David Houghton – Bulletproof Truth

Sikandar Raza is what success looks like

“If I stay alive how am I going to manage with just one arm? Because if there was cancer in my bone marrow the only option was amputation.” – Sikandar Raza

Telford Vice / Cape Town

JUNE 27 this year, a random not long ago Tuesday that feels an age away, wasn’t special in the annals of Zimbabwean cricket. What mattered was what had gone before and what would happen in the coming days.

The men’s national team had beaten Nepal, the Netherlands and the United States, while losing to West Indies, in the World Cup qualifiers. They would play Oman two days later and surely win. Another victory over Sri Lanka or Scotland and a berth in the white-ball game’s premier international tournament would be theirs. Whatever could go wrong?

Zimbabwe beat Oman but lost to the clinical Lankans and the up-and-coming Scots. There will be no World Cup for them in 2023, just like there wasn’t in 2019. That was not yet true on June 27, which now gleams as a Brigadoonian bubble, a cruelly liminal place where enough was going right to make people believe it would keep going right. It was a time of hope and dreams, and for introductory paragraphs like this:

If you see Sikandar Raza on a cricket ground, stop what you’re doing. Whether he is launching sixes down the ground, snaffling wickets with his aggressive off-spin, or clutching catches close to the bat and fielding fabulously in the deep, he is worth watching. Few players make for such consistently compelling viewing.

That was written a day or so after Raza had availed himself for an interview. He was in Bulawayo, where Zimbabwe’s campaign had moved after starting at Harare Sports Club. The questions were asked from Harare, where attempts to talk to him face-to-face had failed. “In Harare I just wanted to spend some time with the kids, do the fatherly duties, forget about who I am and what’s expected, just totally disconnect,” he explained needlessly.

Seven days later, as Raza peered bleakly out of the players’ balcony at Queens Sports Club in the aftermath of the loss to Scotland, his eyes dark with dashed dreams, his face ashen with the difference between what might have been and what was, he wouldn’t have been human if he wasn’t silently screaming to again “forget about who I am and what’s expected”.

Raza is 37, as is Craig Ervine. Sean Williams is a year behind. Nyasha Mayavo, Innocent Kaia and Tendai Chatara have all passed 30. Some of them should make it to the 2027 World Cup, which Zimbabwe won’t need to qualify for as they will co-host the tournament with South Africa and Namibia. Others won’t be there. Raza’s face as he sat there was of a man who knew which side of that line he was on.

That, convention says, is what failure looks like. Success is winning, and doubtless the Zimbabweans would have looked and behaved differently had they won. But what does that mean when David Houghton has built perhaps a better team than any who have worn the Hungwe? And when they are supported in droves by Zimbabweans who, previously, might not have thought of cricket as a game for them? How is that not success?

“I don’t want to take anything away from the golden generation that put Zimbabwe on the map,” Raza said. “People still talk about them, and I’m not saying people must forget about them. They deserve our respect, but our names must be mentioned long after we’re gone. That’s what this generation is focused on. Luckily we’ve got Dave. He said the other day that this is the best Zimbabwean side that he’s seen and coached.”

They have been polished by experience, which tends to happen once you reach 30. “That’s very important, but the other factor would have to be Craig. Not just as a captain but as a friend, a leader and as a calming source of energy for us. In pressured moments he remains calm and clear-headed, and that helps.”

The maestro is Houghton. “We’re not worried for our spots, we’re not worried about selection, we’re not worried that this might be our last game. Dave has brought that surety, that knowledge that you are here. He backs us behind the scenes, he fights for us. We’ve had a pretty stable squad for the last seven or eight series. Guys are sure about their roles and their selection, and when we go out there the thought that ‘I might have a bad day’ doesn’t cross our mind. It’s about, ‘I’m going to have a good day and I’m going to score as many as I can for my team.’”

The sunshine has shone on other facets of what it takes to create a united, happy dressing room. “We have little spaces available in the changing room where I go and pray,” Raza, a practising Muslim, said. “My teammates, in case I forget, are very quick to remind me that it’s time for my prayers. Or they ask if I’ve prayed yet. These are little things that go a long way. Once you have your teammates talking like that you want to go to war with them because they respect you and your faith.

“Under Dave and Craig, a lot of these things came about automatically. We didn’t have to convince anybody. Everybody respects the fact that we have three different races in one changing room, which means three to four religions in one changing room. You bring your faith, your culture, your own identity. And we’re going to use that towards our success. It’s brought everybody together.”

Raza’s faith was key to his emergence from the cause of mounting pain in his right arm, which hampered his bowling during a Test series against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi in March 2021. Cancer was suspected but a biopsy revealed infected bone marrow. Had he feared for his life?

“Yes, and the second thing was, ‘If I stay alive how am I going to manage with just one arm?’ Because if there was cancer in my bone marrow the only option was amputation. A lot of thoughts went through my mind. Those weeks were very tough.”

He returned, after almost four months, with a remodelled bowling action, which made onlookers think of another spinner — instead of cocking his bowling arm as he skipped towards the stumps, Raza kept his hand and the ball behind his back until he reached the crease.

“Before my surgery I was at the CPL and with Sunil Narine, and I was watching him. After my surgery I could not bowl with my own action. My arm couldn’t go above my shoulder. I said that’s it, I’m bowling with this action. I don’t care whether people like it or not.”

Other players might have given up bowling. Faf du Plessis, for instance, was a handy leg spinner. But he hasn’t marked out a run-up since March 2015 because of a chronic shoulder problem. Not bowling wasn’t an option for Raza: “I don’t want to play for Zimbabwe just as a batter. I don’t think Dave and Craig would have picked me as a batter alone.”

That’s difficult to believe. No Zimbabwe player has scored as many runs as Raza, across the formats, in the past two years: 1,881 with four centuries and nine 50s in 51 innings. Closer to the truth, probably, is that he can’t bear not being at the nexus of the action. Was there a way to keep him out of the game?

“If you’re the captain and you don’t want to give the ball,” Raza said with a smile in his voice. “I have to fight him every game … nah. It’s nice to be an allrounder and stay in the thick of things, and try do a job for the team in different roles.” Later in the conversation he elucidated his joke: “It’s just a shame I have very bad company, but the rest is going pretty well. I’ve got Craig Ervine sitting in front of me.”

That kind of attitude requires belief. Where does Raza get his? “From my faith and my training. I do my prayers before the game and I’m at peace, whatever the result we might get. That calms me down. The fact that we train well together as a team and everybody’s clear, that also where the confidence comes from. Franchise tournaments have helped as well. These things all add up.”

Aside from starring for Zimbabwe, Raza has featured in the IPL, BPL, CPL, PSL and the LPL. He’s walked a long and winding road since being born in Sialkot in April 1986, a path that has included moving, with his family, to Zimbabwe in 2002. What was it like going to a starkly different reality?

“All I was coming to do was to be with my father. He was in Japan for most of his life for business. We used to see him once every three years. So I didn’t care about the place. It was about being with my family in one place. Nothing else mattered.”

Having been to school in Pakistan and studied software engineering in Scotland, it helped that he was in perhaps the most accepting society in the world: “Settling in wasn’t tough. Everywhere I went people welcomed me. I’m loved as a Zimbabwean. I’m theirs and they are mine. I’ve never felt like a guy who wasn’t born here. It was easy, comfortable and quick. Cricket brought me closer to the people, the country, the community and everything else.” Close enough for him to stay in Zimbabwe after he retires? “Yes. But I’ll disappear for some time, take a break.”

On June 27 those words landed warmly. Now they brim with portents. Raza’s retirement won’t resemble that of Stuart Broad, another 37-year-old who is set to exchange stardom on the field for a well-paid commentary career. Unlike Broad, Raza will need a proper job. Happily, given the rich and varied experiences of his life, he could land a proper job. And, with faith, succeed in that, too.

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Zimbabwe’s unhappy days are here again

“Had we gotten over the line today people might not have asked about 2018. Unfortunately we didn’t and it’s another moment a lot of us will live with for a long time.” – Craig Ervine

Telford Vice / Harare

“YOU are not watching the game?” It was less a question than an astounded admonishment, and it came from a man guarding the gate at a Harare hotel on Tuesday. The game at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, he didn’t need to say. Between Zimbabwe and Scotland. The game Zimbabwe had to win to clinch the last remaining place in the field for this year’s men’s World Cup.

That the man on the gate was also not watching the game was not pointed out to him. Doubtless he would soon be up to speed with events in the City of Kings, some 440 kilometres away from the nation’s capital. But first he was duty-bound to grant access to the hotel to someone who had had the temerity to nip out to a supermarket when they should have been holed up in their room watching The Game.

At Harare Sports Club big screens beamed the action to a throng that had gathered on a bleak winter’s morning. There seemed to be more sunshine in Bulawayo, and it shone on a steadily swelling, already singing and dancing crowd. They had reasons to be cheerful about Zimbabwe’s prospects. Craig Ervine had won the toss and fielded, and the Scots had been reduced to 170/7 in the 43rd over; not least because Sean Williams took 3/30 in his first 7.1 overs.

But Michael Leask and Mark Watt put their team back on track for a defendable total with a stand of 46 off 33. Fifty-five runs flowed off the last five overs. Scotland’s 234/8 was 14 runs bigger than their effort in the teams’ World Cup qualifying match at the same ground in March 2018 — which was tied.

How did Williams feel about that? “I’m not really one to live in the past, I’m looking forward to the future,” he said immediately after the innings. “I don’t really like to fall backwards. I like to fall forwards. Hopefully today we can do that.”

The anxiety caused in the home side’s ranks by the Scots’ fightback was made plain when Richard Ngarava, who bowled the last over, took animated exception to Joylord Gumbie missing the stumps with an underarm lob that might have resulted in a runout rather than the bye that accrued off the final delivery.

One run matters, especially when you’ve given away too many. And even if 235 should be well within the range of a team who harbour, in Williams and Sikandar Raza, the tournament’s top two runscorers, who have made four of the 20 centuries we’ve seen in the competition. But they scored those runs when it mattered less than it did on Tuesday.

“The expectation that we play with and the expectation they play with is entirely different,” David Houghton said when he popped up onto our screens during the interval. His words proved prophetic.

Zimbabwe have chased down 291 to beat Nepal and 316 to beat the Netherlands in the past two weeks. But that was against attacks that didn’t bristle with Chris Sole and his 150 kilometres an hour lightning strikes, or the nuggety nous of Brandon McMullen — who between them knocked over the top four inside eight overs with only 37 scored. “The best bit of advice I’ve been given is always bowl as quick as you can,” Sole said with a smug smile after the match.

Raza and Ryan Burl shared 54 off 61 and Burl and Wessly Madhevere put on 73 off 74, and Zimbabwe remained on course to haul in the target. But when Madhevere was trapped in front by Watt in the 31st the home side were six down with 71 required. Burl was their last hope, and it took a small miracle to snuff it out.

Having driven Leask through the covers for four and swept him for six off consecutive deliveries, Burl unleashed another sweep. At midwicket, McMullen, hobbled by a tweaked ankle, turned and dashed for all his worth. And stuck up his hands to take the catch with his back turned to the pitch. He was Willie Mays, taker of the most famous catch in baseball history, without a mitt. In the crowd, a young man in a cap stood and wept.

There was no way back from 197/9. The instant the formality of defeat was confirmed, the happy delirium in the stands that has become the anthem of cricket in this country crashed into the saddest of silences. Another man in the crowd, his head wrapped in a Zimbabwe flag, stared balefully into the distance. The camera happened on Williams’ wife, Chantelle Williams, who wore a similar look. For them, it seemed, there was no future to fall into. In 2018 Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the World Cup, despite also playing the qualifiers at home, for the first time since they made their inaugural appearance in 1983. Now it’s happened again.

“Everybody is gutted,” Ervine said. “It would have been nice to put those demons from 2018 to bed. Had we gotten over the line today, people might not have asked about 2018. Unfortunately we didn’t and it’s another moment a lot of us will live with for a long time.”

The result was good for the tournament — one of Scotland or the Netherlands, who clash at the same ground on Thursday, will join fellow qualifiers Sri Lanka in India in October — but catastrophic for the growing number of cricketminded Zimbabweans.

People like the man guarding the gate. What did he think? How did he feel? It would have been cruel to ask.

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Cricket’s democracy alive in beloved Zimbabwe

“It’s wonderful to see all the races mixing like we’ve just witnessed in a playing XI, in the crowd, in the commentary box.” – Andy Flower

Telford Vice / Harare

INFLATION is through the roof. Potholes are through the road. The economy is thready and threadbare. An election pitting a complacent ruling party against splintered opposition looms in August. Yet visceral happiness is concentrated among the thousands in the stands of the country’s cricket grounds, where bliss flows at least as bountifully as beer.

On the field, too, not a lot seems to go wrong. The men’s national team have earned 10 wins and a draw in 15 completed matches across the formats this year. If that seems unconvincing consider that they won none out of 14 as recently as 2020. Or one of 14 in 1992 and none of 17 in 1993, years when established and future giants like David Houghton, Andy Pycroft, Andy Waller, Grant Flower, Andy Flower, Alistair Campbell, Eddo Brandes, John Traicos and Heath Streak were in the XI.

Cricket in Zimbabwe is enjoying a moment of unprecedented positivity and social and racial unity. And that in a place where the polar opposite has, more often than not, been the case in the game and beyond. How had things gone so right?

“It’s that Zimbabwe is winning somewhere,” Sikandar Raza said. “Zimbabweans are very proud people, and cricket is the only source of happiness they have. They forget about all the troubles we might have in our lives. It is pure joy because the team is winning.”

That explains the bumper attendances. Zimbabwe’s men’s World Cup qualifiers’ match against West Indies at the 10,000-seater Harare Sports Club (HSC) on Saturday was sold out. Thousands more gathered at an adjacent fan park. They roared their team to victory. But what explains the winning?

Houghton, according to Raza and Craig Ervine in recent press conferences. Appointed in June 2022 in the wake of Zimbabwe eking out 21 wins in 90 games under Lalchand Rajput, Houghton has guided the team he once captained — and coached at the 1999 World Cup, where they beat India and South Africa and reached the Super Sixes — to 23 victories in 45 completed matches.

Houghton has done so with confidence, intelligence, empathy and professionalism. In a society that reveres heroes like few others, it helps that he is among those heroes. His players have responded accordingly. They will have to forget all of that if they are to play poorly enough not to nail down one of the two World Cup berths reserved for the finalists at the qualifiers.

“It’s hard for me to sit here and take credit for the way our guys are playing,” Houghton told a press conference after Zimbabwe beat West Indies. “I think I’ve given the guys a little bit more belief in their own ability. There is so much more quality, depth and skill in this team than there was in the days when I played. All we needed to do was get it out of them.”

There is indeed more to Zimbabwe’s leap of faith than Houghton. In the qualifiers, there has been the batting of Ervine, Sean Williams and Raza, who have all scored centuries, three of them by Williams, and the bowling of Richard Ngarava and Raza, who have taken 21 wickets between them.

Something has also been missing: meddling by self-important, power hungry administrators.

That started changing in August 2015 when Tavengwa Mukuhlani became Zimbabwe Cricket’s (ZC) chair, severing cricket’s ties to an old order that put patronage, self-enrichment and a tangle of conflicts of interest ahead of perceived minor interests like the welfare of the game. Mukuhlani’s first major challenge was to negotiate a better deal for the USD27-million ZC owed to an assortment of banks, some of them part-owned by the ZC administrators who had created the loans, as well as the ICC.

It took five years, and help from government and guarded compassion from the ICC, to pay the bill. While that was happening Zimbabwe’s regime changed, which meant Mukuhlani had to make cricket’s case to Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government all over again, having just made it to Robert Mugabe’s. All while avoiding the patronage-enrichment-conflicts traps that had blighted the game.

“We worked with the ICC to restructure the debt,” Givemore Makoni, who has been ZC’s managing director since September 2018, said. “It took some time but we’ve managed to clear it. We worked with our reserve bank, who were very helpful. Once we had dealt with it we refocused on the game itself. We looked at all the important areas and tried to address them, and that has resulted in what you’re seeing today.”

Mukuhlani and Makoni have driven a culture change at an organisation that used to be a bolthole for parasitic suits who didn’t seem to understand — or care — that players were their only assets. “Givemore Makoni has an open-door policy with the senior guys,” Raza said. “Whenever we have an issue we go directly to him and he gives us his ear. More often than not he gives us what we want. That has brought everybody together. Everybody who is part of ZC, working in any capacity, have been brought closer to the players and that has brought the players closer to them. There’s a feeling of oneness. If our team does well, the board, the management and the administration look good. If our team do badly, it also reflects on all of us.”

Makoni gets that loud and clear: “It’s important to keep the players happy. It’s also important to keep them focused on their core business — playing cricket and delivering good results. A lot of consideration has been put into what the players want, and how we address that. The players are the product, and you’ve got to keep the product polished and shiny so that it competes at the highest level.

“We are here for the players and the fans. It’s not about management. It’s about bat and ball; it’s about the results we are seeing on the pitch. That is what will attract people to associate with us.”

Reaching this stage of relative shininess took a lot of polishing. Besides the weighty, high-interest debt and the mafia mentality, years of overt hostility towards players and coaches meant cricket’s human resources had drained away to other countries. Houghton’s presence in the dugout is a vote of confidence in ZC’s new sensibility. As a fixture on the county coaching circuit, he didn’t need to take on the myriad challenges of life and work in Zimbabwe. He had the choice to come home or not, and he chose home — initially as ZC’s coaching manager in October 2021.

There is no better marketing than winning, but ZC have ensured everything from international to franchise, domestic and club cricket in Zimbabwe was “in people’s faces”, Makoni said. “Whenever the national team are playing we’ve made noise. When we won the bid to host the qualifiers we made the kind of noise we might have made to host the actual World Cup. People know exactly what’s happening with cricket. It’s on radio, TV, social media …”

Time was when covering cricket in Zimbabwe could be done without many taxi drivers, shopkeepers, restaurant waitrons, bartenders or hotel staff being any the wiser. If they did find out they were puzzled: someone sent you all the way here just to report on cricket? Really? Now every taxi driver, shopkeeper, restaurant waitron, bartender and hotel staff member knows not just which teams won and lost that day but who the starring players were, which sides will play the next day, and which teams need to do what to stay in the running in the standings. Covering cricket in Zimbabwe has become not unlike doing so in India, minus the masses and the one-eyed obsession with the national team’s performance.

That is reserved for football, but Zimbabwe haven’t played since Fifa suspended the national body in February 2022. Was cricket simply, and temporarily, filling the void? “We’ve offered an alternative, which people have jumped on,” Makoni said. “Even when football was running we were getting decent crowds, especially when our national team played. This has been a long-term plan that we’ve been slowly achieving. The banning of football has accelerated the pace of what we’re trying to achieve.”

Andy Flower wears his Zimbabwe heart on his sleeve. Even so he has been struck by the game’s new reality: “I was so taken by the crowd at HSC at the Windies game. It was genuinely amazing to see and inspiring to be part of. The closest I’ve seen to it at HSC would have been in 1992, just before the World Cup, when South Africa popped in [to play a 50-over friendly]. There was much interest in that game, obviously, because of South Africa being our big brother.

“But now, having to close the gates at 11 o’clock in the morning, having circa 4,000 people in the rugby ground watching on a big screen, that’s impressive. However it was the spirit of joy and abundant energy and fun and love of the game and connection with the team — that’s what really stood out.

“I’ve experienced cricket all round the world. It’s fun to be in the West Indies. They play music, they play drums, and they genuinely have fun in the stands. But they don’t sing all day. Many thousands of people in India have fun in the stands. They watch the cricket avidly, and it’s so incredibly noisy sometimes you can’t hear yourself shout at each other in the middle. But they don’t sing all day, embracing the joy of the moment. That was really stark and amazing to experience.

“But I do think the best thing about that is it indicates a healthy future for Zimbabwe cricket. Because if there are people enjoying the game to that extent — not just the people in the ground; Zimbabweans around the country watching on TV would have seen that energy, and word of mouth will get around — they are also seeing more black and Asian role models than in our day.

“Youngsters will see Blessing Muzarabani bouncing the ball or Innocent Kaia smacking it over mid-on. That’s evidence that there’s a path to the top. They need to see that to make them believe during those early days. That’s how I remember fantasising about playing international cricket; seeing Graeme Pollock or Dave Houghton play and going, ‘Gee, I want to do that.’ When you play in the garden you’re being those people. That’s what these young Zimbabwean cricketers will be thinking and feeling and fantasising about.”

Flower has done his bit to fulfill those fantasies. He and his father, Bill Flower, played an instrumental role in establishing Takashinga, a club in the heart of Highfield, a major but impoverished black residential area in Harare. Bill found the land for the then-unnamed club and raised funds to turn it into a cricket ground. Andy remembers “digging the holes for the nets”. He also played for Takashinga, which has produced players of the calibre of Hamilton Masakadza and Tatenda Taibu. The ground became an international venue in May 2019, when it hosted eight games in the women’s T20 World Cup Africa region qualifiers. In August 2021 Zimbabwe played Thailand there in three women’s T20s. Takashinga will host nine matches in the current qualifiers.

“It’s brilliant to see those facilities available to kids in Highfield without them having to drive for an hour before they get to a ground elsewhere in Harare,” Andy Flower said. “They’ve got facilities right there, where some of the best players in the world have just played. Jason Holder’s just been there, Nicholas Pooran has smacked the ball over the gum trees, the Netherlands boys put on a show against the West Indies there. I really hope ZC and the decision-makers in this country harness that energy and do something really good with it.”

Flower played 276 matches for Zimbabwe in a career spanning 11 years. He remains their leading runscorer in Tests and ODIs — he retired 13 years before the first T20I was played — and is counted among the game’s finest wicketkeeper-batters.

Opportunities to reach those heights weren’t available to black Zimbabweans of Makoni’s generation. But he was also involved, spade in hand, in Takashinga’s beginnings. He chaired the club on February 10, 2003 — when Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands during Zimbabwe’s World Cup match against Namibia at HSC to, they said in a statement, “mourn the death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe”. Takashinga labelled their actions “disgraceful”, and expelled Olonga from the club. Neither Flower nor Olonga played for Zimbabwe after the tournament. Both moved to England. Olonga has settled in Australia.

Flower has returned only twice since 2003; the first time five years ago and now as a television commentator. The nation’s future seems fragile and imperfect, but given what he has seen was he able to celebrate the life of democracy in cricket, at least, in his beloved Zimbabwe?

The question prompts one of the sharpest, most thoughtful and articulate people in sport to put a hand across his brow, shielding his eyes. Fifty-three silent seconds pass before he raises his gaze. A single tear bejewels his cheekbone.

He speaks in a low, breathy, suddenly sandpapery voice: “In answer to your question, yes. I think that is the case. It’s wonderful to see all the races mixing like we’ve just witnessed in a playing XI, in the crowd, in the commentary box …”

His hand goes back to his brow. Another 33 seconds tick by in exquisite quiet. “Sorry. That was quite an emotional time back then …”

Flower’s hand covers his eyes again. Twenty-four more seconds slip away before he finishes his sentence: “ … and so it’s really heartening to see that transformation now.”

The vulnerability of the moment is trapped not in what Flower says, but in the amber between his words. The hush is filled with birdsong, breeze and the dry, dusty warmth of a golden winter afternoon. Inflation, potholes, the economy and the election seem impossibly far away, and brown, black and white people like Raza, Makoni and Flower concur: whatever else Zimbabwe is and isn’t, it is beloved.

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Slamming Sammy, happy Houghton

“Today was really poor. It’s about taking responsibility and we didn’t do that today, and hence we didn’t deserve to win.” – Darren Sammy

“I’ve tried to show the guys a fair amount about life: go to game parks, go do some fishing, go see some lions, go see some elephants. It’s not all about the humdrum and day-in and day-out cricket.” – David Houghton

Telford Vice / Harare Sports Club

WEST Indies won the first two men’s World Cups and reached the final of the third, but they stirred concerns of elimination from this year’s tournament when they lost to Zimbabwe in Harare on Saturday. Zimbabwe, who have never come close to winning the trophy and failed to qualify for the 2019 edition, took an important step towards regaining their place on the global game’s most important ODI stage.

Zimbabwe won the World Cup qualifying match at Harare Sports Club by 35 runs despite being dismissed for 268, their lowest total in their three games in the tournament. The result confirmed the home side’s place in the Super Six. West Indies are also assured of staying in the running for one of the two berths in the July 9 final at HSC, as are the Netherlands. Both finalists will qualify for the World Cup in India in October and November.

But the Zimbabweans have beaten both of their fellow Super Sixers, which means they will take four points into the next stage of the qualifiers. Neither the Windies nor the Dutch currently have any points to bank for the Super Six. That will be the case until Monday, when they face off at Takashinga, also in Harare.

Zimbabwe’s productive performance in the group stage means they would finish the Super Six with 10 points if they win all of their next three games. That would make them difficult to dislodge from the top of the standings, and with that a place in the final and a World Cup berth.

West Indies coach Darren Sammy admitted to being “extremely disappointed” by his team’s effort — or lack thereof — on Saturday. He let loose at his press conference with what could be called a stream of unhappy consciousness, particularly about his charges’ dismal showing in the field, where they dropped four catches.

“If we continue to display this type of fielding … we’ve spoken about it for the last few games,” Sammy said. “If you keep giving the opposition’s best batters chances, eventually the cricket gods will catch up with you. They did with us today. But, that said, [a target of 269] on that [good] surface … These are things we are trying to change. We’ve seen it happen in times past. Today was really poor. It’s about taking responsibility and we didn’t do that today, and hence we didn’t deserve to win.

“When you put on a display of fielding like this, and then you get yourself in good positions and you take the game for granted, the cricket gods will make you pay. That’s exactly what I’m going to tell them in the dressing room. We did not deserve to win. We did not play to win today.

“We’ve made our road to the World Cup more difficult, but I don’t give up on anything. I’m going to keep on encouraging the boys to be better, because the train that I’ve started here is going to be moving. Whoever wants a ticket they’ve got to come and buy it at the ticket office, and at the moment some of us are not buying that ticket for the train to move on.

“We found ourselves in positions with both ball and bat to knock them over. We didn’t. When you throw the first punch you don’t let the opposition come back. Today we kept Zimbabwe close by. They deserved to win.

“They kept their cool. They kept taking wickets. They kept taking the chances we offered them. It was a good victory for them but it’s a big lesson for us. You can’t play with the game of cricket and take it for granted.

“When I took this job I wanted to change a couple of things. Mindset — that’s slowly getting there — preparation, performance. All these things have to be done on a consistent basis. That’s what we are trying to work on. We’ll now have to look at personnel as well. The journey is not over. It’s just continuing.

“But there’s no time to cry and think about it too much. We’ve got to get our game face on. Monday becomes very important for us.”

Zimbabwe coach David Houghton turned 66 on Friday, a fact he used to motivate his team: “I said to the guys yesterday I’d like a birthday present, and that would be the win today. I got what I asked for. It doesn’t happen very often.”

The Zimbabweans’ loss to the United Arab Emirates in the 2018 qualifiers, more than four years before Houghton was appointed coach, sealed their absence from the 2019 World Cup. That, too, was fuel for the fire Houghton is trying to light: “I said to the guys we had a clear path in 2018. We only had to win the last game and we could have been at the World Cup and they messed it up. We’ve still got to do the job.”

Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza have praised Houghton for reviving Zimbabwe’s fortunes. What did he think? “It’s hard for me to sit here and take credit for the way our guys are playing,” Houghton, his country’s inaugural Test captain, said. “I think I’ve given the guys a little bit more belief in their own ability. There is so much more quality, depth and skill in this team than there was in the days when I played. All we needed to do was get it out of them.

“For that to happen they had to start enjoying what they were doing at practice; have really quality practices and have fun. And have some enjoyment off the field. I’ve tried to show the guys a fair amount about life: go to game parks, go do some fishing, go see some lions, go see some elephants. It’s not all about the humdrum and day-in and day-out cricket. I’ve managed to bring relaxation to the guys that allows them to bring out the skill that they have.”

Zimbabwe surged to victory on the wings of the passionate and joyous support they received from a capacity crowd that saw the ground sold out before the end of the first innings. Those who were turned away were accommodated in a fan park, equipped with a giant television screen, on a nearby rugby field.

“It’s fantastic; we love our fans,” Houghton said. “We know the noise that they make and the aura they bring to us playing at home. I’m glad I’m not one of the opposition. They talk about a 12th man in football. For us, they’re our 13th, 14th and 15th men.”

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Another special win for Houghton’s heroes

“Dave Houghton – that is the answer; Dave Houghton.” – Sikandar Raza’s reason why Zimbabwe are on an upward curve.

Telford Vice / Harare Sports Club

SOMETHING special is happening in cricket in Zimbabwe. It happened on Sunday, when Richard Ngarava took 4/43, and Craig Ervine scored an undefeated 121 and Sean Williams made 102 not out in an eight-wicket win over Nepal. It happened again on Tuesday, when Sikandar Raza took 4/55 and hammered 102 not out to beat the Netherlands by six wickets.

That made Zimbabwe the only unbeaten team among the three who have played two matches in the World Cup qualifiers, and put them in pole position to claim a place in the Super Sixes. Their passage to the second round is almost assured, but winning their next match — against West Indies on Saturday at the fortress known as Harare Sports Club — would be another moment to treasure. Why are special things happening for a side who used to be known for unhappy episodes on and off the field?

“Dave Houghton — that is the answer; Dave Houghton,” Raza said after Tuesday’s match. “Dave has brought this mindset, this culture in the dressing room that unfortunately we were missing. We were on the verge of losing our culture. It’s lucky for all of us that we found him at the right time and signed him at the right time. Had we not done that I don’t think we would have gone to the [2022] T20 World Cup.

“There are so many good things I could say about Dave Houghton, but … Dave Houghton is the answer. He’s brought everything that Zimbabwe was missing, and that we had within ourselves. He’s brought it out.”

Houghton, Zimbabwe’s first Test captain and lynchpin of their batting, was appointed coach in June last year. His team have won 20 of 38 matches regardless of format in almost a year under him. In the previous 12 months they won nine of 32.

On Saturday, Ervine also cited Houghton’s influence on Zimbabwe’s upward curve: “He’s changed things around for us. We are playing an exciting brand of cricket and we’re winning games, and a lot of people want to get involved with that. That’s what’s been happening over the last year or so. Qualifying for the [2022] T20 World Cup also brought in a lot of support for us. If we qualify for the 50-over World Cup it will make a massive difference for our country.”

Zimbabwe’s record for the fastest men’s ODI century was untouched for almost six years before William’s 70-ball blast on Sunday. That stood until Tuesday, when Raza launched Logan van Beek over long-on for six to clinch the match and reach three figures off 54 deliveries.

Having put up a target of 315/6, their highest total against a Test-playing side and only the fifth time they have cleared 300 in their 107 ODIs, the Netherlands deserved better. But they did their cause no good by dropping five catches.

Williams was on course for another hundred before he holed out to Bas de Leede for 91. How did he feel about relinquishing the record after just two days?

“The record meant squat, I want that plane ticket,” Williams said, a reference to the World Cup in India in October and November. Should Zimbabwe reach the final of the qualifiers at HSC on July 9, he can pack his bags.

All of the above feats, as well as the Dutch’s butterfingered fielding, were roared to the rafters by a crowd that didn’t reach HSC’s capacity of 10,000 but made exponentially more joyous noise than they might have done in any other setting — enough noise to endear themselves to the opposition.

“It’s one of my favourite places to play, just because of the crowd,” Vikramjit Singh said. “It gets us going. Even though we’re playing against Zimbabwe it’s a friendly crowd that doesn’t mind a bit of singing.”

Raza took time out after the match to do a salutary lap of the ground, applauding the fans as he went. How did he feel about Zimbabwe’s vociferous support? “I don’t think, when you’re batting, you pay too much attention to the crowd. But when we’re in the changing room we enjoy it when the crowd are out there singing their songs. We enjoy the buzz when we’re in the changeroom watching them, but when you’re batting the battle is just with the ball.”

It’s a telling last line: the battle is only with the ball. Not with the conditions, the match situation, the umpires, nor the opposition themselves. That goes despite their maroon shirts and the fact that they’ve won two World Cups and reached the final of another, and are the strongest team Zimbabwe will face in the qualifiers so far. Bring it, West Indies.

All that matters is the ball. Nothing else matters, maybe not even winning or losing. Houghton has taught his charges well.

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‘Ridiculous’ rails Houghton as SA’s win washes away

“We asked the umpires what they constituted as rain because we were getting quite wet.” – David Houghton, Zimbabwe coach

Telford Vice / Bellerive Oval

SOUTH Africa were on the verge of winning their men’s T20 World Cup opener against Zimbabwe at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Monday when rain ended the match inconclusively. But it was the Zimbabweans who seemed more upset at that outcome with coach David Houghton damning the conditions as unsafe and “ridiculous”.

“I understand the need to try and get these games [played] for the public and the people watching on TV, and the need to try and play and get a result in slightly inclement weather,” Houghton told a press conference. “But I think we overstepped that mark in this game. I thought there were four or five overs where we should have come off.

“I don’t think we should have even bowled a ball, to be fair. But the umpires are the guys making those decisions out in the middle, and they seemed to think it was fit to play. I disagree with them but there’s not much I can do off the field.”

The start of the match was delayed by more than two-and-a-half hours, and the innings were reduced to nine overs. An interruption saw South Africa’s reply further curtailed to seven overs. Play resumed, but was called off by umpires Ahsan Raza and Michael Gough with South Africa 13 runs away from hauling in their revised target of 64 and with two overs to be bowled to reach the five overs that would have constituted an innings. South Africa were ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis requirement at that stage, and would probably have retained the advantage had five overs been bowled.

But Houghton didn’t hold back in his criticism: “The rain had got so heavy at one stage, it was ridiculous. For most of the evening it was misty with mizzle, but it got to the stage where we could hear it thumping on the roof in the dugout. To me that’s no longer mizzle and drizzle. That’s time to get off the field.

“And the field was wet when we started — it was wet when South Africa fielded. So they were difficult conditions for both sides. But it just got more and more wet as we bowled. When your keeper is sliding trying to move down to the leg side standing up to the spinners, it is too wet. I don’t think the conditions were right to carry on playing.”

Asked about his team’s communication with the officials, Houghton said: “I know that Craig [Ervine, Zimbabwe’s captain] and [Sikandar] Raza had had a word with the umpires, and basically asked them what they constitute as rain because we’re getting quite wet. Eventually Sean Williams said, just as he was about to start bowling, that he didn’t think he could bowl, that it was too wet. And then they called us off.”

Houghton suggested the umpires were confused about the match situation when play resumed for the last time: “After the first time we came off, when they reduced it to seven overs, there was a bit of a delay because no-one seemed to know what the target was.”

The major spark for Houghton’s anger might be the fact that Richard Ngarava had to be helped from the field after falling heavily after he had bowled the last ball of the second over. “He’s laying in the change room with a bunch of ice strapped to his ankle,” Houghton said. “It’s too early to assess the damage but we’re not happy about the fact that he’s not in a great space.”

South Africa coach Mark Boucher said his team were keen to continue playing, but he didn’t seem as agitated as Houghton: “We’re here to play a World Cup, and we wanted to play. It seemed like both captains wanted to play at the start. If you look at the game before [at the same ground, between Bangladesh and the Netherlands], the field was pretty wet as well. The bottom line is players don’t make those decisions. The officials are there to make those decisions.”

Boucher said his team had also struggled with the conditions in the field, and suggested their opponents were protesting too much: “We were in a very good position. So if we walk away from this game thinking we were hard done by and whether the game should have taken place or not … If Zimbabwe were in our position they would have wanted to carry on playing.”

Perhaps Boucher’s sense of calm came from experience. It was he who blocked the delivery that sealed a tie in South Africa’s 2003 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Kingsmead. The South Africans, on the field and in the dressing room, had mistakenly thought the Duckworth/Lewis par score was the target. They needed to win the match to progress to the second round, and were thus eliminated in the first round of their home tournament.

“Yes, we haven’t had a good history with rain,” Boucher said. “But rather have it happen in the first game when we’re still in control of what we can do.”

South Africa’s next match is against Bangladesh in Sydney on Thursday. A 70% chance of rain has been forecast.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Test cricket is a woman’s game

“Just like ODI and T20 cricket for women, women’s Test cricket needs to be appreciated in its own right and not compared to the men’s game.” – Mignon du Preez

Telford Vice | Cape Town

WHAT’S the sound of one hand clapping? Mignon du Preez isn’t a Zen Buddhist, so she doesn’t use koan riddles to free her consciousness from the constraints of logic. But she has a decent idea of the answer to that question.

Du Preez has scored 13 centuries — including an undefeated 203 — in her 542 senior matches for provinces, franchises and South Africa. As an under-13 she made 258 in a 40-over interprovincial match, 196 of them in fours and sixes. Even so, the 102 she made against India in Mysore in November 2014 was unlike any of her other successes.

“India declared on 400, so I knew we would need big partnerships and that a couple of our batters would need to score big runs if we wanted a chance at chasing India’s total down,” Du Preez told Cricbuzz. “I think the biggest change for me was probably my mindset. I was a lot more patient at the crease and I wanted to bat time. However, if I could do it over again, I would definitely want to improve my strike rate.”

She batted for a mite more than four-and-a-half hours and faced 253 balls: a not exactly Bairstowesque strike rate of 40.32. That wasn’t why so few pairs of hands applauded Du Preez’ feat — there weren’t many hands at the Gangothri Glades ground in the first place, and no pairs of eyeballs watching from home.

“To score my maiden Test hundred in my debut Test, as captain, was really special; probably the ultimate dream Test experience,” Du Preez said. “Unfortunately at that time there was not big support for women’s cricket, so it was only in front of my teammates without the excitement of hearing the fans roar or even family being able to watch it at home as it was not televised or streamed back then. However, I am really blessed that I had the opportunity to experience the ‘pinnacle format of cricket’, as it’s referred to in the male cricket environment.”

That innings was special, and not just for Du Preez. In all of Test cricket only David Houghton has also scored a century on debut and as captain — 121 against India in Harare in October 1992; Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test. Du Preez might take comfort from the fact that Houghton’s strike rate was 37.57. There are many differences between the two players. One of them is that Houghton played 22 Tests while that match almost eight years ago was Du Preez’ first and last in the format, and her only first-class game.

Du Preez, who retired from Tests and ODIs in April, provided written answers to questions for this piece while she was on holiday in Greece. Good luck getting other male former Test captains or centurions or indeed players to do that. Unless, of course, money is involved. There isn’t a lot of it in the women’s game. What there is has been sunk into white-ball cricket, which has earned a place in the public consciousness not because it deserves to be there — which it does undeniably — but because administrators, broadcasters and sponsors have recognised its potential as a revenue source.

Women’s Test cricket? Not so much, not least because it is rare. The Mysore match was South Africa’s last before the game against England in Taunton, which started on Monday. It is the 144th women’s Test. Some 400 kilometres to the north and also on Monday the other England team beat New Zealand by seven wickets in men’s cricket’s 2,467th Test. The equations are less skewed in the white-ball formats: there have been 4,418 men’s ODIs and 1,280 women’s, and 1,580 men’s T20Is compared to 1,152 women’s. Men have played 94.48% of all Tests — partly because they had a head start of more than 57 years on women — and 77.54% of all ODIs, but only, relatively, 55.24% of T20Is. “Unfortunately I think it’s easier to market the shorter format of the game as it’s a lot more exciting and appealing to the fans,” Du Preez said.

Did that mean she thought Test cricket wasn’t all it’s routinely cracked up to be? You have read and heard, many times, something similar to Du Preez’ reply: “Look, Test cricket is not called Test cricket for no reason. You will get tested in all aspects of the game. However, I think we will have more appreciation for Test cricket the more we have an opportunity to play it.” Or at least be given the chance to play two-innings cricket more often. Currently, that doesn’t happen at all for women in South Africa. “Yes, I think it will help if they get an opportunity to play the longer format on a regular basis.”

The alternative would be to consider Test cricket purely a man’s game. “No, I don’t think we need to accept that,” Du Preez said. “Just like ODI and T20 cricket for women, women’s Test cricket needs to be appreciated in its own right and not compared to the men’s game.”

There’s a hint of swing there, a gentle admonition of the mentality that sees, before it sees anything else, that boundaries are shorter for a women’s game, that despite that they are not often cleared, and that no female bowlers are fast, even if that is how they are described. Many who can’t stop themselves from thinking those thoughts didn’t think, when they changed the channel from the Taunton Test to see how Emma Raducanu was getting on in her first-round match against Alison Van Uytvanck at Wimbledon on Monday, that they would be short-changed because they wouldn’t be able to watch more than three sets.

The deeper, darker question is whether people of a certain age and outlook extoll the virtues of Test cricket so much and so overtly because, unlike ODIs and T20Is and like an old-fashioned gentleman’s club, it doesn’t often involve women. That view is enabled by the fact that only Test cricket played by women is denoted as such. If it’s labelled “Test cricket” it isn’t explained that it’s men who are playing. It doesn’t need to be because, as we all know, or should know, that’s the norm.

And yet it’s the format, not the gender of those playing, that determines the level of complexity, drama and nuance on display. It’s simply Test cricket because, simply, it’s Test cricket, not because men are playing it. So if we disclaim some matches as “women’s Tests” we should do the same for “men’s Tests”. Or, better yet, remove the apologetic gender specific simper that says, in effect, “We’re calling this Test cricket, but …”

Marizanne Kapp’s 150 at Taunton on Monday, the highest score by a No. 6 in a women’s Test and the highest by any South African woman, is no less an accomplishment because it wasn’t achieved by a man. Indeed, that she was able to perform as she did even though women play so few Tests is a powerful argument to the contrary. Strike rate? A healthy 70.42.

Happily, there were thousands of pairs of hands in attendance to give voice to those truths. But in the silence that followed the applause there was time and space for a more sobering thought: how many fine innings might we have seen from Kapp and Du Preez had South Africa been deemed worthy of playing more than two Tests in almost eight years?

First published by Cricbuzz.

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