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Midlands Correspondent
CRICKET franchise Midwest Rhinos got a shot in the arm after the Australian Embassy and a local businessman John Gardner commissioned the $80,000 pavilion they financed at Mbizo Cricket Club. The cricket club was constructed in 2003 and has been operating without a pavilion, a situation that forced teams to change in their team buses.

A ground breaking ceremony was held at the site last year and construction of the pavilion was completed at the beginning of April. Midwest Rhinos area manager Admire Marodza expressed gratitude for the gesture shown by the Australian Embassy and Gardner, who runs the local franchise of South African food processor Frito-Lay group, saying this would help the development of cricket in the Midlands city.

“We’re excited about this development as we’ve been waiting for this to happen for the past 12 years. We’re thankful to Gardner and the Australian Embassy for the gesture and it will go a long way in the development of the sport in Kwekwe,” said Marodza.

“This will also generate interest from the local community, which will translate to a big pool of cricket players. Hopefully this will increase competition at our franchise and we will begin to reap the rewards of such developments in the domestic league.”

The pavilion consists of changing rooms, ablution facilities, a bar and a shed where cricket fans can watch games from.

Also present at the ground breaking ceremony was Zimbabwe Cricket convenor of selectors Kenyon Ziehl, who lauded the developments, saying there is need to broaden the players’ selection base in the country if Zimbabwe is to return to competitiveness at international level.