BY ENOCK MUCHINJO
HARARE – I had until now resisted the urge to jump on the bandwagon and lay all the blame of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chief selector David Mutendera, finding some of the reproval to be selective criticism, lacking in substance and some of it downright ridiculous.
Such as labelling Mutendera a racist. For some of us who have been in the trenches for much longer and know the characters involved well, I’ve tried to argue in some social forums that the beast people portray, a bitter and vengeful man, only exists in their minds.
Of course my sentiments have been met with strong disapproval, but I’ve continued to explain that away from his part-time role in ZC, David Mutendera has been working for years in a professional and proudly multi-cultural environment where anybody who harbours such kind of prejudices would not last a day longer.
While Mutendera will obviously laugh off the awful label of racism attached to him, I’ve started to believe, on the other issues – that even though he’s been taking many brickbats – the head selector has taken a liking to being in the centre of public attention, a limelight he never enjoyed in his very modest playing career.
His selection committee has misfired again, as it has often done, this time their bungling even more damaging because it has cost Zimbabwe a rare Test match victory.
It could have been worse. Had sessions not been lost due to rain on the fourth day, Zimbabwe’s good work in the first-innings could have been outdone, putting Afghanistan in a winning position in the drawn Boxing Day Test.
How do you get into a Test match with just one tested seamer? And how do you win a Test match without a clear minimum four seasoned bowlers capable of taking 20 wickets? I will not exclude the coach in this scrutiny, for he has a say in the playing XI.
Young Newman Nyamhuri is such an exciting prospect for the future. But what has he done to prove that he can jump the process of first-class cricket all the way to earn a Test call-up so soon? He bowled really well at the Under-19 World Cup at the beginning of the year. He was however not Zimbabwe’s best bowler in the tournament.
The same can be asked of Trevor Gwandu. What has he done at first-class level to be catapulted to Test cricket?
So suddenly first-class cricket is no longer the criteria for Test selection as we are often told? I would not personally mind, in fact it is always refreshing to see a special talent jump the queue and prove his worth at the international stage. We all love beautiful stories.
In Zimbabwe’s case, though, the selection criteria under Mutendera has been scandalously inconsistent and deeply flawed.
If first-class cricket is the Holy Grail as we are told, then where is Vincent Masekesa, the best spinner currently in the country and the league’s highest wicket-taker? Where is the red-hot Nick Welch, the in-form batsman in the country’s first-class competition at the moment?
The best bowler on the Zimbabwe ‘A’ tour of the UK this year was Tinashe Muchawaya. Victor Nyauchi, too, was another option. He was effective when Zimbabwe last played a Test match at Queens Sports Club, taking a fifer against the West Indies at the beginning of 2023. For crying out loud, how do two unproved newbies gate-crash the line-up ahead of these two!
Surely the fans are being taken for a ride here in a supposedly national sport. A board that doesn’t have a template for national selection, which stakeholders can be able to understand and follow, is doomed.
Mutendera’s panel may redeem itself in the New Year’s Test, but nothing case erase the costly shocking choices of the first match they connived to deny Zimbabwe a badly-needed win. Time after time the selectors have been sticking up the middle finger to Zimbabwean cricket’s ever-growing fanbase, so much so that nothing can ever restore confidence in this panel now.
Failure to resign, they must be sacked. Immediately.
