Coaches chat

Chawaguta, who took over from Robin Brown last year, said Zimbabwe needed to lay down a sustainable and competitive domestic league and groom local players if ever Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) wanted to play competitive matches against international heavyweights, such as Australia.

I learnt a lot when I was in Australia. Their team is experienced unlike ours and it is certainly something that comes with age, he said. But the reason why Australia is powerful internationally is that their domestic league is very much competitive, it prepares the players for the tough international matches. They know what to do when they get to the national team.

The Zimbabwe national team has been starved of international matches as other International Cricket Council (ICC) Members continue to boycott touring the country.

Chawaguta said he wished to see his charges playing as much cricket as the international powerhouse.

Australia play a lot of cricket, they rest players not because they are injured, but because they have played just a lot of cricket. They had only a rest of 12 days in six months and if Zimbabwe can be exposed to such experience, our players will get to know how to deal with difficult situations when they regularly tested, he said.

ZC has for long been talking of their preparations for the return to Test Cricket, since 2007 raising hopes of watching the young, talented but inexperienced side wearing their whites on the crease against global cricket powerhouse, in the longer version of the game. As hope is almost fading amongst the cricket fanatics, Chawaguta said there would never be a time when Zimbabwe would be ready.

It is a gradual process, he said. When we started playing the local four dayers last year, most of the matches ended in the second day but this year there was a difference, the batsmen are now doing well and they are doing well to the test. We drew against Sri Lanka in the four-dayers last year and that is exactly what we need.

He added: We need to be playing more four day matches with sides like that. I dont find any reason why we should not play a test match or more four day games against a team like Bangladesh, they are struggling in test matches but no one is complaining.

We are definitely not in the same league with the Kenyans or Ireland because our A side beat them.

The Zimbabwe team selection has been inconsistent in recent years, with new faces featuring and disappearing with each tour. This has affected the players form and coaches failure to produce results.

Chawaguta hopes Zimbabwes panel of selectors headed by Kenyon Zeahl will change their selection criteria so as to base it on long term, to give players time to prove themselves. The selection has been affected with people demanding results and it has been difficult for coaches and selectors to access a player when we are exposed to very little cricket, he said.

Players need to learn from mistakes of each tour and implement the corrections but it is not easy when we dont play international matches regularly.