The Observer
By Andy Bull
Sunday 2 May 2010
No team in the World Twenty20 have more to prove than Zimbabwe. They missed the 2009 edition in England after being denied visas and have been blackballed by most of the top nations in international cricket. Now they are powered by two potent forces: anger and pride. Anger for what they regard as the hypocrisy and cowardice of the English, Australian and New Zealand cricket boards, and pride at the work that has been done to rebuild cricket in Zimbabwe from the ruins it was reduced to three years ago, when first-class competition came to a complete halt.
Not everything has changed in Zimbabwe, but a lot has. Peter Chingoka and Ozias Bvute are still the men at the top of Zimbabwe Cricket, but power and financing has been devolved to five new regional franchise sides. The new Education and Sports minister David Coltart, is a bright light from the Movement for Democratic Change party. ZC have brought back a number of the white players from both previous and current generations to run and play the game.
Alan Butcher, the former Surrey manager, has joined as a foreign chief coach and alongside him are a string of great former players. Heath Streak, whose sacking as captain sparked the mass exodus of white Zimbabwean players in 2004, is the bowling coach. Dave Houghton is the batting coach, though he will move into the franchise system when Grant Flower returns from Essex and
takes up the job at the end of this season. The key appointment has been Alistair Campbell, the former captain who is now chief selector and chairman.
“We have all got baggage, but you have got to put that aside if you want something to work,” says Campbell. “We had got to the point where we had to do something or cricket was going to be dead and buried. That was not an option.” Campbell has made this argument many times, mainly when persuading back the players who left to play county or club cricket in England.
The current squad includes Charles Coventry, Andy Blignaut, Greg Lamb and Ray Price, all talked back to Zimbabwe from their lives overseas. “I told all the guys that regardless of what the politicians do, we have to give this a fair crack.
“The sad thing is we need the rest of the world to buy in. We need to play to progress. What’s the point of not giving the Zimbabwe cricket team visas?
“Who are you getting at? Who is suffering? Are you making a stand? Are you achieving anything? No,” continues Campbell. “Our domestic Twenty20 final had 10,000 people there. Harare Sports Club was full. For a domestic game. That’s what our people are starved of.”
The scaremongering about security concerns infuriates Campbell. “Do you honestly think we live in built-up compounds with security outside and bomb barriers? Do you think we would all live there and send our kids to school there if it was a war zone? I mean please! Let’s be real about this. Just ask the Australian ambassador. He lives here, does he report back home that he drives in an armoured car and wears a bullet-proof vest? I mean, he’s out playing golf every Wednesday!”
Campbell is furious with the England and Wales Cricket Board because they refused to let Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire make pre-season tours to Zimbabwe. “It is incredibly frustrating. You have these counties who want to come out here and play but because of politics they are not allowed to. They have to toe the line.” His real ire though is reserved for
the New Zealand cricket board, who pulled out of a one-day tour last year citing concerns over a cholera epidemic. The two teams play each other on Tuesday in a real grudge match for Zimbabwe. “Blaming the health system? That’s rubbish. Be honest: It was a political issue.
“A little help from our friends wouldn’t go astray. We are trying to rebuild a broken country. The country and the economic situation? It’s on the mend.”
The cricket team are one clear and visible area where the balance between old and new Zimbabwe, between black and white, seems to be working. They
will surprise a few in this competition. They field brilliantly and have two
good spinners in Prosper Utseya and Ray Price. But their most powerful
weapon may be their sense of injustice.