School T20 Competition a Success

[zimfan1]

Petra Twenty20 Cricket Festival a success

By Mehluli Sibanda and Stanford Chiwanga

RAINS failed to put a damper on the Twenty20 Cricket Festival held at Petra High School last weekend as the tournament proved a success despite wet weather.


Prince Edward(PE) beat Churchill by one wicket in a thrilling final to be crowned champions last Sunday. Eight top cricket-playing schools in the country took part in the carnival.
The festival that started late on Friday afternoon was supposed to end on Saturday but had to be extended to Sunday to accommodate the semifinals and the final.
Rains rendered the B-field at Petra unusable for the first two days and the matches were subsequently moved to Bulawayo Athletic Club.
From there on, it was smooth sailing as the matches went ahead despite the drizzling that came on and off.
As the matches meant for Friday morning could not take place, the festival organisers resolved that the festival continue up to Sunday.
Defending champions Falcon College started off well with a five-wicket victory over Christian Brothers College. From there, however, Falcon despite their big name stars found the going tough and were clobbered by St Georges. They later lost to Churchill by 10 runs ending their account at the quarterfinal stage.
CBC were the most disappointing of the Matabeleland schools as they lost all their three matches at the festival, while Milton accounted for hosts Petra by 26 runs in their first match at BAC. Milton booked their place in the semifinals with a three-wicket win over St Johns College.
Petra were unfortunate not to make it into the last four as they left it till late to find their winning formula.
The John Burgess captained Petra edged St Johns by 14 runs and they followed that up with a tied match against PE in what was one of the most exciting matches of the festival. The encounter headed for the super over, a requirement in Twenty20 cricket to decide a tied match and Petra won by six runs. Left arm spinner Saleem Manuel took two wickets in the first over to seal the win. The super over win over PE was late since Petra had lost to Milton who proceeded to the semifinals.
Petra have shown lots of promise this year and they are now a force to reckon with on the schools cricket arena. Burgess, vice-captain Manuel and Atish Chouhan who is the favourite for the captaincy next year starred for Petra at both bat and ball.
Despite failing to make it beyond the group stages, Petra can take courage from the fact that they at least beat the champions PE in the preliminary stages.
In the semifinals, Milton scored 123 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs, the highest score coming from Farai Murehwa who had 28 runs.
Sloppy fielding cost Milton as Churchill reached their victory target in 16.4 overs, losing just four wickets. Kudakwashe Huni top scored for Churchill with 55 runs to lead his school to a six-wicket win.
PE all but sealed their place in the final when they posted 150 runs for the loss of just two wickets against St Georges in the other semifinal. St Georges however did not easily surrender but eventually fell 25 runs short.
A final between the two Harare schools was always going to be a close encounter whose winner was difficult to predict.
PE won the toss and sent in Churchill to bat first. Huni top scored with 44 runs, Dean Mazhawidza, who represented Zimbabwe at the International Cricket Council Under-19 Cricket World Cup, chipped in with 37 runs to take Churchill to 142 for five in 20 overs.
Needing 7.15 runs an over, PE looked on course for a comfortable victory but Churchill did not make it easy for them.
PE needed 12 runs in the last over with three wickets in hand. Spinner Wellington Masakadza was tasked with bowling that crucial over and he picked up two wickets with the first two balls without conceding a run. Kudakwashe Musarurwa held his nerve to hit a four, a six and with two runs required off the last ball. He cracked a four to seal the match.
For their effort, the Lesley Murombedzi-captained PE took back home a shield while Churchill also got a shield for being runners up.
James Bruce of St Georges took the Player of the Tournament award; Baxton Gopito of Churchill won the Best Batsman accolade while Kieren Keyle of St Johns was adjudged the Most Outstanding bowler.
Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart, who was one of the fans during the three day festival, presented the prizes to the winners.
Coltart was full of praises for the spirit displayed by the schoolboys saying it was encouraging that government schools PE and Churchill battled it out in the final.
“I am delighted that two government schools made it into the final. It is good for me as Minister of Education because they were competing with private schools that have all the resources. I was particularly impressed with the spirit in which these young cricketers played the game and I hope they carry on with this spirit when they go on to represent the country,” said Coltart.
One of the tournament organisers David Connolly said he was happy that they managed to have all the matches played despite the rains.
“I am glad we managed to have all the matches played which was our main objective. I was impressed with the level of cricket displayed especially in the final. To score 142 runs and lose it during he last ball was just unbelievable. I am sure all the schools would be back again next year,” said Connolly.
The festival was well supported by the corporate world with Duraline Paints being the main sponsors of the event. They contributed T-shirts and caps for all the eight participating teams and provided kit for the match officials.
Other companies that sponsored the cricket fiesta were Kingdom Bank, Kingdom Hotel in Victoria Falls, Whitestone Chapel, CB Richard Ellis, Croco Motors, Auto World, Senator Transport, Sasol Nitro and Bathroom Boutique.
The Manuel family, owners of Papa’s restaurant and takeaway donated warm up T-shirts and caps for the Petra team.
Excitement was added to the event with an auction for all the eight teams on the eve of the festival.
Petra fetched the highest bid of $675, second were St Johns who went for $600, Falcon College attracted $300, while St Georges, PE, Milton, Churchill and CBC fetched $275, $275, $200, $150 and $125 respectively.
A total of $2600 was raised through the auction and Henry Welsh, who bought PE, pocketed $520. The rest of the money raised went into the school coffers to cater for sports tours.
It was certainly an exciting three days of Twenty20 cricket and organisers pledged to make it even more exciting next year by inviting schools from South Africa while holding it at a convenient time for more local schools to attend.
Meanwhile, it took the Petra Twenty20 Cricket Festival at Petra High School in Bulawayo for David Coltart the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture to acknowledge what has always been known — that public schools are now at par with private schools when it comes to so called “minority sports”.
The metamorphosis of schools sports dawned on Coltart when two public schools upstaged well-equipped private schools to reach the final, which was eventually won by Prince Edward of Harare who defeated Churchill by one wicket last Sunday in an all Harare schools final.
The only other public school that took part in the eight-team tournament was Milton High, the rest of the teams were private schools namely Falcon College, Christian Brothers College, St Johns, St Georges and Petra High.
The minister was genuinely surprised but delighted and made it known that government schools were able to compete with independent schools.
It was surprising because he has statistics that show that government schools devote less time to physical education than private schools.
At independent schools it is common for a student to devote eight to ten hours a week to sports because that is part of tradition.
But seemingly oblivious to Coltart’s ambition the national curriculum for public schools offers pupils a retarded choice in sports activities. A talented youngster is more likely to kick a ball than pick a cricket bat because football does not require many resources unlike cricket whose equipment is relatively expensive.
But what the government schools lack in resources, they make up for it in numbers, not only are there more public schools than private schools in Zimbabwe but the majority of students attend relatively cheap government schools.
It is this wide catchment area that has seen public schools able to produce talented lads who have gone on to make up the bulk of the national cricket and rugby teams in recent years.
Cricket a sport, which used to be a preserve for boys from private schools is now infested with public school boys. Tatenda Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza, Vusumuzi Sibanda, Christopher Mpofu, Prosper Utseya, the least is endless, are all from government schools.
The reason for such dominance is that team sports are strongly entrenched in the ethos of public schools.
It is thus amazing that although a small percentage of students in government schools show an interest in rugby and cricket than in football, basketball and athletics, that little percentage goes on to play a disproportionate role at the top level.
Soccer has always been popular in public schools, it has never caused any excitement in public schools but the same cannot be said of cricket and rugby, which used to be only played by boys at private schools.
Not long ago a student in a government school could be labeled a softy if he was seen at the stumps or playing tennis.
Fast-forward to today and you will see that such sports are not only encouraged but they are held in high esteem than footbal.
Apologists say that such “minority” sports are now popular in government schools because they promise more rewards than football. Parents who had a desire to see their children playing such sports but could not afford to send their children to private schools, which increase their fees faster than inflation, are over the moon that such sports have been brought to their doorstep.
On the issue of fees, private schools will for the foreseeable future continue to have better sports facilities because their exorbitant fees give them such a luxury.
At the Petra Festival the lack of resources in private schools was made evident to Coltart by Prince Edward who came all the way to Bulawayo in a hired commuter omnibus, while a private school from the same city, St Johns traveled in comfort in a luxurious school bus.
The minister was obviously dismayed and he voiced his concerns before asking St Johns to create room for Prince Edward students in their bus.
But what the public schools lack in resources they more than make through tenthusiasm and willingness.
"We might not have money and the state of the art facilities and equipment but are naturally born athletes. We have the guts and guts don't need money," said a teacher at a local public school who chose to remain anonymous saying the Official Secrets Act does not permit him to talk to the Press.
The only drawback in the lack of resources is that public schools will continue failing to compete in individual sports such as swimming and tennis. This is not only because such sports are more expensive than team sports but also because they are generally unpopular.
Without a doubt Kirsty Coventry has made swimming popular but the sport is 'unpopular' because there are no swimming pools in public schools. So to be eager and willing would be a waste of time.
But in team sports it is this willingness and optimism despite the lack of resources that has seem government schools going neck to neck with private schools.
Such determination and perseverance provides some crumb of comfort for Coltart. He can take solace in the thought that as long as public schools continue making lemonade from lemons and peanut butter from the peanut resources at their disposal the country will be able to have rugby and cricket teams that sometimes win.

http://www.sundaynews.co.zw/inside.aspx ... 5749&cat=5

[maehara]

Several sections in this have me thinking "whuh?!":

Meanwhile, it took the Petra Twenty20 Cricket Festival at Petra High School in Bulawayo for David Coltart the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture to acknowledge what has always been known — that public schools are now at par with private schools when it comes to so called “minority sports”.

The metamorphosis of schools sports dawned on Coltart when two public schools upstaged well-equipped private schools to reach the final, which was eventually won by Prince Edward of Harare who defeated Churchill by one wicket last Sunday in an all Harare schools final.

Yeah, let's make this a class / them-vs-us event. It's a [em]cricket tourney[/em], for crying out loud. The political diatribe continues for quite some time, too.

"We might not have money and the state of the art facilities and equipment but are naturally born athletes. We have the guts and guts don't need money," said a teacher at a local public school who chose to remain anonymous saying the Official Secrets Act does not permit him to talk to the Press.

What, the Official Secrets Act stops you from talking about a sports result? Maybe that explains why getting scores for some matches can be so difficult...

Such determination and perseverance provides some crumb of comfort for Coltart. He can take solace in the thought that as long as public schools continue making lemonade from lemons and peanut butter from the peanut resources at their disposal the country will be able to have rugby and cricket teams that sometimes win.

::rolleyes::

[zimfan1]

Yeah, let's make this a class / them-vs-us event. It's a [em]cricket tourney[/em], for crying out loud. The political diatribe continues for quite some time, too.

Looks like we have moved on from the Black and White debate to the Upper versus Lower Class, but the fact is cricket is a majority sport in privite schools all over the world not just in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe probably have the most number of players from state run schools compared to all the other international sides.

But if you look at the facts that in the current squad Matsikenyeri, Taibu, Sibanda, Masakadza, Maurma. S. Masakadza, Utseya and Mpofu all when to state run schools and on this basis the whole point of the argument seems to be flawed.

The facts are that this current Zimbabwe team is so well integrated with black and white players and coach's and public and private school people.

Looks like the media is just trying to stir up conflict which simply isnt there (whilst having a dig at Coltard)

[aydee]

Yeah, let's make this a class / them-vs-us event. It's a [em]cricket tourney[/em], for crying out loud. The political diatribe continues for quite some time, too.

Looks like we have moved on from the Black and White debate to the Upper versus Lower Class, but the fact is cricket is a majority sport in privite schools all over the world not just in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe probably have the most number of players from state run schools compared to all the other international sides.

But if you look at the facts that in the current squad Matsikenyeri, Taibu, Sibanda, Masakadza, Maurma. S. Masakadza, Utseya and Mpofu all when to state run schools and on this basis the whole point of the argument seems to be flawed.

The facts are that this current Zimbabwe team is so well integrated with black and white players and coach's and public and private school people.

Looks like the media is just trying to stir up conflict which simply isnt there (whilst having a dig at Coltard)

I don't really think there was that much of a dig at Coltart to be honest. This debate about the schooling of players happens in other countries as well, I think it was a valid point to note that both finalists were government schools.

[mdm]

despite all this blah vs blah lets keep the momentum up and see our cricketers develop. the bigger our selection pool the better. more people means stiffer competition and the stiffer the competition for selection the better quality we can produce. Its good to see a minister support sport like this especially cricket.