Zimbabwe Cricket scraps scholarship programme

[jaybro]

Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
TALENTED cricketers from across the country have benefited from the Zimbabwe Cricket scholarship programme, with their school fees paid at schools with cricket facilities.

Some of those who have benefited from the programme are Tatenda Taibu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Hamilton Masakadza, Tinashe Panyangara, Elton Chigumbura, Prosper Utseya. Aspiring cricketers were sent to schools with good facilities like Prince Edward, Milton, Churchill and Plumtree.

With ZC now in a better financial position after paying off the bulk of their debt, many were expecting a return of the scholarship programme. ZC chairman, Tavengwa Mukuhlani has, however, ruled out a return of the funding education for up-and-coming cricketers.

Instead, ZC are looking to capacitate clubs, which have a wide catchment area as opposed to scholarships which benefit the selected individuals.

“The whole idea is to make sure that we increase the selection pool of players and we increase that by increasing the level of participation by taking the game to the people. I believe that if we’ve got a club that services various schools and communities, we have taken the game to the people,’’ Mukuhlani said.

While the scholarship programme had its successes with children from less fortunate families getting an opportunity to play the sport, Mukuhlani is of the view that there is a need to consider those who missed on the chance.

“Zimbabwe Cricket had a scholarship programme which produced its own results, the Taibus, Elton (Chigumbura), Panyangara (Tinashe) all of these kids came out of the scholarship programme. My question is what about those who did not access the scholarships, what happened to them? Who has taken time to calculate the missed opportunities for those who did not access the scholarship fund? They are there and they could be more than those who accessed the scholarships,’’ he said.

By funding clubs, Mukuhlani feels that would have catered for all those aspiring to make a living out of cricket.

“We want a system that addresses everyone, not a selected few. If we run a scholarship programme and club cricket programme, we are double funding. Yes we are out of the woods in terms of the loans but we don’t have a bottomless pit for cash, it’s still limited, given what is happening now with Covid-19, our resources are limited, so we can’t run a scholarship programme, run club cricket, run provinces, we can’t do that.”

Zimbabwe enjoyed most of their success when they did not have a first class but had a sound club system where clubs competed at a national level. It is for this reason that ZC are seeing having strong clubs as a solution to the country’s problems at international level.

“I believe that we don’t need scholarships, we need properly run clubs. If you look at the time of Dave Houghton, when those guys were qualifying to each and every World Cup, those guys were not scholarship people, they didn’t have a first class, they had decent clubs. So, there is empirical evidence that what you need to run cricket properly is a strong club system, which would then make a strong first-class system, not a strong scholarship programme,’’ Mukuhlani said.

https://t.co/z42QnuVbFc

[CrimsonAvenger]

“Zimbabwe Cricket had a scholarship programme which produced its own results, the Taibus, Elton (Chigumbura), Panyangara (Tinashe) all of these kids came out of the scholarship programme. My question is what about those who did not access the scholarships, what happened to them? Who has taken time to calculate the missed opportunities for those who did not access the scholarship fund? They are there and they could be more than those who accessed the scholarships,’’ he said.

By funding clubs, Mukuhlani feels that would have catered for all those aspiring to make a living out of cricket.

“We want a system that addresses everyone, not a selected few. If we run a scholarship programme and club cricket programme, we are double funding. Yes we are out of the woods in terms of the loans but we don’t have a bottomless pit for cash, it’s still limited, given what is happening now with Covid-19, our resources are limited, so we can’t run a scholarship programme, run club cricket, run provinces, we can’t do that.”

The guy is pretty much a con man.

[CrimsonAvenger]

By the way whatever happened to that policy document for considering people based outside Zim for selection? The one they stalled due to Corona? Bunch of jokers.

I went through that article. There is nothing new there. Masakadza is saying everything that one wants to hear and is not clear on anything. He wants to consider people based outside, but also wants them to feature locally (how do they get to know when cricket is played locally? How can they plan for their travel, etc. given how we announce the fixtures the night before?). This sounds like they are making allowances to just go after the ones they like.

How does Covid stall the process of coming up with the "policy" document? People are working from home all over the world. This just needs having a few conference calls and coming up with the document. They just need a reason to not progress by the looks of it, but also want to sound like they are doing something meaningful. The guy reporting the story is also a major giveaway.

Funding club cricket also looks like getting the machinery in place to disburse money to your Hilary Matangas and Cunningham Ncubes, while some Muyeyes and Welches get disillusioned and move out.

[TapsC2]

They really do have the money to do both. I guess it depends on how well they do fund the club system. I believe half of our guys are not good enough for first class cricket so maybe the solution would be to cut 1 domestic team and build a strong club scene. The guys are paid like semi pro players anyway.

[ZIMDOGGY]

just do both!

one fosters a player towards international competency, the other helps a random bush dude go from club, to mountaineers 1st change bowler.

Ultimately, we need more Brendan Taylors than 3x more Tinashe Chimbambo's.

But again, why cant we have both?

[jaybro]

just do both!

one fosters a player towards international competency, the other helps a random bush dude go from club, to mountaineers 1st change bowler.

Ultimately, we need more Brendan Taylors than 3x more Tinashe Chimbambo's.

But again, why cant we have both?

Definitely need both

Ideally a strong club scene will produce more quality players to feed into the domestic set-up, not as Dogg has suggested more Tinashe Chimbambo's

The school system should feed into the club scene which should feed into the domestic competition which should in turn produce more quality international players.

It's seems odd that ZC which is made up all of Blacks would put an end to the system that is producing the best Black players? The school system will likely be filled with privileged white & black kids, but what happens to the next super star from Kadoma??

What happened to taking the game to the masses??

[zimbos_05]

In theory it perhaps make sense at this time to share the wealth among the clubs, considering how much the post 04 board destroyed them, rather than invest the money in one person.

In saying that, I fear that all we are going to see is money get given to the clubs and it be pocketed by club members who will have been put in to their positions by the like of TM and co.

There needs to be some sort of accountability on the clubs in terms of how much funding they get and how they spend it.

Also, for him to say that Zim did not have a first class during the times of Houghton and co is such a kick in the guts. Not only did we have a quality club structure, an academy that was on par with many across the globe, but we had a solid first class domestic system that started in 1993 (albeit the Logan Cup first started in 1903). We all knew that he knows nothing about cricket, but now he is just being blatantly ignorant.

The only time the Logan Cup has never been held since becoming First Class was in 05/06 when his cronies took over, and ever since then it has been a shambles. Sounds like an easy excuse for not investing in the domestic structure.

[andrewn9]

David Houghton played a lot in the 80s when the Logan Cup was a non-first class competition. Also, TM talks about having to qualify for World Cups, which again would suggest he's referring to the 80s/early 90s. I can't say I'm a fan of TM but I don't think you can say he's got his facts wrong here.

[zimbos_05]

David Houghton played a lot in the 80s when the Logan Cup was a non-first class competition. Also, TM talks about having to qualify for World Cups, which again would suggest he's referring to the 80s/early 90s. I can't say I'm a fan of TM but I don't think you can say he's got his facts wrong here.

We only achieved full member status in '92. Yes we played in the '87 World Cup, but that is only one event. So which, 'each and every World Cup' would he be talking about. What you are then suggesting is that he is ignoring everything from '92-'04 or claiming it never existed.

Houghton did not cease to exist in '92 as well. He played for Mashonaland until '98. What he is arguing is specifics. It was technically not classed as First-Class competition because of a piece of paper, but in reality we can definitely argue that it was.

[Googly]

The scholarship programs are probably a waste of time. They were sending promising kids to Churchill mostly and that school is so far down the drain that it’s almost pointless. I guess PE is still an option, whilst they still have facilities their cricket has also sunk into the mire.
The three private boarding schools are damned expensive.
Falcon, St George’s and Peterhouse basically. With the sinking Rand the elite South African schools are not that much more expensive these days.

Which clubs and which club grounds will benefit from this largesse? We all see Takashinga getting the big chunk of this, and OH will be a useful leak.
ZC now only have $5m to play with as opposed to $9m and that won’t go far with these guys in charge. Viable solutions are fast fading.

In other news our Minister of Sport has been given a Mugabe farm From swimming to farming.