Story by Lawrence Trusida
CHEVRONS white-ball captain, Craig Ervine has challenged his teammates to transfer their domestic form into international success for the Zimbabwe national cricket team to perform well in international assignments.
The Domestic T20 series taking place in Harare has reached the halfway stage, with some big names already leading in the runs and wickets columns.
Mike Chinouya has taken the most wickets in the three matches so far with six scalps followed by Englishman Nick Gubbins, while Ernest Masuku, Antum Naqvi and Tanaka Chivanga are not too far behind.
In the batting department, former national team player PJ Moor leads the way with 152 runs, while Cephas Zhuwao who has hit two fifties so far is a close second, with Brian Bennett, Ryan Burl and Clive Madande all in the reckoning.
With most of the national team players doing well in domestic competitions ahead of the Chevrons’ upcoming tour of the Netherlands and World Cup qualifiers, national team captain, Craig Ervine has challenged his team to carry the form into national assignments.
“It’s just not about doing well on the domestic scene, we need to carry that form into international matches because the players are picked on form, so we need to make sure that what we do in domestic we also carry in forward if we want to be successful,” he said.
However, cricket experts believe Zimbabwe Cricket must revamp the domestic system to be more competitive and prepare players for international cricket.
Cricket expert Dean du Plessis said, “The jump from playing domestic cricket to international is just big, Chamu Chibhabha deserves to be playing for the national team because he has been doing well at domestic level but when he goes to international cricket he is quickly found out because the jump is just too big, it the same for many players, we need to make sure we play more A grade cricket with touring sides and exposing our youngsters to that environment so that they are ready for international cricket.’
The battle to make the final of the Domestic T20 competition continues this Friday with Eagles taking on Rhinos at Old Hararians in the morning, while the bottom two clubs: Tuskers and Lions clash at Harare Sports club at the same time.
Rocks and Mountaineers will meet in the afternoon at Old Hararians Sports Club in the last match of the penultimate day of the round-robin phase.
