BY ENOCK MUCHINJO
HARARE – Alan Butcher is a former expatriate coach of Zimbabwe like no other, his strong affinity for the country stemming back to a couple of seasons spent playing club cricket here nearly five decades ago.
“Zimbabwe is still never far from my thoughts,” Butcher told SportsCast from the UK on Sunday.
The 70-year-old Englishman – who had a fairly successful tenure as Zimbabwe’s coach between 2010 and 2013 – measures his words carefully whenever he has had to give his take on the falling standards of the game in the Southern African country.
But the worsening plight of Zimbabwean cricket, whose reality has never been more stark than now – being forced to play against the likes of Seychelles, Mozambique and Gambia – will alarm even some of the most diplomatic personalities in the sport like Butcher.
“It’s particularly sad when you think how Zim qualified for the T20 World Cup (in Australia in 2022) two years ago,” remarked Butcher.
“But after not progressing in Australia, things have gone from bad to worse.”
The Zimbabwe team is currently in Kenya contesting a lowly T20 World Cup sub-regional qualification tournament, with the hosts and Rwanda being the other sides in the six-nation competition.
Kenya have witnessed a dramatic plunge since their fairytale run to the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup in 2003. Fellow East Africans Rwanda are deservedly viewed as beacon of cricket development on the continent, but they are by no means a power yet.
The other three nations in the Nairobi tournament – Seychelles, Mozambique and Gambia – are still deep in the backwaters of world cricket.
The big question being asked for Zimbabwe is: how did we get to this?
Butcher isn’t providing a very authoritative position on this, instead he is also wondering how a once well-respected international team of world cricket has taken such a shocking nosedive.
“I’m too far removed now to know what’s happened in the meantime, and how to put it right,” said Butcher.
“But I worry about the future when some experienced players retire and there doesn’t seem to be youngsters putting their hands up! Sometimes it takes senior players to step aside to let youngsters thrive. So let’s hope that is the case.”
Butcher has every right to feel astonished by Zimbabwe’s steady and miserable decline.
In his first major assignment as the team’s coach in May-June 2010, Butcher guided an exciting group of Zimbabwe players to the final of a tri-series involving India and Sri Lanka, in Bulawayo, losing to the latter in the final. Twice in the series Zimbabwe defeated a young Indian side consisting of future superstars like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma.
Months later, in August 2011, Zimbabwe made a triumphant return to Test cricket, under Butcher, with a clinical 130-run victory over Bangladesh in Harare. Butcher’s charges then put the icing on the cake by wrapping the five-match ODI series 3-2.
Butcher – who in the 1970s played for the Asian-dominated Universals Sports Club of Harare when pre-Test status Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) was one of world cricket’s best upcoming nations – has more questions than answers to the waning fortunes of the present generation.
“Playing standards needs to be raised,” Butcher stated.
“Is selection fair and transparent? Are players being well managed and coached? If not, motivation will be poor. I’m not making any claims either way, but obviously something is lacking.”
