[News]: Indoor cricket on revival path

[Detective RDS]

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/2016/07/03 ... ival-path/

Indoor cricket on revival path
July 3, 2016 in Sport

THE Zimbabwe Indoor Cricket Association (Zica) has set its sights on competing at this year’s Indoor Cricket Masters World Series to be held in England as the first step towards reviving the sport which has been in the doldrums in recent years due to lack of sponsorship.

BY DANIEL NHAKANISO

This year’s edition of the Indoor Cricket Masters World Series will be played at the Action Indoor Cricket Arena in Birmingham, England from October 21 to 29.

The tournament, which is expected to feature teams from Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, India and Sri Lanka, will mark Zimbabwe’s return to international indoor cricket competitions for the first time in 18 years.

Zica president Maxwell Gwaranapo told Standardsport that participation at the high-profile tournament would complement their current efforts to revive the sport in the country.

“We are working towards fielding a team for this year’s Indoor Cricket Masters World Series taking place in UK in October. The World Cup is for the males who are over 35 years, 40, 45 and 50 and females who are over 35. We are sending a team for over 35 men,” he said.

Gwaranapo said they were hoping members of the team to take part in the global tournament would share their knowledge by helping spread the sport around the country.

“We want this team to go and learn and come back and work towards development of the game. We aim to make indoor cricket a national obsession by imbedding it into cultures and passion of all Zimbabweans,” he said.

“We have plans to increase participation of the sport which includes involvement of schools from primary level right up to tertiary institutions. We will be conducting workshops for teachers at different schools throughout the country since we do have representation in every province.”

The Zimbabwean team which is yet to be finalised will be marshalled by former national team cricketer Douglas Hondo as player/coach.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Some observations / questions...

1. The UK is open to have a Zim team play cricket on their soil (or astroturf, in this case)!
2. Zim team is making a comeback to this tournament it seems, and ironically when it is being played in England.
3. There is ZICA - is it any better managed than ZC? Who all are involved there?
4. No idea if Maxwell Gwaranapo has played any sort of cricket indoor / outdoor in the past. He seems to own a food joint in Harare.
5. Not sure if the players from Zim mini world cup teams participating in Botswana year in year out are considered for this.
6. We are obviously sending only a 35+ team, because only there we can probably (barely) find enough people to fill in among the "post-rebel era". Don't think we have enough cricketers left in the country to fill up 40+, 45+ and 50+ teams.
7. Dougie Hondo to play / coach this team along with coaching the Zim A. Obviously he is the most high profile name that can make the cut. Be ready to see a list of complete unknowns other than him.
8. Prosper Utseya would be currently running around, to get his age revised upwards beyond 35, most likely.

[eugene]

Indoor cricket is such a bizarre version of the sport.

[foreignfield]

Indoor cricket is such a bizarre version of the sport.

I'm still waiting for a convenient table-sized version of cricket, something like this.