Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Lawrence Moyo
12 September 2007
Harare — Zimbabwe start their campaign in the inaugural International Cricket Council Twenty20 World Cup against Australia, who are champions in the other traditional forms of the game, in a floodlit match at the Sahara Park, Newlands here tonight.
The match starts at 6pm. Playing under floodlights might weigh heavily in favour of the Aussies but talented Zimbabwe wicketkeeper and middle-order batsman Tatenda Taibu is relishing an upset against the giants. "Generally, I like the competition against the best and I am looking forward to the game against Australia because personally I want to upset them.
"In Twenty20 cricket things happen so fast but if we take care of the controllable, results will take care of themselves. "As for me, I would want to get in there and bat all the way. Generally, I adapt quickly and I hope to be one of the key players for the team," said Taibu.
The late start means that both teams will only finalise their teams today but the Australians will start as overwhelming favourites given their vast experience in all forms of cricket while Zimbabwe are virtual novices.
Warm-up matches against Pakistan and Scotland at the weekend showed that the Zimbabwe players have been adapting to the shortest version of cricket with Taibu, Hamilton Masakadza, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Stuart Matsikenyeri and Vusi Sibanda showing their ability with the bat.
The bowling department faces the biggest challenge and tonight they will come up against batsmen who can be ruthless like Andrew Symonds although injury worries in the Aussie camp might be a psychological boost for Zimbabwe.
According to reports from their camp, Australia are facing the prospect of playing Zimbabwe without a few key players, all of whom are nursing injuries -- all-rounder Shane Watson (strained hamstring), Michael Clarke (lower abdominal strain) and opener Matthew Hayden (back spasms). Hayden was on Monday night crowned the one-day international player of the year at the ICC annual awards.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed national cricket coach Robin Brown wants to change Zimbabwe's approach to games and make the players believe that they can win matches instead of just being competitive.
Brown, who replaced former Zimbabwe all-rounder Kevin Curran last month, believes aiming to be competitive is negative and that explains the need to approach matches with a view to win.
"We've got to change the culture of being competitive to winning culture and that is my first target. We've got to start winning games and I don't believe that we can't win games," said Brown.
He also addressed a number of questions concerning his new job, his history in Zimbabwe cricket and the challenges that lie ahead.
Question: How does it feel being in the job?
Answer: It's exciting. I'm very excited about it.
Question: What has been your contribution to cricket?
Answer: Cricket really has been my life. I played cricket at school, I represented Rhodesia, as it was then, and I then went on to represent Rhodesia in the Currie Cup in South Africa prior to 1980. After 1980, I represented Zimbabwe. I was fortunate to have an extended career, I started the 75-76 season and went through to the 89/90 season so I had 15 years for the national side.
I then coached schools, I took age-groups teams to South Africa and took an Under-25 side to England, it included the ex-coach (Kevin Curran), Flower, Waller and Eddo Brandes. So I have always had an interest in cricket and since I left farming and came to town I took over as curator at Harare Sports Club. But I remained in coaching, I coached Harare Sports Club and a lot of youngsters came through the system while I was there. I also coached provincial sides -- Manicaland in the Logan Cup.
Question: What were your roles as a national team player?
Answer: I started off batting down the order and later on I became an opening batsman and when we were short of wicketkeepers I kept wicket for about two years.
Question: You were also a captain?
Answer: No. I was never captain. I only captained the President's XI when touring South Africa, which was like an A and that's the closest I got to captaining the national side.
Question: Is the Twenty20 World Cup the best way you would have loved to start the job?
Answer: It's tough. We go straight into it, I have had the job for just over a week and it's going to be tough but we are excited about it, the guys have worked hard and they are looking forward to it. The nice thing about Twenty20 is that the sides become more even because the game is much shorter and a little bit of luck going our way, who knows there could be a few surprises.
Question: We find ourselves against England, who started this version of the game and play it basically every week and Australia who are one-day champions and have also been playing Twenty20 cricket while in Zimbabwe it hasn't really been part of the domestic programme?
Answer: We understand that and we've got to learn very quickly to do it quickly. I don't think it's too much of a problem. We've got to go in and believe that we can do something. We might not win but we will put up a good fight because we've got some real talent -- your Vusi Sibanda's, Tatenda Taibus and Chigumburas. Anyone of them can win you a game. A lot of luck is involved in the Twenty20.
Question: There is a view that there is lack of self-belief in the team which is why they failed to cause an upset against South Africa in a recent one-day series despite being well-placed, especially in the final game?
Answer: Winning becomes a habit and losing is a habit as well. We've to learn to win and I've spoken to the players, we've been asked before to be competitive but I don't think that's enough anymore. I think we've got to ask the players to stand up and be counted, take responsibility for their own game plan. We've got to start going out there wanting to win games.
Question: You were not in the picture when the squad was selected, are you happy with the 15 players you are taking to South Africa?
Answer: We've got the best players. I think the selectors have done a good job and it will be up to the team management and the captain to get the best 11 to play and I believe we have the country's best 11 players in the squad.
Question: Looking at our domestic structures, do you think there are areas that need attention?
Answer: It's a little bit difficult, I know we've got to spread the game, we've got to get it at grassroots level, extend it as far as we can and get as many people playing as possible. There is immense amount of talent out there and we've got to tap it all. I don't have problems with the domestic structures but maybe our domestic league needs to be tougher and toughen these guys (players) up because it's tough work out there.
We need to learn how to do it at domestic league level so that we have tough cricket throughout.
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