Zimpapers Logo

Tavengwa Mukuhlani

THE three-match One Day International home series is done and dusted, and again we have been humiliated following another whitewash.
Zimbabwe put on such a horrendous batting display in the series, provoking many unanswered questions.

Could the sudden change in the technical department that ushered in Makhaya Ntini as interim head coach after the axing of Dave Whatmore be the reason for such a hopeless display? We doubt that since Ntini was part of the set up already, so what’s going on?

Rumour has it that some players that were very close to Whatmore are still sulking at his sacking and deliberately underperforming. If true, this cannot and should not be tolerated and Zimbabwe Cricket should deal ruthlessly with such sabotage. How does a player complete a whole match then complain of a sudden hamstring injury just before the next game? And how convenient for Sean Williams to pick up an injury after the toss when the line-up has already been submitted to the match referee and cannot be altered? Was he really injured or just acting up?

The whip must be cracked and players still endeared to Whatmore must leave and not disturb those that want to perform. Commitment is seriously lacking from most Chevrons’ players and even their body language while on the pitch leaves a lot to be desired.

It was shameful to see former skipper Elton Chigumbura grinning on his way back to the pavilion after being dismissed for a first ball duck twice in the series.

There can simply be no excuse for such awful batting, especially since most batsmen have been playing at international level for more than a decade now. The batsmen inexplicably threw their wickets against a highly inexperienced Indian bowling attack and you can’t suddenly blame batting tracks at Harare Sports Club that you have been playing on for years. After all the tracks were prepared to the home team’s advantage.

Of course, we never expected Zimbabwe to beat India, even with them fielding five players that had never played international cricket, but we still wanted to witness the competitive spirit Zimbabwe have always been known for over the years.

We can’t say much about the bowling, because they were never given any competitively reasonable scores to defend in the three ODIs.

We pity the Indian youngsters that came to Zimbabwe with the hope of learning the ropes in international cricket, as they look set to return home having learnt nothing.

It’s laughable that only three Indian batsmen lost their wickets in the three games, while the young bowlers collected easy wickets without ever being put to the sword by the experienced Zimbabwe batsmen.

Fans were right to vent their anger at the players for being subjected to such deplorable performances and they should not be blamed when they elect to stay away from torturing their eyes watching unwilling cricketers seemingly playing the gentlemen’s game.

We challenge Tavengwa Mukuhlani and his ZC board to read the riot act to all non-performers. They must all be reminded that playing for the Chevrons is not a birthright, but performance-based and just as the administration showed Whatmore the door, it’s time non-performers also followed him out.

If we are going to lose by such embarrassing margins and without putting up any fight, maybe we should just field the Under-19 cricketers, who did well in Bangladesh early in the year. At least we can have an excuse that we are rebuilding, than to continue with a bunch of overpaid, but highly successful underachievers. Not in our name; enough is enough.

National contracts are up for review at the end of July and we are watching with keen interest if these failures will be retained to continue earning a living from shaming our country on the international arena.