Zimbabwe poised for busy domestic season

Zimbabwe Cricket is poised for its busiest domestic season ever.

The National League is being contested by 14 sides which are split into two groups of seven. A total of 45 matches will be played at different venues across the country. The completion of the first round of provincial league matches a fortnight ago set the tone for the National League. The second round of its matches is on this weekend.

Thus, new grounds will continue to be broken - literally - as the country's previously overlooked administrative provinces of Mashonaland Central, East and West and Matabeleland North and South play host to matches of this magnitude for the first time in their history. For the first time, cricket is being played on a truly national level in the country.

These recently-affiliated provinces, plus Manicaland, Masvingo and the Midlands, will provide one side each in the league. Giants Harare and Bulawayo Metropolitan Provinces are contributing four and two sides, respectively.

While spreading the game to a broader playing base is undoubtedly good for the growth of the game, safe-guarding high playing standards in the process is a challenge. Thus skillful administration and planning are required. Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) operations manager, Chris Chiketa, is fully aware of this and is keen to see the new-look National League succeed.

"What we are hoping for is to have as many of the quality players as possible to play (in the national league)," he said. To make that happen, the qualified clubs have been allowed to add to their squads a maximum of three players drawn from those that did not make it into the National League.

"It will obviously strengthen the clubs," Chiketa predicted, adding: "This is a club competition, and clubs decide who they want to play for them. Our involvement in the selection of domestic cricket sides is only at Logan Cup level when we come in to ensure that the teams meet other on a strength-for-strength basis."

National team players will have a taste of the league cricket before embarking on a five-ODI tour to Bangladesh this month. The Bangladesh tour is Zimbabwe's first engagement after the ICC Champions Trophy in India recently. Then, Zimbabwe lost to the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the qualifying stage for the main event.

In February next year, the one-day inter-provincial competition will take centre stage with the 10 provinces paired into Central Provinces (Centrals), Eastern Provinces (Easterns), Northern Provinces (Northerns), Southern Provinces (Southerns) and Western Provinces (Westerns).

It gets even more exciting: "We have invited Kenya to play in what used to be the Faithwear one-day series," said Chiketa, "We are hoping to bring all the teams together at one venue over nine days for the tournament."

But before that, in December, the juniors and women will also be on the road. Three national youth sides, the Under-13s, Under-16s and Under-19s, are preparing for their yearly tour to South Africa in December. The sides have already been finalised following trials at Prince Edward School last month.

As for the women, they recorded their own piece of history when the country's first ever women's national side was selected following trials at the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy. The ladies make their maiden tour of duty to Kenya, also in December, to take part in the regional ICC Women's World Cup qualifiers.

And of course, when we talk of the 2006-2007 international cricket calendar, one event comes at the top: In March, the sporting world will wake up to the sound of the Calypso beat when the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup explodes in the Caribbean.

No sooner had Australia lifted the trophy by beating India in that lopsided final at the Wanderers in South Africa in 2003 than the Caribbean edition was already being anticipated: "Can Australia make it three in a row...?! If you want to find out...join us in four years time in the Caribbean, West Indies!" boomed the heavy Caribbean-accented voice of the legendary former Windies fast bowler, Michael Holding, at the presentations.

Zimbabwe went through to the Super Six stage in 2003, and bettering that performance will mean making the semi-finals.

Hard on the heels of the World Cup, another ODI tournament, the second-ever Afro-Asia Cup, comes around in June. The inaugural Afro-Asia Cup was staged in South Africa last year.

To put the lid on an eventful season, Australia and South Africa, two of the top sides in the world, will tour Zimbabwe. The trail-blazing Aussies are first in, coming to these shores in June. Another litmus test for the home side, against the neighbouring South Africans, then follows in August. All-in-all, these are just but part of a whole package of exciting cricket for Zimbabwe.