Wisden’s review of a turbulent year in Zimbabwe
A special correspondent20-Sep-2006The crisis in Zimbabwean cricket, and in the country as a whole, remained
unresolved and unimproved at the end of 2005, another miserable year. In
2004, a player rebellion sparked by the sacking of national captain Heath
Streak had weakened the side so badly that the ICC had temporarily
suspended Zimbabwe’s Test programme. They returned in January 2005.
But their defeats grew ever more painful, and a brief attempt at
reconciliation with the rebels was overtaken by a wider mutiny, this time
led by Streak’s young black successor, Tatenda Taibu. In November, Taibu
resigned, and by January 2006 the government of Robert Mugabe – still in
power despite global contempt for his regime – had replaced Zimbabwe
Cricket’s strife-ridden board with an interim committee, which announced
a further 12-month withdrawal from Test status.The country’s first break from Test cricket ended with a trip to Bangladesh,
the newest and until then weakest Test nation. But the Zimbabweans were
left holding the wooden spoon as Bangladesh recorded their first Test victory,
by 226 runs, and followed up with their first series wins in both Test and
one-day cricket. Returning to Africa, Zimbabwe lost their next five Tests –
against South Africa, New Zealand and India – by an innings, and a sixth
by ten wickets. Only one of those games limped into the fourth morning,
and two never reached the third. Having won their first two one-day games
in Bangladesh, they lost ten in a row by September. The A-team, which
tended to overlap significantly with the supposedly senior side, did little
better.Consistent humiliation on the field was only the most obvious sign of the
deteriorating situation. Early in 2005, the player rebellion appeared to have
collapsed. Streak, Zimbabwe’s one world-class player after Andy Flower’s
protest at “the death of democracy” led to his departure in 2003, returned
after lengthy negotiations with ZC, apparently without consulting the other
rebels who had withdrawn in his support. Some were disappointed. The week
that Streak declared his availability, his family ranch was removed from a
list of farms designated for government confiscation. It seemed he had been
presented with an offer he could not refuse, for his family’s sake.Streak was rushed to South Africa, in time to join the team in the final
one-day international. He scored more runs in one innings than any of his
colleagues managed over three, but Zimbabwe still lost. Another rebel, Andy
Blignaut, who had failed to forge a new career with Tasmania, was hurried
back alongside Streak for the two Tests, despite being far from match-fit.
ZC was clearly desperate. Blignaut managed a couple of fifties, but neither
he nor Streak could make their team competitive.Of the other rebels, Gavin Ewing and Barney Rogers had already returned,
and four more, Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart, Trevor Gripper and Neil
Ferreira, agreed to a provisional deal after changes in the running of cricket
were promised. ZC chairman Peter Chingoka declared the player rebellion
over. Grant Flower, however, stayed away. He had secured a future with his
brother at Essex and insisted nothing had really changed. Five others decided
either not to return or to wait and see, most notably Sean Ervine and
Raymond Price, who also found a haven in county cricket. And in October
2005, Streak announced his retirement from international cricket in order to
captain Warwickshire.The changes demanded by the rebel players had centred on the constitution
of the ZC Board and on selection policy. In particular, they objected to two
board members, Maqsood Ebrahim and Ozias Bvute, believing them to be
political activists with no significant cricketing background, uninterested in
the good of the game. But by November a split between the two had appeared:
Ebrahim, the chairman of selectors, said that ZC was trying to remove him
as chairman of Masvingo province, while ZC accused him of racism.
The enigmatic Bvute had become a board member in 2000, when an
integration task force was introduced, and since then he had worked
ceaselessly to expand his influence. He took over as managing director in
late 2004, resigning his place on the board. Theoretically, this made him the
board’s employee, but this was not how it looked. Opinions differed as to
whether Bvute had a genuine political power base or was simply a very
clever opportunist exploiting a national climate of fear. He often displayed
great charm, personality and enough charisma to win over opponents. But
his aim was confrontation. His determination to remove all opposition was
in line with his government’s policy, as was the ridiculous assertion that the
welfare of Zimbabwean cricket was being sabotaged by a few recalcitrant
whites. When the Mashonaland clubs, including the black club Takashinga,
rebelled, he crushed the revolt, closing the Mashonaland Cricket Association
offices and calling in the police to arrest the officials on fraud charges. Most
were later released and restored to their posts.One thing Bvute could not control, however, was the performance of his
national team. In the late 1990s, Zimbabwe had been respected battlers,
renowned for punching above their weight in world cricket. As black players
of quality emerged and cricket began to gain national interest, the sport
should have increased in depth and strength. Instead, politics took a sinister
grip. Inevitably, some whites wanted to maintain their dominance, but this
was not common. More common was resentment of any success gained by
a white-dominated team coming from people who were not prepared to wait
for transformation to occur naturally.The ICC’s response to the Zimbabwean crisis may not have been as feeble
as it appeared: it is impossible to believe that Bvute would have countenanced
the rebels’ return on any terms but total surrender had he not been put under
extreme pressure. There was talk of demoting Zimbabwe and Bangladesh
to a lower tier of Test sides, or restricting them to occasional Test series at
home, until they showed they could compete. It seems likely that these
threats forced Bvute to negotiate.But as 2005 wore on, the controversies multiplied. In August, Phil Simmons, the national side’s West Indian coach, was sacked during a visit from New Zealand, who inflicted Zimbabwe’s heaviest Test defeat. He was replaced by Kevin Curran, a (white) former Zimbabwean international. The players signed a petition stating that Simmons’s dismissal was “unjust, unfair and not in the best interests of Zimbabwe cricket”; he went to court to challenge it, while ZC tried to have him deported.Hitherto, the black players in the national side (with the conspicuous
exception of Henry Olonga) had been reluctant to protest. Most come from
the townships; cricket has opened the door to success for them, and opposing
ZC could mean a return to the ghetto. But they were clearly affected by the
controversy between ZC and the Mashonaland administration: morale was
so low during the concurrent one-day tournament that the Mashonaland team,
which provides the bulk of the national side and won the first-class Logan
Cup for a sixth successive season, finished bottom. The near-unanimous
protest over Simmons’s dismissal showed their growing unhappiness.
In November, the players, headed by Taibu, held a press conference to
call for the resignation of Chingoka and the suspension of Bvute. The
chairmen of the provincial associations backed up the team and demanded
explanations of “unusual financial dealings” by the board. Rumours of
irregular foreign-currency dealings were fuelled when officials of the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe raided the ZC premises. That the board was in financial
crisis was clear from the fact that the players were still awaiting pay from
the series with New Zealand, held in August.”If we don’t do anything, cricket in Zimbabwe will die within a year,”
said Taibu. Afterwards, he was reported to have responded to threats from
board officials by taking his wife and young child into hiding. The threat
of another strike appeared to recede when ZC announced it had agreed the
terms of contracts with the players. But by the end of the month, Taibu had
resigned the captaincy and announced his retirement from the game in
Zimbabwe, though he made it clear he would return if the situation improved.In the meantime, he went to Bangladesh to play club cricket. It seemed that Chingoka and Bvute might be forced out when they were arrested on suspicion of contravening the law on currency exchange, and board vice-chairman Ahmed Ebrahim called an emergency meeting. But Chingoka and Bvute were soon released. Finally, the government took direct control. The board was dissolved, and the white and Asian directors sacked, while Chingoka, despite criticism of his administration in a government report, was retained as chairman of an interim committee. Bvute apparently remained too. The players, who had said they would no longer tour unless their contracts were agreed, their pay handed over and Chingoka removed, subsequently agreed to end their strike in the hope of getting paid, but threatened to withdraw again if they were not satisfied. With the decision to surrender Test status, they would be playing only one-day internationals, in any case, and New Zealand had quietly dropped the return tour when their government indicated it would not issue the Zimbabweans visas.
The ICC described Zimbabwe’s withdrawal as “sensible”, but said there
were still many issues the interim committee needed to resolve. The ICC
also continued to insist that it would not interfere in the country’s internal
affairs, to the bemusement of cricket-lovers inside and outside Zimbabwe.
Yet for a small country, Zimbabwe still had a wealth of talent, which was
being exploited and abused in criminal fashion. Taibu, who turned 22 in
May, proved himself a player of genuine international class. He did his
country proud, holding the batting together, keeping wicket well, and
captaining a losing side without despair, always offering a smile and a
philosophical approach at post-match interviews. He was criticised for a lack
of imagination and tactical awareness, but he rarely had any old hands to
help him with advice – he was often Zimbabwe’s most experienced player.
Dion Ebrahim, a gritty batsman and a superb fielder, lost form, while
Douglas Hondo was plagued by injury and inconsistency. One bright spot,
however, was the return of Hamilton Masakadza after three years at a South
African university. A couple of fine innings showed he still had great
potential, but he too needed to find consistency. Opening batsman Stuart
Matsikenyeri had more ability than runs or discipline, while Vusi Sibanda
again wasted his abundant gifts.Among the even younger players, Tinashe Panyangara was prone to injury,
Brendan Taylor earned a six-month ban for disciplinary offences, and Elton
Chigumbura lacked the experience to back up his talent. Pace bowler Chris
Mpofu and leg-spinner Graeme Cremer were promising newcomers, but
struggled in a decimated team. Prosper Utseya had a remarkable economyrate
of less than four an over in one-day internationals, apart from one
hammering in South Africa, but could not take wickets in any form of the
game. Off-spinning all-rounder Stuart Williams, another Under-19 player,
showed promise in the one-day games in South Africa.The standard of play in domestic cricket was low, but at least the firstclass
Logan Cup was staged when the national players were available. Some
of them showed they could play four-day cricket competently – as long as
the opposition was not too strong. The title went to Mashonaland for the
sixth successive season. Led by Taibu, they won their first five matches by
handsome margins, before Manicaland turned the tables in the final game.
Manicaland and Matabeleland won three games apiece, but Midlands lost
all six matches. It was as well that the champions were so clear: it was
impossible to get either a table or confirmation of the points system out of
Zimbabwe Cricket.Taylor scored three centuries for Mashonaland, including a career-best
193. Double-centuries were scored by his team-mate Carlisle, former rebel
Neil Ferreira, for Manicaland, and Doug Marillier, who had withdrawn from
cricket for a year in disillusionment but returned for Midlands. The top
domestic bowler was Manicaland’s Blessing Mahwire, with 45 wickets. He
was also an underrated batsman, but queries about his action the previous
season hindered his international career. Cremer, the hardest-working bowler
in the country, was the latest in a long line of quality Zimbabwean legspinners,
and took 42 wickets.If the administration should ever be restored to those who care for cricket,
and if Taibu and the other rebels come back, Zimbabwe could still become
a competitive side. But the point of no return cannot be too far away.
