Mark O'Donnel lauds Zim tour
"It's been outstanding." That is the verdict of the New Zealand A manager, Mark O'Donnell, on his team's recent tour of Zimbabwe. New Zealand A played three four-day matches against Zimbabwe A and won the series two-nil with one match drawn.
The weather was very hot, but they handled that well and they enjoyed their visit from beginning to end.
The possibility of a tour by a New Zealand A team to Zimbabwe was, according to Mr O'Donnell, first mentioned quite early this year, but did not take shape until the visit of David Coltart, Zimbabwe's Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, to that country when he spoke to his counterpart there, Murray McCully, and to Justin Vaughan, the CEO of New Zealand Cricket, during the off-season. It was not until about a month before the tour actually started, though, that it was confirmed as definitely on.
"It has been very useful for us," says Mr O'Donnell, "as our domestic season starts early in November, and for the Test guys now going into our tour of India. We have been very happy with how we have been treated and the quality of the cricket here." The tour itself has been unusual for modern cricket in that it consisted entirely of four-day matches with no limited-overs games, and Mr O'Donnell thinks that this was at New Zealand's request, as preparation for their own first-class season ahead. Certainly, though, this format has been for the greater benefit of the Zimbabwean players who are aspiring to play Test cricket.
Several of the tourists have visited Zimbabwe before, including the coach Rod Latham, who played here on their first tour under Martin Crowe in 1992. They were expecting a hard struggle, with several Test players included in the Zimbabwe A team, not knowing at the time that the senior side were playing in South Africa concurrently. Mr O'Donnell says, "I saw the Zimbabwe side at the Twenty-20 World Cup, where I thought they were on their way back in; they looked to have good people involved, they looked to have some structures there; they had ideas, they had three spinners for subcontinent-type conditions. So it depended how many national players would be taking part, and we've certainly been impressed by the standard of some of the guys we've played against. They just need to play against better opposition and get playing opportunities."
It was unfortunate in one way that the tourists should have played all their matches in Harare, as a match in Bulawayo would have been a good variation and the cricketing public down there missed the opportunity of seeing them in action. But they have taken the opportunities between matches to visit a game park near Harare and also made a two-day trip to the Victoria Falls, which were "magnificent". Mr O'Donnell was very happy with all the tour arrangements, testifying that they had been well looked after by Zimbabwe Cricket – "no wishes, no worries."
The players who were on the last New Zealand tour to Zimbabwe – the captain James Franklin and Chris Martin – were impressed by the way the young Zimbabwe players they had encountered then, during the absence of the 'rebel' players, had improved. "They still need to go up to the next international level, where the balls are into the deck rather than along it, where they can get more exposure to that. Allan Donald, Jason Gillespie, Andrew Hall are all here and will emphasize the value of hitting the deck hard, being able to play off the back foot, doing the basics for a longer period of time."
"They were a lot better than I was anticipating," said James Franklin. "The last time I was out here five years ago, the First Test was over in two days and the Second Test in three days, so my anticipations of the opposition weren't that high. But the standard has been really outstanding and I've been really impressed by the way the Zim A boys have done about their work. They've shown really good batsmanship at times – Tino (Mawoyo) at the top of the order has been outstanding, and going as far down as Timmy (Maruma) who bats at eight and played some really good innings at the back end. Their bowling has been improving – Chalkie (the only name by which the New Zealanders knew Tinashe Panyangara!) has been an unbelievable workhorse and bowled in really good areas with good disciplines. His pace is not amazing but sometimes it doesn't matter if you do enough with the ball. All the guys have commented that if we can get through him, hopefully things will free up a bit. He's been outstanding."
Mr O'Donnell remembered back to the first match of the tour when "we struggled to bowl people out, possibly predictable as we had just come out of our winter and our guys hadn't bowled outside." Several of the Zimbabwean batsmen impressed him, but he said it was a case of players who had reached 20 or 30, or even 50, extending that without getting out, having to be got out rather than getting themselves out. Fifties, as useful as they are, don't win games. Also the bowlers need to be prepared to bowl second and third spells towards the end of the day, which is as important as the first spell. We didn't do that too well in the first game, and in the second we were searching for wickets for a while.
"Bowlers need to be a lot more patient, bowl a heavier and harder length for seamers, wear the batsman down, cut down the boundaries, work a batsman over at one end. All the Zimbabwe bowlers bowled all right at times, but just need to do it a little bit better and a little bit longer. I do think one of the things they need to learn for international level is to bowl a bit quicker. 130k along the wicket is not going to get people out; you may be able to be a bit defensive and bowl on one side, but a good player is going to get on top of that. Guys need to have a bit extra pace and have some skills, and some patience to bowl one side. Heavy ball, fourth stump, hit the top of off – bowl those areas early to any batter. (The Zimbabwe batsmen) have tended to nick out a bit, they tend to get inside the ball. I think they need to play on decks that bounce a bit more; they need to be capable of playing off the back foot, capable of playing behind the ball, not beside the ball."
James Franklin felt the local batting was definitely their strongest discipline. "They're pretty dynamic with the way they want to play and put paid to any loose ball which we bowled, which is always a good sign as a batsman. I think there's good talent there, but it's obviously a matter of getting more discipline and more experience in the way they go about building their innings."
The home captain Vusi Sibanda did not have a very successful series, but his ability was well respected by the New Zealanders. "He's got very good natural instincts and natural skills," said Franklin. "It's probably just a case of harnessing those skills, getting more experience and learning how to bat for long periods of time. That's probably the case with all of them; Tino has been the only one who has been prepared to do that for a long period of time, whereas the others have probably played their shots more often than not, which can lead to their downfall. They need to spend more time in the middle, and then there's a good chance that a group of these players can go on and hopefully play well for Zimbabwe at the international level."
Franklin feels that perhaps the weakest area of the Zimbabwe A game was the spin department. "Conditions haven't been greatly in favour of the spinners, but there were a few wrist-spinners floating around whom we played against. Again, it's a matter of experience and bowling more and more overs, and learning how to bowl in different conditions when the ball isn't spinning – what do they fall back on to?"
He found the Zimbabwe A fielding really impressive – "probably more impressive than our fielding. I think their ground fielding has been better than ours. I'm really impressed with the way they chase the ball down and put their bodies on the line." The New Zealanders, though, did drop fewer catches than the Zimbabweans. He said his team had been looked after beautifully in every way, the only slight disadvantage being that the net facilities were not always quite as good as they wanted them to be – but admits this is a worldwide problem. Perhaps then Zimbabwe can aim to lead the world in this regard and become renowned for supplying outstanding net facilities at all times?
Both captain and manager felt that the Zimbabwean pitches were perhaps a little too batsman-friendly generally, and need to give a little more pace and bounce to the bowlers. Franklin was very complimentary about the pitch for the final four-day match, which gave some assistance to the seam bowlers and also took a bit of turn. "I think going forward in improving Zim cricket and helping the players improve their game and be able to cope with the demands of playing around the world, wickets more like that in this last game – sure it was over in three days and was a low scoring game - are the way to go. That's the way you develop your game – anyone can score runs on flat wickets but it's a lot harder to score runs on wickets that do a bit, and seamers still have to get the ball in the right area and ask questions of the batsmen."
Mr O'Donnell also stressed the need to get the best Under-17 and Under-19 players attached early to franchises, "or at least the opportunity to be with them on rookie or junior contracts in some capacity. If they're good enough they play, the age doesn't matter, or at worst practising with those top franchises. You want your best young players going up to that level, not just the same young players they've been with all the way through. Give them playing opportunities, whether it's first-class cricket or [B Division] cricket, which is a good bridge between the two. The more they can play the better; that's how they learn."
New Zealand Cricket is keen to get reciprocal A tours with other countries, so hopefully it will not be too long before a Zimbabwe A team visits the Land of the Long White Cloud. Mr O'Donnell feels it is important, as doubtless Zimbabwe Cricket also do, that as many such arrangements as possible are made with other top cricketing countries, to the benefit of all.
