Editorial Comment: Chevrons owe cricket lovers a good series

THE senior men’s cricket national team on Tuesday slumped to a humiliating 10-wicket defeat against Pakistan in a T20 international match at the Queens Sports Club.

With the embarrassing defeat, Zimbabwe surrendered the three-match series with a game to spare.

Zimbabwe were bundled out for 57 in 12.4 overs, losing their 10 wickets over a 20-run period as they fell to their lowest total in T20I cricket. 

It was an embarrassing afternoon for the team, popularly known as the Chevrons, as they lost the match with 14.3 overs to spare.

Having home fans watch just 18.1 overs of a T20 international was a blow for the Bulawayo cricket fans who had been craving for high class matches at Queens Sports Club. 

Already it has been a very bad year for the Chevrons against ICC full members and their previous lowest total had been 82 in 14.2 overs against Sri Lanka in Colombo in January.

In that match, the Chevrons moved from 51/2 in the sixth over to 82 all out in 14.1 overs after losing eight wickets for 31 in just over eight overs.

So, Zimbabwe’s two lowest scores in T20 International cricket were recorded this year. 

Having a lowest score in Colombo was bad but achieving your all time lowest total score at home will rank among the worst moments for the Chevrons. 

There have been concerns over the state of the Queens Sports Club pitch, which seems to bring the worst out of the Chevrons batsmen especially against teams from the sub-continent, who become the ‘home teams’ by default.  

The Tuesday match itself lasted just over an hour—an embarrassing statistic for the Chevrons, who have long been plagued by inconsistent and fragile batting. In typical T20 fashion, games can sometimes end quickly, but rarely has a team been reduced to such a pitiful total in such a short space of time. 

As our reporter at the venue put it on Tuesday, it was a perfect storm of poor technique, lack of composure, and inadequate application.

For Zimbabwe, this was yet another gut-wrenching display of cricketing fragility. There was no fight, no resistance—just a parade of batsmen walking back to the pavilion, one after another, as Pakistan’s bowlers tore through the line-up. Zimbabwe’s top order—once looking so promising—had all but fallen apart, and the lower order simply had no answer.

The emotion of the crowd reflected the depth of disappointment. It was as if Zimbabwe’s cricketing future had flashed before their eyes, only to crash down in 40 minutes of chaos. There was no hero to save the day, no valiant partnership to restore some semblance of pride. Just a series of dismissals, each one more demoralising than the last.

In that 40-minute span, Zimbabwe’s dreams of winning the series were dashed. It was a humbling experience, one that has left many fans questioning how long this cycle of underachievement can continue. With every crushing defeat, Zimbabwe’s cricketing identity continues to crumble, and the gap between them and the top-tier teams grows wider.

How much longer will Zimbabwe’s cricketing faithful endure these heartbreaks, and when will they finally see their team rise to the occasion?

For now, though, Zimbabwe’s collapse in 40 minutes remains a painful reminder of how much work lies ahead.

The one area of concern for the Chevrons fans has been the non-existence of the middle order in most of the matches that have ended in humiliation. Inevitably, the majority of Chevrons followers, on social media, have been calling for drastic changes to the batting line-up with specific attention being paid to the middle order.

Some of the views are genuine and deserve consideration by the key stakeholders in the national team set-up.

The scorecards from most of the games that the Chevrons imploded show that the middle order has been a big let down for the team.

It is an area that needs experts to explore and come up with long-term solutions.

But then within the social media cricket community are people whose motive is to incite crowds against a previously disadvantaged section of the game when they assume influential positions.

These followers think the selection of players is not being done on merit. And this has not been helped by the fact that David Mutendera is the current convenor of selectors. Mutendera was one of those cricketers with potential to perform on the big stage with the Chevrons, but his time came during the period of imbalances in the game.

He was a victim of circumstances and never got to play for the Chevrons, making it for just one Test match and nine One Day Internationals.

With that profile, he never attained the level of respect that critics expect of a head of the national selection panel. 

And because of that, Mutendera finds himself targeted by disgruntled cricket fans especially on social media. 

There is a section of the social media community that has always targeted black former cricketers when they assume national offices. Even Hamilton Masakadza, the face of Zimbabwe Cricket’s integration programme, was not spared when he took up the Zimbabwe Cricket’s director of cricket position.

His exploits as a top Zimbabwe batsman in international cricket was ignored completely and he was blamed for all the wrong things that happened in the game.

So if they did not allow Masakadza room to manoeuvre, it becomes a dream to expect the same crowd to embrace Mutendera as a selector.

The same crowd has never embraced Stuart Matsikenyeri, they never embraced Douglas Hondo, and the list is endless.

For that reason, it is important that the key stakeholders in cricket handle social media comments carefully and not fall into a trap.

The humiliation suffered at Queens Sports Club on Tuesday can never be defended but, at the same time, it should not be used to pursue a never-ending agenda that seeks to reverse the small gains of spreading the game to all communities. 

For now, the Afghanistan cricket team is now in Zimbabwe to take on the Chevrons in all formats of the game until next month.

The Chevrons owe cricket lovers a decent, victorious series.