sharp. "No," he said.

The extra pressure in one-day cricket means that sledging is much less prevalent than in Test cricket, so it is not likely to be a major issue during the Carlton and United Series. Zimbabweans fortunately still do not generally resort to sledging on the field, although Gus Mackay and Bryan Strang have been criticized for it in the past. Let us hope they keep themselves above that, but if they transgress, they must be disciplined for it. Let us hope the ICC really do mean business in implementing their code of conduct in the future. They eventually took form action in the case of Saurav Ganguly - now let us see them stamp out sledging, and not just with Australians either. We must clean up the sport and ensure that the game is played in the right spirit.

STATISTICS

We have several statistical items included in this issue. I have updated the detailed records of the 30 one-day internationals that Zimbabwe and India have played against each other, and also include records of both the Tests and one-day internationals that Zimbabwe and New Zealand have played, in anticipation of the coming series. There is also an interview with Gus Mackay who has just flown out to join Zimbabwe in New Zealand, as well as one with Paul Strang who talks about his arm injury and his abbreviated time in India. We all hope he will be back in action soon, but it is good to see that he has a worthy understudy in Brian Murphy, who is also a handy batsman and brilliant fielder.

IT WILL BE, YOU KNOW!

See you again in the new millennium. The vast majority of people still seem to think we are living in it already, but the logic of the matter is that, since the first millennium began with the year 1, every subsequent millennium must also begin with a year ending in 1. Therefore 2001 begins a new millennium. If you celebrated it in error last year, at least that gives you an excuse to celebrate again this coming New Year! Let us hope Zimbabwe cricket, and the country in general, has reason to celebrate in 2001. We need it.