BY ENOCK MUCHINJO
HARARE – Australian coach John Buchanan – who guided his country to two straight World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007 – reckons Zimbabwe’s spectacular fall from being a dangerous underdog of global cricket to no-hopers is due to poorer ‘facilities’ in the country rather than lack of talent.
Buchanan, a regular visitor to the Southern African country where he is part of a developmental coaching programme, says the Zimbabwean team’s recent below-par performances isn’t entirely because of talent limitation but absence of a structured support system compared to even formerly lesser cricket-playing nations.
“I’m not sure they (Zimbabwe) are under-performing,” Buchanan, in a chat with SportsCast, responded to suggestions that the Zimbabwean team has been misfiring.
“They are (under-performing) compared to the teams they are playing. But they do not have the resources that most of these teams have.”
71-year-old Aussie Buchanan, who was in Zimbabwe last week on one of his frequent trips, said Zimbabwe’s cricket downfall was similar to how some nations continue to underachieve at the Olympic Games despite their huge potential.
Buchanan provided the website www.olympicnationalrankings.com, which he said puts Zimbabwean cricket into perspective.
He said: “As I said, they (Zimbabwe) do not have the resources that these (cricket) teams have. It’s similar to the recent Olympics. When you look at the medal table, the table only provides results. It doesn’t show a comparative table, such as this website. So ZimCricket, even though results have been poor and worsening over time, I think it will correlate to reducing resource support compared to other countries. If there was some sort of comparative table like the link proved, I would suggest ZimCricket’s performance may not be as bad as it appears.”
The link, www.olympicnationalrnkings.com states in opening:
“Probability ranking is a new, more meaningful way to rank countries in the Olympic Games while adjusting for population. It promises to make the Olympic competition more exciting and interesting at the national level. Unlike simple medal-counts, which are always topped by the largest-population countries, or Olympic medals-per-capita rankings, which are invariably topped by the smallest-population medal-winners, probability ranking highlights the best performers across the wide range of national populations. It does this by ranking according to the Probability Index U, which has a simple meaning: U measures the improbability that a country of a given population would win as many medals as it has, or more medals, if all people in competitive countries worldwide had equal medal-winning capabilities.”
Buchanan, who was the head coach in 2003 and 2007 as the Aussies completed a hat-trick of World Cup titles, further opined that Zimbabwe’s stagnation has been as a result of other nations’ rapid progression.
“There a lot of factors that create such a situation,” he said. “But principal among these is resources. Most countries now, even some Associate nations, have high-performance centres and systems. They have strong coaching infrastructure. Facilities are improving standards and access. And then regular strong competition.”
John Buchanan delivers a speech on one of his recent trips to Zimbabwe under Grassroots Cricket.
Buchanan doesn’t see a grim future for cricket in Zimbabwe, but warns that restoration won’t be possible without genuine change of attitude and approach in the country.
“There is no doubt that there is lack of momentum, lack of confidence throughout the culture of ZimCricket,” he commented.
“One way to assist is to get back to winning ways, which will attract interest from children, future players, sponsors, broadcasters. It could do this by concentrating heavily on the shorter formats of the game as in that format, the less gap there is between teams on the whole. Once the team (Zimbabwe) could begin to win games in T20, then ODI, then it could look to expand. It should also seriously consider playing Associate teams with its developing squads in the shorter formats to provide some succession planning into the senior teams of men and women. There is a wealth of talent and enthusiasm at grassroots cricket level. If this talent can be properly nurtured in schools, in local competitions, with good coaching, umpiring and facilities, then the future will be relatively safe.”
Buchanan comes to Zimbabwe as part of Grassroots Cricket, a brainchild of Tawanda Karasa, an Australia-based Zimbabwean sports development enthusiast.
“It’s about trying to help children develop sporting skills through cricket, and kids who have far less opportunities than most children in Australia,” Buchanan said.
