Cricket in Zimbabwe

[Terryalderman]

Not living in Zimbabwe its hard to gauge an interest for cricket in the country. Is the game talked about and supported keenly in the country? Do/did games get good attendances? Is the game played at school and are there many social clubs active? Saddly the political situation is obviuosly heavily impacting peoples passion for sport. What is Zimbabwes number one sport. I was amazed reading Duncan Fletchers book recently how the Zims women hockey team won gold at the 1980 olympics.

[zimfan1]

hey welcome to the forum

im a Zimbabwean who's at university in Bristol at the moment but will be going back after i have finished

the state of the game is not good at the moment there are very few club teams that are in action and those who are have very poor resources including a lack of equipment and umpires, the domestic game is poor and that i hear that the best most competitive cricket is being played in a social leagues in Harare and Bulawayo between a lot of the ex players such as Trever gripper and Stuart carlise

the number one sport in Zimbabwe is football by a long way and even now i would say that rugby has overtaken cricket as the success of a couple of Zimbabwean players who have gone to south Africa and who now are playing for there national team, as many of the whites have left the popularity of cricket has decreased.

the attendances for international games are on the whole not to bad, usually get around 3 or 4 thousand for a weekend game but no one goes and watches the domestic games and on the week days most of the people who turn up to watch the international matches are school children shipped in by the ZC to make the grounds look full

im sorry to paint a grim picture but i am afraid at this rate cricket is dying, the only hope is that at some of the best schools are still producing talented players of both black and white but what are the chances of them sticking around in the future in a broken country? i don't rate it as good at all

hope this helps

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Are you Terry Alderman? I listen to your commentaries on the ABC

In Zimbabwe, obviously there are more important things on peoples minds than cricket. But for many people (probably more so among middle and upper class people), I think there is a fair bit of interest in the cricket. Although the poor performances by the team over the past few years has probably seen a bit of a dip in support for the game. After Zimbabwe's win over Australia in the ICC World Twenty20 spirits would have been raised for a lot of people, the win generated quite a buzz. (see this interview with Victor Chaitezvi)

Attendances, like in any place, fluctuate depending on which day it is and tend to get larger as the day progresses (moreso if Zimbabwe are playing well). Games in Harare get decent crowds, certainly the ODI's have bigger crowds than a Test match in Pakistan would. However, a lot of the people there are school kids (who I think are bussed in from surrounding areas, maybe maehara can elaborate on that). Have a look at this video, it gives a pretty good idea of crowd sizes: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BYRMwvadmBM

Games aren't often played in Bulawayo due to the travel costs, so when there is a game on (even a Zimbabwe A game) they too have good crowds.

The game is probably stronger at school level than club level. This would have to do with there being more money in the schools than the clubs, so maintaining the grounds and coaching the players is not a problem, unlike club cricket where many of the smaller grounds have fallen into a state of disrepair. These links might give you a better perspective - Richard Harrison is an U-16's coach at Falcon College (interview: http://www.brmtaylor.com/news-93.html), and as he says; there are still a lot of good players in the ranks, it's just a matter of keeping them in the system and not losing them to South Africa, Australia, etc. This article is about club cricket (link: http://www.brmtaylor.com/news-87.html) and as you can see there are not too many teams left (the ones listed are in Harare, there are some other strong teams around the country too... Bulawayo Athletic Club is probably the best team in Zimbabwe, while Queens Sports Club, Kadoma Sports Club and Mutare Sports Club always make it to the National League, which is the national club competition). There may be a couple of other clubs which engage in friendly matches - there was a breakaway a few years ago from the official league - but not much is known about these clubs.

Overall, soccer is by far the most popular team sport in the country. At the moment I'd say cricket would be second, and rugby a close third.

[maehara]

However, a lot of the people there are school kids (who I think are bussed in from surrounding areas, maybe maehara can elaborate on that).

I have in the past been one of those bussed in schoolkids, although it was many years ago. Made a good day out from my boarding school in Marondera.

It's always been the policy of ZC, even before the current board started messing things up, to give free tickets to schools - it's a way of widening exposure to the game and getting youngsters interested, so it's not a practice I would criticise. While tickets for ODIs in Zimbabwe still aren't all that expensive by international standards, with the economy the way it is at the moment they're still out of the range of most, so bringing the schools in is as good a way as any of filling the seats.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

However, a lot of the people there are school kids (who I think are bussed in from surrounding areas, maybe maehara can elaborate on that).

I have in the past been one of those bussed in schoolkids, although it was many years ago. Made a good day out from my boarding school in Marondera.

It's always been the policy of ZC, even before the current board started messing things up, to give free tickets to schools - it's a way of widening exposure to the game and getting youngsters interested, so it's not a practice I would criticise. While tickets for ODIs in Zimbabwe still aren't all that expensive by international standards, with the economy the way it is at the moment they're still out of the range of most, so bringing the schools in is as good a way as any of filling the seats.

Was it these days out that got you hooked on cricket, or were you already a fan by that point?

[maehara]

Was it these days out that got you hooked on cricket, or were you already a fan by that point?

I played (very poorly - batted 11th for our age-group 'C' team and couldn't bowl ) and was the scorer for our school 1st XI at that point, but I wouldn't have said I was a fan before I actually got to see the guys in action. Zim were still Associate side at the time so we weren't playing top class opposition (the first match I watched live was against an English Minor Counties XI), but they were still good to watch - and HSC is an amazing ground to be at. So yes, the freebie policy certainly worked on me.

[Kopje]

However, a lot of the people there are school kids (who I think are bussed in from surrounding areas, maybe maehara can elaborate on that).

I have in the past been one of those bussed in schoolkids, although it was many years ago. Made a good day out from my boarding school in Marondera.

It's always been the policy of ZC, even before the current board started messing things up, to give free tickets to schools - it's a way of widening exposure to the game and getting youngsters interested, so it's not a practice I would criticise. While tickets for ODIs in Zimbabwe still aren't all that expensive by international standards, with the economy the way it is at the moment they're still out of the range of most, so bringing the schools in is as good a way as any of filling the seats.

I myself too was a beneficiary of that ZC policy. Great stuff too, you got to meet great players and coaches.

[Terryalderman]

Thanks for answering my questions. At the end of the day after removing politics in any sport interest will be held when a team is successful. And children need to have players who they want to be like. I'm not sure who the favourites are. Possibly Elton Chigumbra or Sean Williams.
It was good to see the two victories against Bangladeshi sides, it shows how will Zim does with a limited player pool and saddly how poorly Bangladesh are fairing (perhaps there only international class player is Shakib Al-Hasam). It probably also shows the weakness in international cricket of the bottom four sides in the ICC.
I've often wondered how many if any Zim players would play state cricket in Australia (Ray Price might even make the national side at the moment!). I no Andy Blignaut had a very short and dissapointing stint with Tasmania a few years ago. Brendan Taylors form in the VCA will probably give some indication if he ever gets to play when the rain stops.

[Detective RDS]

Raymond Price surely can play in the first class match of Australia.He is a world class player,legend and my favourite too

I dont find any reason why Tatenda Taibu failed to find a FC team to play for when he quit Zimbabwe back in 2005.He should hv been offered a contract by any team of the English County Cricket.But Taibu is also a class player.

Andy Blignaut played in Australia for Tasmania after joining with the rebels.But he was released from Tasmania early due to injury and poor form.Even he failed to make an impact in the club level.He later joined briefly with Durham,a team of English County Cricket.He returned to Zimbabwe in 2005 and played for the national side in the test series vs New Zealand,Videocon Cup(ZIM-IND-NZ) and in the test series against India.Even he was offered to be the captain of the side which was touring to West Indies.He wasnt paid by ZC for the 2 test series and Videocon Cup which he played for Zimbabwe.So,he refused to play for Zimbabwe until he is paid.Then,he played for Highveld Lions in South Africa in 2006 but wasnt listed in the squad in 2007.I tried a lot to find information abt him in the net but failed.But I did find in a website that he is rated there as a 'Wasted Talent'.He is probably living in South Africa.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I think there's no doubt Ray Price would be playing in Australia's Test side. Watching a few overs of Hauritz or Krejza, you can tell they are not even in the same league as Price.

Considering the revolving door that is "Australian spin bowlers" (Casson, White, Krejza, Hauritz) I'm not convinced that Graeme Cremer wouldn't be in the mix either. He's a legspinner, and of all of the spinners in the squad he can turn the ball the most. Because Zimbabwe already have 2 established spinners though, he's finding it hard to break into the first eleven. And then when he does get a game (vs BCB Academy) he's only given two overs. The one match where most of us had an opportunity to watch him (besides the handful of Tests he played for Zimbabwe 4 or 5 years ago) was against Canada in a Twenty20. Granted, it was only Canada, but he took 2/10 and looked as good as any spinner in world cricket. He scored a few votes in the Player of the Year awards on that performance alone.

Let's put it this way; Price and Cremer are both better than Hauritz and Krejza... Utseya is probably on par. Although that might change if he keeps up his current form, taking into consideration his efforts against Sri Lanka today and Bangladesh a few days ago he is now starting to take wickets (as well as keeping a very low economy rate), which was a side of his game that he hadn't really developed before.