Zimbabwe's Black Decade

"Admittedly, Zimbabwe had some world class players back then, with Andy Flower at one time being ranked as the leading Test batsman in the world, and Streak was constantly ranked among the top bowlers in the world.

"But did the team produce the kind of result that represent greatness, or their success has been a myth that should be embraced and celebrated without being tested? Well; what do the results tell us, because in sport its all about the end product, the result?"

That is our Godfather, The Herald sports editor, Robson Robson Sharuko's anaylsis of our cricket before everything went tits up into Krakatoa and Versuvius in 2003. I don't know why, but I'm reminded of the good Dr, Alex Magaisa's theory of equalisation in politics, where one party wants to paper over its cracks by the lame excuse that the other party is just as bad. In other circles, the call it Whataboutism.

Sharuko's dispiriting analysis of our team was precipitated by the recent synopsis of our national cricket team's performances by former Chevrons captain Heath Streak, before and after the watershed of 2003. Maybe as a prologue to this, it should be mentioned that in 2003, most white players dumped the national cricket side in protest of what they alleged was gross mismanagement of the game by the then Peter Chingoka-led Zimbabwe Cricket executive. 

Crucially, Streak has played in both teams, and dare I say he has a better, if biased, view of performances in those two groups of cricketers. He was captain of the team that attained test status in 1992, and played under Tatenda Taibu in the other team, as they tried to pick up the pieces of a team that got caught up in the windy political times of the turn of the millennium. At that time, Robbo could not tell the difference between a brick bat and a cricket bat; and he has admitted that in one of his Saturday memoirs in The Herald.

And now he says it is the results that are the be-all-and-end-all of any sporting event? Really? I would love to take the Godfather down memory lane, to his number one sport - football. And to the team that he loves to call the greatest of our national teams - the one that was led by the late Reinhardt Fabisch. The Dream Team. We all loved that team, Robbo, because it had men of steel in it. Man like Bruce, who could play through a ruptured skull for the cause of the nation (of course I do not believe that the Jungleman's head injury was as serious as was portrayed that day in Cairo, but that somebody had the gull to attack him was enough for me). Those young men inspired and galvanised a nation. You could say they revolutionised national football and left a jingoistic trait in all of us that has refused to die; even in these days when we should all be doing the sensible thing and dumping our national football team altogether.

But what did that golden generation achieve? Nothing! Absolute zilch. They came close, but never qualified for any major World or continental tournament. No baby, that accolade would go to the tedius but gritty and solid team of Sunday Chidzambwa in 2004. All those silky skills of the Ndlovu brothers, the antics of Grobelaar in goal, the rock solidness of Mapeza, Chawanda and Shonhai at the back, the hearty displays of our midfield midget in the hole called Benjamin Nkonjera, and the lethal left foot of Agent Sawu - where did they get us? Nowhere. Nowhere at all.

Yet we loved that team like it was the only football team to emerge out of this landlocked country. We loved it like football died when the last warrior of that Dream Team kicked a ball in anger while donning National colours. That is because not everything is about results, Robbo. That team was the foundation for all great things football in this country. Or should have been. Of course, people will remember the teams that won things. That is history. But that is also the reason why History is a boring subject at school - it is just a soulless chronology of events that came to pass; who won what, who lost what. Students of history will never ever get to know the feeling of what it meant to witness history unfolding. We will read countless times that the Dream Team failed to reach the finals of the World Cup in 1994. But who will ever forget the masterclass performance that saw us decapitating the Idomitable Lions at the National Sports Stadium. No kind of history will ever capture that feeling in its proper contest. And that draw with Egypt in France? Priceless. Who will forget it? Of course your history books will, because they are all about; fucking results! 

History, like law, has no feeling. Why do you think people feel aggrieved that Oscar Pistorius cheated his way out of the gaols recently? People have feelings, Robbo. the judge might have been right in finding him not guilty of premeditated murder, because that is what the law wanted. Dolus fuck fuck, and fuck all. But people do feel that something went on in that house on the fateful day - just that they cannot prove it.

Why does a man or a woman persist in loving a spouse who cannot give him/her children? Life is about results, isn't it? Except no; its not. And that is what Heath Streak was trying to say. The cricket team of Heath Streak, the Flower brothers, Blignaut, Johnson, Friend, Goodwin, Olonga et al, introduced cricket to the nation. It was the stepping stone to greatness. Or should have been. We love it because, like the dream team, that side played with heart. We did not hold our hearts in mouths whenever they took to the field. Instead, our hearts got so knocked up with expectation that we thought we could win every game. We wanted to win every game. And if we didn't we knew it was not for lack of effort on the boys' part; it was the referee's fault. Like you said, they did beat India and Pakistan and South Africa. If you were watching them on the days when they beat those giants, you would understand why we fell in love with cricket then. 

They drew a lot of test matches too. But would that statistics table tell you how it felt to be at the Harare Sports Club when the Chevrons came within the wicket of the then rookie Fidel Edwards to clinch a test win against the West Indies of Brian Lara? The image of all our fielders gathered around the young novice, looking as if they literally wanted to squeeze the very life out of him, as Ray Price scrounged for his prized wicket. 

Oh, we had good moments with that team, Robbo. I wish you understood the game of cricket then; you might appreciate why we look at that generation of players with nostalgia. And you will understand why we think the ZC fucked up our cricket through a series of suicidal gaffes and gross mismanagement.

Streak talked of Gary Ballance. Have you watched him play for England Robbo? Seeing that you only love the statistical side of cricket, his will bowl you over. Of course, Streak's generation might have won nothing, but they should have been a solid launchpad for our game. For a while they were - Taibu, Masakadza, Hondo, Sean Ervine (I dont think we will ever have a more entreprising all rounder - he bowled with his right and batted with his left - wow), Vermeulen, Ballance. And countless other youngsters who were coming up. I tell you had we built on that team that you denigrate as having achieved nothing we would be ahead of Pakistan right now. And we certainly would never have suspended our test status for all those lost years. 

Look at at it as is, Robbo. You are good at throwing brick bats at that house on 53 Livingstone Avenue - the ZC corridors of powers failed to rightly manage a delicate situation too. I have no idea what David Coltart thought we could achieve by wearing those black armbands at the 2003 world cup. Political mileage at the expense of our national game? Gimme a break; sport is just about the only thing that we are left hanging onto in this country. He should have known better than temper with that side of our lives. That is why FIFA has kicked national politics out of football. 

Now we are losing to mickey mouse sides like Afghanstan and Kenya and Ireland and even the USA at one time - the USA for fuck's sake. Who in even in their half dimwitted mind loses a cricket match to the USA? But we did in a friendly once, soon after the Chevron 1.0 collapsed. The 2.0 upgrade was in reality a downgrade. Yes, we have beaten Australia, not once, but twice (remember we beat them in a T20 world cup match in SA in 2007), but we are still doing a piss poor job of finding our feet, ten years after we let politics destroy our game, just because politics is good at one thing - destroying things. 

So yes, Streak is right - we have endured a black decade in our cricket. And it seems to be stretching into another epoch.