Zimbabwe's young hopefuls

GRobin Mence, who lives in England, is a keen observer of Zimbabwean cricket who actively keeps himself abreast of cricket news and statistics from this country at all levels. Here he pens some of his thoughts, especially on Zimbabwe's young hopefuls.

The Zimbabwe cricket selectors have on times this season been criticised for not giving younger players a chance, albeit without there being any evidence that there were promising cricketers available with a proven track record who, it could be expected, would perform better than those they would replace. So why should this be? Has Zimbabwe stopped producing young players of talent? This article, hopefully, goes some way to pinpoint the lack of a substantial first-class cricket structure during the late 1990s as being the reason for a missing 'generation' of cricketers. This has been further highlighted in recent weeks by the performances of Dirk Viljoen(23), Doug Marillier(21), Neil Ferreira (20) and Mark Vermeulen (21), these being a selection of the young players who previously could have been best expected to put pressure on the under-performing batsmen in the Zimbabwe Test team.

Back in the summer of 1997 the Zimbabwe Under-19 team travelled to England for their first-ever major tour. To many of us observers in the UK the early matches seemed to confirm our worst fears that the Zimbabwe team were out of their depth. However as the players became used to the conditions and the increase in standard they became more competitive. which culminated in an outstanding batting performance in the second 'Test' where the Zimbabwe team posted a first-innings score of 539 for five declared against a bowling attack which included the now Test star Andrew Flintoff, the current Yorkshire opening bowler Ryan Sidebottom and the two great white hopes of English spin Graham Swann & Chris Schofield. Centuries were scored by Doug Marillier, Mluleki Nkala & Mark Vermeulen. England responded strongly despite an excellent spell of slow left-arm spin bowling from Ian Englebrecht who took four wickets and the match was drawn. In a low-scoring third 'Test' Zimbabwe came close to wining but eventually went down by four wickets, with the highlights being 82 by Marillier, backed up by good seam bowling in both innings by David Mutendera (five wickets), Nkala, Anton Hoffman (four each) & Aubrey Steyn (three).

From no-hopers to equals within the matter of weeks, and many respected English observers felt that Mluleki Nkala, Mark Vermeulen and Aubrey Steyn were players of real class who would have walked into the England Under-19 team. In addition Doug Marillier, Anton Hoffman, Ian Englebrecht and David Mutendera all had natural ability and with exposure to quality competitive cricket and coaching would have the chance to become Test players. So why have we seen so little of these players in the Zimbabwe national teams?

Over the next two years, from the England team Alex Tudor, Ben Hollioake, Andrew Flintoff and Chris Read would all go on to play Test cricket, whilst Jon Powell, David Sales, Graham Swann, Chris Schofield, Paul Franks, Dean Cosker and Richard Key would all tour a least once overseas with the A team. In total these eleven between them had by August 1999 played 434 first-class matches and had been on at least one full England/England 'A' overseas tour. How about the Zimbabwe 'seven', I hear you ask! Answer: no tours and six first-class matches (greedy Mark Vermeulen accounting for three of these). This more than any other fact is, I believe, the major reason why none of these players have yet graduated to the Test team. There was a situation recently in the West Indies where Tatendu Taibu almost made his first-class debut in a test match! Earlier in the season Trevor Gripper made his Test debut in his sixth first-class match and Raymond Price in his third.

Now, the normal excuse is lack of money/finance - but structure is even more important. During the three Zimbabwean domestic seasons between 1996/97 and 1998/99, outside of Test matches, in total only 21 first-class matches were played on Zimbabwean soil, barely enough to give the Test players practice, let alone develop youngsters. This had declined from the preceding three years: 1993/94 - 13 matches, 1994/95 - 17 matches, 1995/96 - 14 matches. Apart from the reduction of the Logan Cup and the downgrading of the UCB Bowl, fewer state/county teams visited Zimbabwe: 1993-96 saw tours by Western Province, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, South Africa A, Northamptonshire, Glamorgan, Tasmania and Yorkshire. Therefore players born in the preceding 18 months to our 'Stars of 97' had on leaving school more opportunities to play three-day cricket and this enabled the likes of Gavin Rennie, Pom Mbangwa, Everton Matambanadzo, Henry Olonga and Gary Brent the opportunity not only to develop their game but to prove themselves to the selectors, and all graduated to the international team at an early age: Olonga was 18 and the others all 20 when they made their debuts. It should also be appreciated that the ZCU are now financially more stable than in the mid-1990s.

At the beginning of this season when the Logan Cup format was announced, many commented that it would not be of first-class standard - and it's not! But it's a start. The lack of domestic first-class cricket in Zimbabwe and visits by touring teams had lead to a vacuum outside the national side (who between 1996 and 1999 have been little more than additional guests at a multiplicity of ODI tournaments worldwide) that is only now being addressed. It is no surprise that of the 88 Zimbabweans to play first-class cricket this season 50 should be under 23. It is imperative that these players should be given the opportunity to play the longer form of the game and against quality opposition.

If the results of the England/Zimbabwe Under-19 series of 1997 do not prove that there is talent in Zimbabwe, what is the following team?

1.  W. Siziba (wicket-keeper)      LHB            Matabeleland
2.  C. Coventry                    RHB            Matabeleland
3.  J. Vaughan-Davies              LHB/RM         Mashonaland/Academy
4.  S. Nyakutse                    RHB            Matabeleland
5.  S. Matsikenyire                RHB            Manicaland
6.  L. Mutyambisi                  RHB            Midlands
7.  B. James                       LHB            Manicaland
8.  T. Denyer                      RHB/LBG        Manicaland
9.  S. Commerford                  RFM            Matabeleland
10. M. Townshend                   RFM            Matabeleland
11. L. Soma                        RFM            Manicaland

It's a team of youngsters all of whom have played first-class cricket this season (some with considerable success), each of whom would have been unlikely to play if it were not for the Logan Cup in its current format. In addition all eleven were qualified to represent Zimbabwe at the Under-19 World Cup but were not available/selected (the mischievous would claim that this shows the incestuousness of age-group selection). Added to this could be two further Academy boys in Andrew Stone (Mashonaland) and Kingsley Went (Manicaland), and with the fifteen boys who were on duty in Sri Lanka it shows the quality and quantity of talent available in the Under-19 age-group. The Logan Cup not only gives players the chance to play the longer version of the game but also encourages those from outside Harare.

In conclusion, apart from the national team's results, this season in Zimbabwe has been a huge step in the right direction despite that lack of visits by non-Test touring teams. The establishment of the Academy and the Logan Cup in its current format has not only overnight widened the playing base of Zimbabwe, it has also given young players a goal and target to aspire to. It is imperative that this domestic structure is supplemented by 'A' team tours home and away as well as Under-19 tours where possible.

This should start with a visit by an A team or Kenya/Bangladesh in September/October to run parallel with the tour by New Zealand. This gives players not only the chance to find form early season but also for the selectors to assess possible candidates for the forthcoming Tests and subsequent tours to India and Australasia. Teams from South Africa and Australia could also be encouraged to tour at the same time, during what is their pre-season, and they could experience the hospitality of the new-found cricket 'Meccas' in Mutare and Kwekwe, giving these provinces cricket beyond the Logan Cup.

Whilst I appreciate that financing such visits on a tight budget is not easy, if cricket in Zimbabwe is to progress at a healthy level, they are essential. In short, as we can see from the many biographies/interviews of the younger players on this website and by their individual performances at age-group and senior level, the talent is there - it just needs and wants to play.