Lovemore Dube, CHIEF WRITER
THE recent form of the Chevrons has convinced a few of the many fans that have been thronging Queens Sports Club to watch Zimbabwe take part in the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier B.
What with the cricketers themselves seemingly bent on ensuring that their priority will be to entertain the public – finally! For a change, Zimbabwe’s cricketers seemed to be actually trying to entertain people, put smiles back on their faces and get them back making as much noise as humanly possible, all the while sipping on a beer or two or snacking on a hotdog.
To any athlete worth their salt, the basic truth when it comes to his or her relationship with fans is premised on one question – can they entertain people and get them excited. Question is – was this brought on by the arrival of the legend that is Dave Houghton? Has he infused in these lads the dire importance of taking games by the scruffs of their necks and never letting go?
It’s simple really – Culture. It’s the difference between good and mediocre yoghurt.”
But also, apparently the difference between good and mediocre cricket teams. You can’t take over a head-coach gig and just work on players’ skills and performance anymore. This isn’t the 1950s, dude. You’ve gotta change the culture, bruh. It’s all about the vibes now, man. Pass that sporting altruism to the left and be respectful about it please.
As watchers of cricket, fans love it, obviously. They have no choice but to. The world needs more kindness, empathy, love, etc, and so on. So now, instead of just watching sportspeople who are way more genetically gifted than the spectators that watch them and follow them, we have to watch them talk and act like they are much better human beings also. It’s great, honestly. I mean, who could possibly object?
Of the people who have led local cricket to its new enlightenment, no one is more responsible than Sikander Raza Butt or as Bulawayo now calls him, ‘Sibanda’ Raza. Having turned the Chevrons side into the kind of team you’d take home to your parents, he has also been supposedly “Sikandering” Zimbabwe’s cricket since his arrival from Sialkot, Pakistan where he and his family migrated from in 2002.
He soon became one of the best batsman in the domestic competition and caught the eye of the Zimbabwe selectors. The only problem was citizenship issues, which were resolved in 2011. After the revamping of Zimbabwe’s domestic structure in 2009, Raza went on to play first-class cricket for the Mashonaland Eagles. He is a successful first-class cricketer, with a top score of 146.
And when his desire to play for Zimbabwe finally came alive when he debuted in an ODI in May 2013 against Bangladesh and scored 3 runs batting at no. 3. But what was clear was that Sibanda Raza was an aggressive yet elegant cricketer and this seems to be beginning to rub off on the rest of the team.
Nine years later, he is still in the Zimbabwe set up, and it is clear now that they are addicted to Raza in ways that Zimbabwe never were for any other cricketer for a long time now. Houghton may have to rearrange the furniture to maximise the flow of pure Raza chi through the dressing room. Throw out everyone’s belongings that don’t spark Raza. Inhale a cloudy pipeful of Raza in a back-alley Raza house.
Zimbabwe needs him. It knows what it must do. Have him marry a local Princess even! He is making Bulawayo quite happy.
Even the President of Zimbabwe expects Raza and company to not just make Bulawayo happy, but to bring cheer to an entire nation.
Through the course of this extraordinary run recently, Raza and his teammates look like they are playing the way they play not merely for themselves, but to bring joy to their public, and to the world of cricket at large, following years of inexplicable capitulations to the weakest of opposition and offering very little in the way of competition to the stronger teams, etc.
Cricket as a public service. Paragons.
