Zimbabwe cricket!

The end of every cricket tour provides a chance for reflection and Zimbabwe's recent tour to the Caribbean Islands is no different. Brushing aside the twin temptations of romance and sentiments, it is high time we confront the truths about cricket in this country.

Once again Zimbabwe, by the most severe demands of international cricket, were not quite fit for the purpose. Zimbabwe have been so thoroughly outplayed on this tour of West Indies that one can lay the blame at the feet of anything and get away without much scrutiny, but the reality is that these results are not good enough . Mind you, the jury of public opinion have already passed verdict that plain and simple, the tour was poor and the performances were dismal.

The facts speak for themselves; Zimbabwe lost seven out of seven international fixtures on the tour - three ODIs, two T20s and two Tests. Both Tests ended inside three days! What is this disease? And more pertinently, what is the cure? Different coach, different players-same old nightmares.

 They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Too often on this tour Zimbabwe's top-order have come unstuck with either carbon-copy dismissals or worse, reckless stroke-play. Zimbabwe showed quite a staggering ineptitude against Shillingford's spin bowling. For Shillingford to put men round the bat, invite Zimbabwean batsmen to turn his bouncing off spinners round the corner and watch the batters falling repeatedly like a deck of cards into that trap is laughable.

The captain and coaches keep saying harsh lessons have been learned. With each loss, they promise improvement but if one compares the West Indies series to the team's performances at home in 2011 against Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand, the statistics readily reveal that the team is going backwards. It is the extremes that are so dispiriting.

 Doubtless, the players are talented, and when you see the likes of Vusi Sibanda hitting venomous and sharp deliveries from the likes Tino Best straight back past the bowler you will appreciate this fact. The main problem in Zimbabwe cricket is the lack of proven senior players, men to rely on in tough times. No country can control the production of champions but a core of senior players ought to be possible. It is the lack of them that holds Zimbabwe back.
Administratively, the game in Zimbabwe is in shambles. Evidently domestic structures are not producing, let alone retaining, the sort of professional players able to sort out the next generation.  For all the franchise system's positives over the last few years, the number of contracted players per franchise has been reduced to ten, and the rest of the cricketers have been forgotten about.

 Zimbabwe's weakness lies not in the representative team but in the production line. Club cricket is neither rewarding nor competitive enough. Clearly the domestic cricket is not sufficiently demanding, and so does not prepare players for the next step, let alone the highest challenges. It is not a situation that can easily be remedied. Indeed it takes a lot of hard work and investment in pitches, schools, coaches and so forth.

You can see why the debacle surrounding the issue of national selectors raised by Senator Coltart and the subsequent racism row that ensued, coupled with the exemption of support staff from the West Indies tour played a massive role in the mental state of the players going into the series. These are hardly ideal preparations for a high profile tour, and throughout the tour one could not ignore the lifelessness in the performances, the lack of competitive spirit, as particularly demonstrated by Taylor, who customarily is the epitome of hardcore guts in the side.

A lot was said about the selectors' issue, with unkind words being exchanged in the process. Any rightful thinking Zimbabwean with no hidden agenda and sinister motives but driven by the sole mandate to build a competitive sporting brand across all the sporting codes in the country will and should back this idea.

While Givemore Makoni went on about how this directive would disadvantage people like him in the saga, one should not overlook his overall stance on the game as a telling factor in describing his actions and comments. In the main, credit ought to be given to him for championing involvement of the marginalized in a historically white dominated and elitist sport. Takashinga cricket club gave birth to black players who were then given scholarships at Churchill School and were fast tracked into the national side when there was a player exodus in 2004. This legacy has however been spoiled by Makoni's unashamed representation of black cricketers from Highfield and Takashinga only and ignoring talents from other parts of the country. He has been fighting for 'his boys' from the township and not for every black cricketer in the country and this has tainted his otherwise revolutionary status in the game.

Just do the math, how many players from either Highfield or Takashinga have played for Zimbabwe. Does this mean we don't have talent in Chinhoyi, Bindura, or Masvingo?

The likes of Blessing Mahwire, Brian Vetori, and Keith Dabengwa are some of the exceptions to this trend, primarily because they had performed at first class level and it became difficult to continue to ignore them. Unsurprisingly, they performed well but their run in the side did not last because the likes of Makoni and Mangongo overlook these talented cricketers in order to push for their own Highfield mafia.

Makoni's integrity has been compromised. Even when 'his boys are not performing he still stands on them, just think how long it took for Chigumbura to be dropped from the side. This is why the same players are selected for the national side, and the same players fail to produce the results at the highest level. A panel of selectors who have played the game internationally will put an end to all of this, and this is what Makoni and crew do not want.

The white contingent led by Alistair Campbell are not saints either. As far as crooks and tyrants are concerned, the prophets of doom are usually right and it would be foolish to trust this lot.

Firstly , their inclusion as the so-called reassuring figures as coaches and administrators might have convinced the international community to trust and engage the country again, but  for all the cricket appointees to all be white is in itself racist. Colour was not, or ought not to have been, the problem. Campbell himself is hogtied by a conflict of interest that puts him in the lucrative but dubious position of working for both Zimbabwe Cricket and the media. In effect, he can write his own reviews and there is no objectivity here.

In any case, it is difficult to separate sport and politics, but for those uncompromising players and fans that live and breathe every ball bowled, the game must go on.

In the immediate future Zimbabwe cricket is walking a hazardous road. With cricket tightly in the grip of commerce it is difficult to see how Zimbabwe will keep getting games to play. Sport is business now and the media simply creates content to be sold to the highest bidder. After the failures in West Indies, not many broadcasters, advertisers and corporate investors will queue up on Zimbabwe cricket's doorstep in a rush.

With the upcoming home series against Bangladesh the only fixture on the horizon for Zimbabwe, this tour has suddenly become crucial and their destiny will now depend on how well they perform in this series. With Bangladesh showing signs of rapid improvements in their recent series against Sri Lanka, characterized by their captain's maiden double ton, Zimbabwe will have their work cut out.

New Coach Andy Waller's immediate goal is to galvanize the black and white factionalism within the team that at times exists so subtly it can go unnoticed and yet affects results on the field. Changing coaches will do little to salvage the dire straits though, as the production line is the area of concern. 

Prosper Tsvanhu is a cricket analyst who writes in his own capacity