Published by the government of Zimbabwe
3 November 2007
opinion
Harare — ONE of the most popular programmes on ZTV during the '80s was an American television series -- based on the Vietnam War -- aptly titled Tour of Duty.
Its stars, like Lieutenant Myron Goldman and Staff Sergeant Zeke Anderson, became household names around the globe during that period and the programme won an Emmy Award in '88.
Tour of Duty was not the first and last of the motion pictures based on the Vietnam War -- Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam and Missing In Action were other blockbuster movies.
But Tour of Duty was landmark in that it was the first to really tackle such issues like racism, suicide, civilian casualties, drug abuse and a closer look on the shattered lives of the troops.
Significantly it also had an in-depth look at the confusion that greeted the American troops, who finally made it home alive, on their return to their beloved ones.
More than any other movie, Tour of Duty shaped my early understanding of the Vietnam War that raged on from 1959 to April 30 1975 when the triumphant Communist North Vietnamese troops finally overran southern resistance and united their country under one flag.
I did not know it then that being an American film Tour of Duty probably had a bias towards the Americans who also fought in the Vietnam War.
With time I have since broadened my knowledge of the Vietnam War but that certainly is not the subject of this edition of this column, which in essence should have started with an apology following its disappearance from the radar last weekend.
Well, on Tuesday I landed in Hanoi -- the steamy capital of Vietnam -- after a marathon trip from home that never seemed to end with connections in Johannesburg, Hong Kong and finally, after 23 hours of flying and waiting, getting here.
It's my first visit to Vietnam -- one of the most densely populated countries in the world with more than 87 million people spread over a winding stretch of land between Laos and Cambodia on one side and the South China sea on the east.
It's now close to 20 years since I first saw Tour of Duty and there was something distinctly familiar about Hanoi to the pictures I used to see in that television series -- the big number of motor cycles on the streets, the dense population, the smiling faces of the locals etc, etc.
We are here on another tour of duty -- not the American style mission of the '60s and '70s that inspired Tour of Duty -- but a different game altogether where the visiting troops here carry football boots rather than guns.
A platoon of Warriors -- drawn exclusively from the domestic Premiership -- landed here on Tuesday for their second assignment in South East Asia in as many months.
The mission is to play in the Agribank Cup -- an annual football tournament held by the Vietnamese Football Federation that usually features the hosts and three foreign sides.
The organisers of the tournament emphasise on the need to bring development sides -- especially with the majority of the players being the Under-23 bracket -- but the carrot of a US$40 000 winners' cheque has resulted in the bending of the rules in recent years.
Now teams have been bringing in their best players, irrespective of their age, as they try to boost their chances of winning the tournament and the prize money.
A number of strong African teams, notably Cameroon, have played in the Agribank Cup before and this year's competition is also of a high level with Finland -- ranked within the top 50 in the world -- sending a team to compete here.
Finland won the tournament last year.
Now they are back to defend their title and although they don't have most of their first team players like Liverpool's Sami Hypia, they have a very competitive squad predominantly made up of players who ply their trade in the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden.
The football leagues in those countries are of a very competitive standard.
Uzbekistan, who are also ranked higher than Zimbabwe, have also sent a strong team here.
Maybe Uzbekistan's recent result -- a comprehensive 5-0 victory in Malaysia -- is more relevant to us given that the same Malaysia team won the Merdeka Cup where a Zimbabwe Select side, made up of about six players who are on this tour, lost in the semi-finals.
Hosts Vietnam are the only ones who are ranked lower than Zimbabwe among the teams that are taking part in this year's edition of the Agribank Cup.
Zimbabwe played their first match of the tournament on Thursday and, after leading 2-0 at the interval, they collapsed in the rain in the second half and lost the game 2-3 with the winning goal coming just three minutes to the end.
Their opponents were defending champions Finland who impressed me with their physical presence and technical abilities, their simple but effective football of passing and supporting their teammates and their discipline to stick to their formation and instructions from the bench.
In short, the Finnish players impressed me with their professionalism and, even when they were 0-2 down, they did not abandon their style and neither did they betray their defensive duties in the name of trying to attack with recklessness in search of the two goals to turn the game around.
They kept committed to their values -- stroking the ball around with aplomb -- and waiting for that moment when they would open the Zimbabwe defence and find a way past big goalkeeper Energy Murambadoro.
Of course, they were a little lucky with the free-kick from where they got their first goal and the offside flag, which somehow stayed down, from which they got their killer third goal in the dying stages of the game.
But you need to work very hard to be rewarded with a little bit of luck and you have to give the Finnish players the credit they deserve for what the great effort they put into this game.
While Finland, in the final analysis, won because of superior teammwork, the individual star of the game was a Zimbabwean player whose profile is growing with each passing week.
The outstanding player on the afternoon was not any of the Finnish players who have honed their skills at the Scandinavian clubs like Rosenberg but an unheralded Zimbabwean player whose emerging skills have been honed on dusty streets back home.
The best player on the afternoon was not one of those playing professional football abroad, like the majority of the young Fins in this team, but one whose team might be playing in the unfashionable world of Division One next year.
Kingstone Nkhatha reminds me a lot about George Nechironga.
He is not really as stocky as George was but there is a physical presence about him that reminds me so much about the teenage Nechironga at the turn of the '90s.
George was slightly bigger than Kingstone and that is why we all called him Tyson after the legendary American boxer called Mike who ruled the world at the young age of 20 by winning the heavyweight title with a sensational second round knockout of Trevor Berbick.
George exploded on the scene at about the same time that a teenage baby-faced forward called Peter Ndlovu was also emerging on the scene in the City of Kings.
It was an exciting period for Zimbabwean football with Adam Ndlovu also emerging on the scene among a clutch of promising players who included Agent Sawu, Wilfred and William Mugeyi, Memory Mucherahowa, Henry McKop to name but just a few.
George was given the responsibility to lead the CAPS United attack at a very young age but such was his talent that he made such a big assignment look very easy with consistent performances week in and week out.
We all began talking about CAPS United having finally found the true heir to Shacky Tauro and George looked the real thing with pace, power and accuracy -- everything that a centre forward has ever dreamt about.
George was good. Very good. But so was Peter. And in the race for the Soccer Star of the Year that season in '90, the two emerging stars could not be separated and, for the first time in the history of the awards, there was a draw.
Both were crowned Soccer Star of the Year.
Something happened to George and his career did not blossom the way we had imagined while Peter went from strength to strength and, at his peak, he was compared to the late Manchester United great George Best.
Maybe George was a shooting star.
Hopefully Kingstone isn't.
Like George, Kingstone would probably have played for CAPS United this season had it not been for contractual complexities that eventually ended his dreams to play for the Green Machine.
He was part of the trio that rebelled when Buymore sold its franchise to CAPS FC and the players suddenly found themselves committed to the boys from Manchester Road rather than the boys from Chitungwiza.
Kingstone, Sebastain Matende and William Mapfumo questioned how they could end up with a new employer when they had committed their future to somebody else and, as players usually do in such circumstances, they withdrew their labour.
CAPS FC gave Matende and Mapfumo the right to fulfil their dreams and move to Dynamos, for free, but said Kingstone was not up for sale and there was only one option for him -- either he played for them or he would not play for anyone else.
The industrial action delayed Kingstone's season this year but -- with national team commitments on the horizon -- he could not continue being selected while he was inactive and he was forced to go back to CAPS FC.
Reports have always circulated that he was forced by someone within the old Warriors set-up to go back to CAPS FC because that person was against his intended move to CAPS United -- because of his differences with those running the club.
If he did not do that, it is said, then it would have been the end of his international career.
Kingstone has consistently denied that and has insisted that it was his decision to go back to CAPS FC once he realised that he was not ready, at this delicate stage of his career, to spend a long time on the sidelines.
By the time that he eventually wore a CAPS FC jersey, the season was already underway but his return immediately gave the Harare side the spark that had been lacking in their game.
Now a few months down the line, Kingstone has taken over as the leading goalscorer in the Premiership with 12 goals.
He scored four times in the 5-1 win for his side over Chapungu at Ascot in their last match and on Thursday he took his tally, within one week, to six goals after scoring twice in the Warriors' 2-3 defeat at the hands of Finland. Half-a-dozen goals in four days -- you really need to be a good striker to do that.
And Kingstone Nkhatha is one such forward.
I did not see his four-goal haul against Chapungu but anyone who scores four at Ascot -- against the airmen -- deserves all the respect that he can get.
But I saw his double strike against Highlanders in a shock 3-1 win for CAPS FC at Rufaro and I felt there was something special about that brace.
I saw him score another brace here in Hanoi on Thursday and, not for the first time, I felt there was something special about this striker.
The first one was a typical poacher's goal -- timing his run to perfection in the middle to meet a cross from Edward Sadomba and then just touching the ball, with his right leg, to guide it home.
The second one was a beauty.
The Warriors' break down the right was swift and deadly and Sadomba's cross, for the second time that afternoon, was pure perfection -- the ball curling with precision as if it was going too close to the goalkeeper and then coming back at pace to invite connection from inside the box. It flew past everyone else except the man who was lurking on the blind side.
Kingstone's control was superb but still he had a lot to do given that he was on the edge of the penalty area.
But if there is a striker in Zimbabwean football who is full of confidence at the moment, then it has to be Kingstone.
And his powerful shot angled itself into the far corner, on the near post, and Zimbabwe had doubled their lead.
Kingstone does not play his football for any of the big boys of our domestic -- Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United -- but he plays for a team that is just one year-old.
It's not easy, playing for such small teams, to turn yourself into the dominant striker in Zimbabwe because you have to work harder than those in your position who are playing for the big boys.
Therefore for one to build the kind of reputation that Kingstone has done for himself -- playing for such minnows like CAPS FC -- you have to give him his credit.
I don't know where his football will take him, but I believe that here we have a true striker who we can develop -- as a nation -- on whom we can invest our trust for the provision of goals in our battle to reach the 2010 World Cup finals.
I believe we should not look at Kingstone Nkhatha as a CAPS FC striker but as a Zimbabwean forward who can finally deliver the goals that we all hope will lead us back to our place among the giants of African football.
I believe we should not look at Kingstone Nkhatha as a Harare striker but as a national striker who can be developed and supported -- by the media without any regional or city bias -- into a deadly forward who can provide the leading light in the Warriors.
As a country we are short of strikers.
It doesn't augur well for our football that the leading striker in our league -- until Kingstone scored his four goals against Chapungu -- was a man who last played in the domestic Premiership three months ago and who is struggling to settle down south.
It doesn't augur well for our football that the leading goalscorer at the team that is top of the table -- Dynamos -- is a former centre-forward who has been converted into a midfielder and his goal tally, in the twilight of the season, is just 11.
The Warriors were largely a barren group of players for the better part of their doomed campaign for a place at the 2008 Nations Cup finals -- scoring just once in three games with the goal coming from a deflected shot by midfielder Esrom Nyandoro.
But Kingstone scored in the first match when he was finally given the chance and the Warriors powered their way to that 3-1 win over Malawi.
He scored again in his second match for the Warriors on Thursday to take his tally to three goals, on his national tours of duty, in two matches.
If there is a striker we can depend upon -- in the long-term interests of our football -- I believe this is the man.
I might be wrong but I stand to be proved otherwise.
Tough luck Gizha
So my favourite coach -- Gishon Ntini -- has joined the list of those who have fallen by the wayside this season in a turbulent year for coaches in the domestic Premiership.
Those who are running Shooting Stars believe that Gizha had to finally pay the price for their team's sudden fall from being championship outsiders to relegation candidates.
Four losses in the last five league matches does not make good reading for any coach.
But I believe that Gizha has done a very good job at Shooting Stars -- from saving them on the final day of the season last year to making them into a competitive team that spent much of the season in the comfort zone.
You cannot just look at the last five games -- where things have gone wrong -- without factoring the first 21 games where things went right.
If Shooting Stars were so good that they could win 4-1 over Bosso at Barbourfields -- under Gizha -- what then has suddenly gone very wrong that they can lose four of their last five games?
These are questions that Shooting Stars should be asking themselves and they are likely to realise that probably their problem runs deeper than the identity of the man barking instructions from their bench.
I have always had a soft spot for Shooting Stars because of the sacrifice that Joel Sengeredo has made just to keep his football team going and playing his small part in the development of our national game.
But somehow I can't understand their decision to fire Gizha -- especially at this stage of the season and if there is any coach whom I believe should feel unlucky to have been fired this year, I believe that man is Gizha.
And he will always carry my respect wherever he goes.
The same respect that I have for the emerging talents of Kingstone Nkhatha.
Today, Kingstone returns to action on this Tour of Duty and -- like Lieutenant Myron Goldman and Staff Sergeant Zeke Anderson -- Vietnam is his playground today.
The only difference is that this is not a war but just a football game.
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