ZC confirm more internationals for Bulawayo

[zimfan1]

ZC confirm more internationals for Bulawayo


THE Zimbabwe Cricket has confirmed that Bulawayo, which has recently suffered from lack of international matches, would be able to host some of the matches during the triangular series involving India and South Africa.

The news will come as a great relief to fans in the second largest city of Zimbabwe which is home to some of the good players. But the reason for the drought of matches to Bulawayo at world class facilities such as Queens Sports Club and Bulawayo Athletics Club has been more logistical than anything, ZC told the website.

Even the just ended Faithwear Series and the Logan Cup that gets underway this week will not be taken to Bulawayo with Harare due to host all the matches.

“It is unfortunate that ZC has not taken the latest First Class matches to Bulawayo but hopes this summer to stage some One-Day International matches of the triangular involving India and South Africa there.

“There are some logistical reasons for not taking the Faithwear and Logan Cup matches outside Harare: - Of the 78 players who have been distributed to the provinces, 52 are from Harare, 18 from Bulawayo and eight from the other provinces. Of the officials, 70 percent are from Harare.

“For logistical purposes, it is easier to bring in 26 players into Harare than send 52 out - At the beginning of the year, there was a currency problem in Zimbabwe when people could hardly get any cash.

“And yet suppliers and service providers insisted on cash, which certainly made life difficult,” explained ZC spokesman Lovemore Banda.

Subsequent to dollarization, there were restrictions on hard currency withdrawals which were then lifted at the end of January but by that time ZC had already made plans to host the Faithwear and Logan Cup matches in Harare based on the challenges prevailing prior to the statement by the governor of the Reserve Bank.

Due to the given the difficulties hitherto, said Banda, it was easier to hold tournaments in Harare than Bulawayo as ZC has more employees in the former and it is easier to solve the challenges that fall outside the ambit of cricket when one has more foot soldiers on the ground.

Hope of taking matches to Bulawayo has brightened in the intervening weeks with prices going down and basic goods becoming more available and for that and other positive developments, ZC will take matches during the triangular series to the City of Kings.

Some critics have said that ZC were not taking matches to Bulawayo because of the alleged poor state of the facilities and grounds but Banda shot that saying: “ZC has nothing to hide in terms of dilapidated grounds in Bulawayo.

“It has two leases there. At Queens it owns the outer buildings and maintains the cricket oval while at the Bulawayo Athletic Club it only maintains the oval. At both, the cricket facilities are looking good, aided by the considerable amount of rainfall they have had there.

“At the Bulawayo Athletic Club, the committee chairman even invited the ZC development manager Nicholas Singo for a round of drinks to thank him for maintaining the ground.

“ZC does not own the sports clubs where cricket is played. It does not own the buildings where these cricket facilities are. With the exception of Harare Sports Club, Queens and the Academy where it has offices – the latter now under reconstruction as the builders are back on site – ZC is only given access to the buildings when it has matches at the venues.

“The sports club facilities are owned by the members. And so it is not the ZC responsibility to maintain the cricket sections of sports clubs. In the past, the members did it themselves through subscriptions.

“However, because of the harsh economic climate which has seen the escalation of maintenance costs while cutting at the membership base through emigration by some and inability to pay the subscriptions for those that remain, this is not always possible.

“Having noted these challenges, ZC approached some sports clubs to draw memoranda of understanding under which it could assist with the maintenance of cricket sections.

“This ZC did with the Bulawayo Athletic Club, Mutare Sports Club, Masvingo Sports Club, Churchill High School and Mutare Boys High School to name just a few.

“At Alexandra Sports Club, for example, the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was delayed by the change in management and also the possibility of their securing other partners to maintain their facilities.

“They have the ZC proposal to which they have agreed to in principle, but despite not having a signed MOU ZC continues to maintain their A and B fields and have recently employed full-time groundsmen to work there,” Banda said in a statement.

ZC also maintains the A field at Old Hararians.

ZC also said that where the committees approach them, they are always ready to help when the means allow like Takashinga Cricket Club and Mutare Sports Club whom they have helped in the past.

[Detective RDS]

Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo held some of the WC 2003 matches if I amn't wrong.The ground looks decent and nice.QSC should hold some international matches.I hope that cricket will be back in QSC in Bulawayo.

But sufficient preparations will be surely needed to make the ground entirely fit for arranging international cricket as the stadium is out of international cricket for a long period of time.

[maehara]

QSC was once one of the best grounds in international cricket - very scenic, from what I've seen on it, and their now-retired groundskeeper kept a very good pitch there. Last time it saw national team use was for the SA domestic competitions, with Chevrons and Provinces both playing there, but their results at the ground weren't good - Chevrons in particular were putting in much better performances at "Fortress HSC", which I suspect played some part in QSC falling out of favour.

[Detective RDS]

Yes...As far as the pitch is concerned,I can remember the pitch was quite fast and bouncy like the pitches in New Zealand/England.The stadium was regularly used during the 2003/2004 season and before that also,I suspect.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

It's been mentioned that Harare cricket fans are the luckiest in the world - they get more international matches per year than any other city in the world. True really - Sydney for instance might get 1 Test and 3 ODI's a year. Harare normally gets upwards of 10 ODI's and a couple of 4-day matches against the touring team.

As maehara said, Zimbabwe play well in Harare generally. Presumably this is where they train most of the time, they know the conditions and they know how the pitch will play. The best example of this was Zimbabwe winning all of their MTN fixtures played in Harare last year.

And for a team that needs wins under its belt like Zimbabwe, playing in the most favourable conditions is a no brainer. Hence, Bulawayo gets next to no important matches any more. No doubt the economic situation doesn't help either, but I don't think this would be the primary reason.

Inversely, maybe if Zimbabwe played more games in Bulawayo they would become as good there as they are in Harare. So I think they should play all of their international First Class matches in Bulawayo. In terms of the number of days of cricket played there, it would close the gap between Bulawayo and Harare, and it wouldn't affect the outcome of the ODI series (which at the moment, doing well in ODI's is of the utmost importance for Zimbabwe).

[zimdan]

You gotta remember though, that 80% of Zimbabwe's players reside in Harare or within 50km or so of it. Paying for the player travel from harare to bulawayo is expensive, and its basically a day trip or a 1hr flight.

Cost is the major issue in not playing more games here in Bulawayo

[brmtaylor.com admin]

You gotta remember though, that 80% of Zimbabwe's players reside in Harare or within 50km or so of it. Paying for the player travel from harare to bulawayo is expensive, and its basically a day trip or a 1hr flight.

Cost is the major issue in not playing more games here in Bulawayo

For Logan Cup games I can understand the expenses being a problem, but for high profile ODI series - which ZC would get quite a bit of money from due to TV rights - I can't imagine staying in Bulawayo for a few days being a big problem?

[Detective RDS]

Yes...Cricket needs to return in Bulawayo to expand the range of the international cricket and spread the touch of cricket all over the country.I think,it's needed for the betterment of cricket.