The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
LAST season saw Bulawayo based Tuskers find the going tough in the country’s premier first-class cricket competition, the Logan Cup, which saw them finish second from bottom without a win.
Out of the four matches they played, Tuskers drew two and lost the same number to finish with 10 points and only ended above Mountaineers who were bottom on five points.
Fortunes however changed for Tuskers in the shorter version as they finished third in the Pro50 Championship before they went on to beat Eagles in the domestic Twenty20 competition they also won in the 2019/20 season.
As they prepare for the new season, Tuskers general manager, Nicholas Singo said they were looking to assemble a solid team that can dominate in all the three formats of the game. Tuskers are looking to bring in left-handed batsmen Ben Compton from the United Kingdom.
“We still looking at bringing in some players from outside Zimbabwe, we are looking at bringing in a few players from the UK, we also looking at bringing players from outside Bulawayo as well. I think it will be an exciting season for us.
“The idea being to create a very strong side, a very competitive side, we always want to win. This year we want to win the T20, as well as the Pro50. We also looking at the elusive cup, which is the Logan Cup, we are targeting it as well,’’ Singo said.
He feels that they found the going tough in the Logan Cup last season because they missed some of their experienced players at the start of the season.
“When we started, we had a few youngsters especially in the Logan Cup setup so they didn’t cope up, however when the older players came back, we started to see our team winning so we are hoping this year we going to have all our players when the season starts and they start on a strong note,’’ he said.
One of the players who should strengthen the Tuskers team in the upcoming season is batsman Tafara Mupariwa, who is back home after spending some time playing cricket in Australia. Mupariwa, the younger brother of Australia based former Zimbabwe international, Tawanda is already hard at work as he works towards the new season.
“Tafara Mupariwa has always been part of our plans, even when he went to Australia, he was always in touch with us and we are happy that he is back, as you can see, he is already working hard and he wants to break into the side, obviously he has to work hard to earn his place in the team.
“I like his attitude, very positive, works very hard, those are the kind of youngsters we want in the Tuskers set up,’’ reckoned Singo.
If all goes according to plan, Singo expressed his desire to come up with a strong team while giving an opportunity to youngsters such as Bright Phiri and Talent Dzikiti who showed a lot of promise last season.
“We want to assembly a very strong side, at the same time we don’t want to leave the youngsters behind, if we want to have a mixture of both the youth and the older guys so that we build a formidable team moving forward.”
Singo is excited that cricket has been given the green light to resume together with other sporting codes in the country. According to Singo, the effects of no activity saw cricket facilities being neglected since they were not being used.
“It makes me feel good, we have been out in the cold for too long, we were getting worried because we were losing players and our facilities were run down because obviously you don’t attend to facilities when you are not using them, maybe except for a stadium like Queens, otherwise the smaller stadiums were being affected so it was getting to a point where we were really worried,’’ Singo said.
Tuskers are starting their preparations for the new season on Tuesday when the players who are in Bulawayo get together as they gear up for domestic competitions, whose starting dates are yet to be availed.
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