The Sunday News
Senior Sports Reporter
EXPERIENCED cricket administrator, Nicholas Singo is returning home to Bulawayo with his main aim to breathe life into the game which he believes has gone down over the years.
Singo has assumed the position of Bulawayo Metropolitan administrator while at the same time retained the post of Zimbabwe Cricket national schools manager. He started his double duties on 1 June and takes over the Tuskers administrator’s role from Stanley Staddon.
In an interview last Thursday, Singo said he is back to revitalise cricket in Bulawayo and give back to the community which supported him when he started off his career in the game as high density schools and Matabeleland Cricket Association board member in 1987. Singo said he had the backing of the schools, community as well as Bulawayo City Council.
“I am back home to revive cricket, the province has gone down over the years. I am what I am because of the support I got from the schools, community and even Bulawayo City Council who gave us the land to build Emakhandeni Cricket Club,’’ said Singo.
For him to achieve his goal, Singo is of the view that he should put in place an enabling environment for cricket to flourish.
His aim is ensure that the structures are there for the cricketers to play the game without any hindrance.
“My main aim is to create any enabling environment for cricket to thrive. When I say I create an enabling environment I need to make sure I have got the structures in place, the facilities are in place, equipment is in place so that the players when they come to train they don’t have to worry equipment, the facilities, that should be in place. Once I get that in place I know that everything will just flow,’’ said Singo.
He made it clear that he is not coming to Bulawayo to coach but he must make sure that the environment is there for those tasked with mentoring players do their duties without any impediment. Singo is a qualified level two coach, having acquired his certificate in Australia.
“I am not here to come and coach, the coaches are in place already but I have to create an enabling environment for them to coach well, I have to create an enabling environment for the players to enjoy cricket once more,’’ Singo said.
On what he thinks has gone wrong in Bulawayo since the time he left, Singo was not keen on dealing with the past but instead is focusing on moving forward by rectifying whatever could not been done in the proper way.
“What I have heard which I cannot substantiate is that the facilities were never availed to the players on time, there was always complaints that the facilities were not made available, things like wickets, nets were never available to the players. I want to rectify that and the ground staff also say they were not getting fuel from ZC, I can’t again say they were getting or not getting but what I know is ZC has always been supportive of programmes in the country,’’ said Singo.
The foundation of the game is always laid at schools level and Singo’s feeling is that the partnerships that he built during his time in Bulawayo were not maintained.
“Basically I think the problem is the relationships, you create relationships with schools, you create relationships with parents, with the communities, it becomes easy for you to operate. I think there was breakdown in that relationship, schools started operating on their own, Zimbabwe Cricket was now sort of a standalone institution which I think is not conducive for the development of cricket,’’ said Singo.
He is credited with grooming a number of cricketers who have gone on to play for Zimbabwe like Tawanda Mupariwa and Christopher Mpofu. What saddens Singo is the fact that Bulawayo has fallen behind smaller provinces like Mashonaland West when they should be in fact competing with Harare at age group level.
“What we are going to do is revive the grassroots programmes first and then we revive the high performance centres, remember the BAC which used to be a hive of activity in the afternoon, we want to make it a hive of activity once more. The better players from the high density areas, some of them will go to Emakhandeni, some of them will come to BAC, Tuesday, Thursday we will have a high performance training where the best of the best in Matabeleland will be trained at either Emakhandeni or BAC and I am hoping in two years time we will see a big change,’’ Singo said.
At the moment, only three coaches are employed by Zimbabwe Cricket, these being Trevor Phiri, Vincent Dururu and Christopher Phiri. Singo feels that is not enough. He plans to make use of contracted players such as John Nyumbu to impart their expertise to the youngsters during the off season.
“At the moment we have got three coaches and to be honest that’s not enough, however during this window period when the season is off what I am going to do is to use some of the players who are contracted by Tuskers to do some coaching, people like John Nyumbu I think those boys are good coaches in their own right so I am going to use all those contracted players to do coaching in schools, in high performance centres to make sure that we revive our cricket,’’ said Singo.
Who is Nicholas Singo
Born on 6 August 1959 in Bulawayo, Singo got involved in cricket in 1987 when he was co-opted into the Matabeleland Cricket Association board and was made coordinator for schools in the high density areas of Bulawayo. In 1991, he became Matabeleland schools manager but still sat on the provincial board. In 1997, he joined ZC as development manager, a post he occupied until 2004 when he became general manager for Masvingo.
In 2007, he returned to Bulawayo as general manager but did not stay much in the post prior to heading off to Harare as CFX Academy manager where he stayed for one and half years. At the end of 2007, Singo was appointed Matabeleland North general manager based in Hwange. He returned to Bulawayo again as general manager in 2009 but did not stay long before he was appointed as national development manager that same year, a post he held up to 2014. After a restructuring process at ZC, he was made national schools and age group manager from 2014.
Singo is a qualified B grade umpire and has served as a match referee over the years. He holds a Diploma in Education from Hillside Teacher’s College obtained in 1989 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports from the Zimbabwe Open University secured in 2005.
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