The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
SECURING One Day International as well as Tests status for the country’s national women’s cricket team did not come easy as Zimbabwe Cricket managing director, Givemore Makoni had to do serious lobbying for that to happen.
At its board meeting held virtually on 31 March, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided that Test and ODI status shall be permanently awarded to all Full Member women’s teams. ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani, a member of the ICC board said Makoni had done most of the work in the Chief Executives’ Committee, which then made the recommendations to the world cricket governing body’s decision makers.
“It was not something that we were given without talking to people, it’s something that we had to put a presentation, lobby other members and put a cricket case and business case.
“On presentation, the ICC saw the business sense in it and the cricketing argument from its presentation. We are very supportive of the qualification pathway, that you have to earn, we agree that we must earn the ODI status. We are not in dispute with the pathway that the ICC had put in place for every member to earn the ODI status but it must be balanced with the investment,’’ Mukuhlani said.
Since they did not have ODI status, the Zimbabwean women could only play friendly matches whenever they took on fellow Full Members in a 50 over match, which was the case when Pakistan visited the country in February.
“Our situation was unique in the sense that we had to keep on playing with smaller nations because that’s what would make business sense.
“We are now bringing context and content when we play other Full Members because there is something to play for, the games count to our ranking as a country and for our players in terms of rankings,’’ he said.
For Makoni, only confirmed substantive ZC MD at the beginning of this year, it was a massive achievement for him to convince his colleagues in the CEC.
“We are quite happy with the effort that the MD put in, we are grateful to the other nations for support. He started as MD officially on 1 January, it’s a good feat to pull that, to have Test and ODI status. It then went on to benefit Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the process, which is a good thing. The MD played a major role to lobby at the CEC.”
Meanwhile, Mukuhlani has said the door remains open for Peter Moor, who rejected a contract extension from ZC to take up a deal with Munster Reds in the Ireland domestic competition. There are indications that Moor, a holder of an Irish passport could choose to represent Ireland in future.
“Anyone in the world who feels they want to represent Zimbabwe, as long as the statistics justify, the door is open.
The most important thing, there must be stats on the board, the selectors will have no choice but to select him,’’ Mukuhlani said.
In yesterday’s domestic Twenty20 match played at Harare Sports Club, Eagles defeated Mountaineers by seven wickets. Tuskers and Rhinos were meant to play each other yesterday but will now play on Thursday morning, with the final matches to take place on Friday.
The national team is getting into camp on Saturday, the same day that Pakistan arrive in the country for three Twenty20 Internationals and two Tests, all to be played at Harare Sports Club. — @Mdawini_29.
