Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
THE past year has seen Zimbabwe Cricket fans go to stadia clad in various regalia all meant to send a message. Previously, calls have been made to have fans don red overalls, school uniforms and or white garments depending on the opponent of the day.
Today, the Chevrons are set to face Pakistan in the first game of the three-match One Day International (ODI) series at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
A plea has been sent to all the cricket faithful in Bulawayo to make their way to the city’s home of cricket wearing orange.
Orange is not just any other colour!
This is a colour of hope, a colour of perseverance, a colour of happiness and a colour of joy. Orange is the national brand colour of KidzCan Zimbabwe, an organisation that is doing philanthropic work for childhood cancer in Zimbabwe.
Their vision is to help increase the survival rate of childhood cancer in Zimbabwe by the year 2030. In trying to raise awareness about childhood cancer, the organisation needs support and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has taken a stance to extend a helping hand as all proceeds from today’s game against Pakistan will be directly donated to KidzCan Zimbabwe in support of childhood cancer.
In an interview with Zimpapers Sports Hub, KidzCan Zimbabwe executive director Daniel Mckenzie said they are grateful to ZC for supporting the organisation.
Mckenzie called on the Bulawayo community to support this worthy cause.
“On behalf of KidzCan Zimbabwe and all the children that we support, we are very honoured and humbled by this kind gesture that Zimbabwe Cricket has taken to officially adopt KidzCan as its charity of choice.
“This means a lot, not only in financial support that they can give but to think about the fact that we have our national players, who are our ambassadors, to raise awareness and talk about childhood cancer, it raises that awareness.
“The challenges that we face in our communities are having people and parents and families not knowing that children do get cancer. The fact that Zimbabwe Cricket is out there raising the flag of childhood cancer, hopefully people can start talking about childhood cancer and preventing it early because early detection is the best prevention. If detected early, no child should die of cancer, children can be treated if they are presented and detected early,” said Mckenzie.
He added: “So we are very grateful for this One Day International donation to KidzCan and childhood cancer in Zimbabwe. We are hoping that this is a lasting relationship and through the support of our communities, they can come through and make a difference to make sure that we increase the survival rate of childhood cancer in Zimbabwe so that Zimbabwe can also reach WHO’s global initiative of 60 percent survival rate. If we all come together dressed in orange, we can all play our part to help make a difference. To help increase the survival rate of childhood cancer.”
The partnership with ZC is also about raising awareness of childhood cancer. Our KidzCan logo is now embedded on the Zimbabwe Cricket national jersey, again, to raise awareness of childhood cancer.
Today’s game will be a tall order for the Zimbabwean side who last beat Pakistan in a one-day match in Harare in 2015.
This will be the first ODI series between the two nations in four years having last faced in Rawalpindi in 2020.
Pakistan last played 50-over cricket in Zimbabwe in 2018 at Queens Sports Club where they registered a 5-0 whitewash.
This will also be the first international game at Queens Sports Club since the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers in July last year.
The other two matches will be played on Tuesday and Thursday followed by the T20Is scheduled for 1, 3 and 5 December.
Today’s highly anticipated encounter is scheduled to start at 9.30am with gate charges pegged at US$3 for the rest of the ground and US$10 for the grandstand. —brandon_malvin
