Cricket talent gathers

An array of Zimbabwe’s top young cricket players are gathered in Harare for the Old Mutual National Cricket Festival with the aim of one day taking over in the national team.

The Zimbabwean team is suffering heavy humiliation on the international stage and the festival is aimed at identifying, nurturing, and developing junior players for the national team.

Over 59 schools from around the country and two from South Africa are in for the tournament in which the teams will play four games against each other with one of the organisers of the competition, Kevin Atkinson saying this is the biggest cricket festival ever.

The three day tournament which runs until Thursday is being conducted under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Junior Cricket Committee and the Zimbabwe Schools Cricket Development Committee.

Old Mutual Chief Executive Officer, John Mushosho, says they have rolled out a $50, 000 sponsorship for the competition which is being held at four different venues and will consist of a 50 limited overs game.

The three teams which have come from South Africa are St Andrews from Grahamstone, and Prestige from Johannesburg.

Another tournament, the St Georges Twenty 20 involving 12 Zimbabwean teams and three from South Africa, has also been lined up for this weekend.

Both tournaments are for players between 11 to 19 years and could be the starting point in revitalising the national team.

National team Assistant Coach, Steve Mangongo, said most of the players in the national team are being picked on reputation instead of current form, revealing that Zimbabwe needed fresh inspiration.

Post published in: Cricket

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