Through the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the Zimbabwe cricket team had established themselves as something of a force, able to upset the best on their day. Since the 1999 World Cup, though, things just haven’t been the same. Some big names have retired, others scared off by the Mugabe regime — leaving the team to fight it out with Bangladesh for the wooden spoon.However, there is some hope for the future: the emergence of the Black Force, represented here in the form of eight players in the team of 14 that beat Australia.‘‘It’s a phase all teams go through’’, says team captain Tinotenda Mawoyo (18), on his seniors’ decline. Indeed, over a couple of years, the team was shorn of its stars: Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin moved out of Zimbabwe after pay disputes with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, Guy Whittal and Brian Murphy retired and Andy Flower and Henry Olonga risked life and limb protesting against the ‘‘death of democracy’’ under Mugabe.Manager Dilip Sinh Chouhan explains: ‘‘What happened is that while cricket was the domain of the white Zimbabweans earlier, things changed after we gained independence in 1980. Since then the whites have gradually moved out and where we had approximately 250,000 whites then, we have approximately 40-50,000 now. More than being cricketers, they were also the coaches and teachers — people who knew the game. Once that went away, things started moving downwards.’’Now, it seems, things have stabilised. ‘‘It started after the 2003 World Cup’’, says Chouhan. ‘‘Since then, interest in the game has increased manifold. The base has become much wider, with blacks taking to the game in hordes. The infrastructure is in place, the pitches are better, sponsors are moving in, the domestic league is moving very well. Things are bound to get better.’’Goodwin and Johnson left at a time when there was no money in the game. Now, there’s so much money that all national team players drive luxury cars, live in cool houses, fly and live expensive.Mawoyo, his team’s best cricketer, says Test wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu has left a trail that’s being followed with some success. ‘‘He came up through the Churchill School, which focuses entirely on cricket. The core of the side we have here are studying there. We are here competing against the best teams in the world and doing well. We played exceptionally well to beat Australia, the defending champions. No Australian side can be a bad side and we got them before the lunch break.’’The spinoff effect of this system, Mawoyo added, was the team could soon be all-black. ‘‘In a few years, perhaps, we will have more blacks in the side. Simply because the cricket base is wider now and there are lots of clubs and schools teaching good cricket. A lot of players in our side are talented enough to play international cricket and that will definitely happen.’’Problems, serious ones, will remain. ‘‘There are three main problems’’, says Zimbabwean journalist Mehluli Sibanda. ‘‘One is that because of the rule that at least three non-whites have to be in the team, the selectors ask for 15 per cent of their match fees after they are selected.’’Second, the money in the game has a flip-side: a lot of players are taking to the game for the money, making their pile in a couple of years and moving on.Third, Sibanda says, there’s the Harare coterie in the establishment. ‘‘It’s almost impossible for people from outside Harare, even Bulawayo, to enter the side’’, he said.If the problems can be sorted out, one of the saddest stories in recent international cricket years could change. It’ll be good for Zimbabwe, good for cricket, and extremely good for the rest of countries, because scenarios like the recent VB Series in Australia won’t be repeated.
