Sports

Sports

Light at the end of the tunnel?
By S.R. Pathiravithana
A lot of hot air is now blowing over the current Zimbabwe issue. The impasse over the status of their cricketers, black and white, is now on world debate with Chingoka and co. howling that some "Rhodesians" are trying to ruin the sport in the country while Streak and company is calling out loud, accusing Zimbabwe cricket being racist.

Whatever the issues are, the quagmire seems to be getting more and more murky with no apparent solution in sight. However the question is…. is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Will the game of cricket be final victor?

Not out of choice, but out of circumstances the present Zimbabwe outfit was assembled in the aftermath of Streak not agreeing with the Zimbabwe cricket authorities on a quota system which would have given the prevailing team at that juncture some problems.

The negotiations fell apart. First the news came out saying Streak had resigned, but then it was followed with the story that he had been sacked and the rest of the white players following their leader, pulling out of the team in protest.

All this occurred with two important tours to their own country at hand. The first was the Sri Lanka tour of Zimbabwe followed by World Champions Australia to make their presence felt there.

After the departure of the senior team, the Zimbabwe cricket authorities hastily sewed up a playing Xl or what it seemed to be. As expected the results were appalling. The Sri Lankans licking their wounds at the hands of a three-nil whitewash by Australia just flayed the inexperienced home attack. Not only that, they had the ignominy of being bundled out for the lowest One-day international total in history. In the Test matches the newly appointed Sri Lanka cricket captain Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara flexed their muscles with memorable double hundreds. Muttiah Muralidharan crowned himself as the highest Test wicket taker in the annals of cricket. It seems all this battering only made them form a better togetherness to face more daunting tasks in the future.

At their next engagement against Australia they did not face a big battering as they faced against Sri Lanka The little ones were learning! However the Australians called the scheduled Test matches and announced that Zimbabwe was not fit enough to play international cricket, and the ICC grabbed the chance and withheld their Test Status till the year 2005. (There may have been reasons other than cricket for this call).

In the meantime from the wrangle-out have come some players for the future. Though they play against fully-fledged international teams they are yet a bunch of teenagers when one takes away the likes of Mark Vermulen and Douglas Hondo who are now just twenty five years old.

Promising better deeds for the future are players like skipper Tatenda Taibu (21), Edward Chikimbura (18), T. Panyangara (19) and Brendon Taylor (18). These young players have so far stood up to their task and faced the challenges with a brave face.

Skipper Taibu who has learned about the tasks of leadership at a very tender age talks like a man. When asked about the happenings outside the cricket field in Zimbabwe the twenty-one year-old answered, "What ever happened in the past six months I do not have control over it. What I can control I control. Whatever has happened has happened, but I love my cricket and right at this moment I am concentrating on it".

In reality the young Zimbabwian side lacks the experience that is a vital component in the sphere of modern-day cricket. At the same time no one can say that this young side lacks the potential. Perhaps, it would be a topic for lengthy argument at the club in the evening.

With the time on their side they have lot of answers to these present ills. Still there is about two or more years for the next World Cup.

With their limited experience, they prevented Sri Lanka from definitely entering the semi-finals over England in the ICC World Championships. In their next game after elimination from that tournament they had Pakistan with their backs to the wall at 6 for 3, but their inexperience came to the fore this time before they could give a noteworthy performance.

But, by the year 2011 if the present majority of players are still around they will be twenty eight years old and in the 2015 World Cup if these youngsters are still around they will be players with over thirteen years of international experience and just thirty two years old and would be a handful to counter, considering their present talent. In January 2005 Zimbabwe will resume their Test status once again with a series against the other minnows of World Cricket, which could prove their true capabilities at present.

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