Bosso, Dembare legends speak on rituals in Zim soccer

FORMER Dynamos captain Memory Mucherahowa recalls how the eve of matches against tough opponents like Highlanders was as theatrical in the dressing room as they were on the green turf.

In his expose that reads like a memoir to NewsDay, the mythical former Dynamos midfielder described the players he captained for eight years as "creatures of habit" who followed religiously set routines that were inspired by superstition or the desire to believe in a higher power than football skill.

He is nostalgic: "Gift Muzadzi always intrigued me. He never missed his habit. A splash of Vaseline on his sheens and thighs and he would think that was enough to keep the strikers at bay," revealed the man who captained Dynamos from 1993 to 2001

Mucherahowa, who left Zimbabwe for the UK in search of the elusive, said he never had a routine, but remembers how players were insistent on which boot they should wear first and what time they should take a bath before the big game.

"Some goalkeepers used to shun the field for warm up preferring to warm up in the dressing room. I remember Ernest Chirambadare refusing to warm up and Claudius Zviripayi agonising over which boot to wear first. It was important to them. It was almost spiritual," he said.

Marilyn Manson once aptly philosophised that music is the strongest form of magic. And so it was for Mucherahowa who revealed that if he could be accused of having a pre-match ritual, it would be singing.

"Music calmed me," The iconic "people's captain", as Dynamos fans call him, recalled: "Music healed all the anxiety. Music was the soul that fed my football. It was what I did well. The power of song was the power of football."

The bizarre pre-game rituals would have made a very interesting movie script had a director got wind that the hard-as-teak defender Henry Chari would take a bath an hour before the match for 30 minutes without uttering as much as a word.

"Chari was an interesting one. Coupled with his already bizarre ritual you knew he would defy uniformity by wearing socks with different colours. It was sometimes red on the other and white on the other."

And for most fans, the dribbling maestro Tauya Murehwa had a permanent left hand injury because of the bandage he always had, but it was not so. Even with his prodigious talent, the bandage was part of a belief system.

The obsession with winning such great matches always reached a crescendo and according to Mucherahowa, he wished then he had the technology to film it all.

"The late Charles Chirwa didn't want to polish his shoes for these big games. It was almost comical, but I believe we almost believed subconsciously that it made him invisible. And then Elvis Chiweshe used to wear different designer boots ' Adidas and Puma."

Chiweshe, the stand-up comedy of Dynamos in that era, always had more under his hat.

"He (Chiweshe) used to wake up in the morning around 5 am and bellowed three times saying,'good morning Vietnam' before going back to sleep. We got used to that loud voice. It became a part of us."

He added: "There was this other thing as well of players going for a hair cut in the morning before major Harare games. Bheki Mhlotshwa, Tichaona Murewa, Gift Muzadzi, Stewart Murisa and I, all had one barber.

"I remember the late Edward Katsvere would never shave his beard before the game. And then the whole team used to believe that if when we were on the bus either from Harare by road or from the airport, we should listen to only Thomas Mapfumo's songs on the radio for the whole journey to the hotel."

Beyond Dynamos' shenanigans Bosso had its own bizarre rituals.

Former Highlanders striker Zenzo Moyo said his teammates had their obsessive routines that went beyond normal.

"A match against Dynamos was always intense. The pressure on the players, the technical team and even the supporters was just unbelievable. I remember only a few players would be able to eat their breakfast and lunch on the match day.

"But as players we had our own habits to try and relax before those matches. It is natural that way and I also had my habits which I believe would help me calm down.

"I don't think many of my teammates and the supporters would realise it, but every time we faced Dynamos I would race forward to cross the white line first before all my other team members. I would feel that as a striker I had to take a lead in everything on the day," said Moyo.

The big ex-striker added: "And then there was Joel Luphahla who would always put on his big earphones. Those days we had the walk-man or was it a disk-man? I cannot remember well which one it was.

"But he had one of those which he would listen to on the way to the stadium. He would not sing with the other players. Players would do all kinds of rituals, but we would make sure we pray together in the dressing room and then when we got to the pitch just before the start of the match," Moyo recalled.

It would be interesting to have a closer look for any funny, weird and bizarre behaviours by the players as the two giants clash at Barbourfields tomorrow in a match both teams cannot afford to lose.