Batting expertise enhance national technical team

In the year under review, Grant Flower joined the national technical team as the batting coach and  former West Indies batsman Brian Lara was contracted for a period of five months to conduct three spells of seven day batting clinics.

Local and international coaches join forces

The franchises also saw an injection of expertise as internationally acclaimed cricketers joined each franchsie in a bid to expose players to international standards. Andrew Hall joined Mash Eagles, David Houghton joined Matabeleland Tuskers, Allan Donald joined Mountaineers, Jason Gillespie joined the Midwest Rhinos and Monty Lynch became head coach at Southern Rocks. Gary Brent has also joined the Zimbabwe Cricket as a coach based at the High performance Centre.
It   has  been  felt  that  the  missing  link  within  our  development  program  has  been  that  of  quality  coaching. To  alleviate  the  problem a  National Coaching  Manager Andrew Waller  was  appointed  to  assist  with  improving  coaching  standards  by  upgrading  the  current  coaches  as  well  as   monitoring  and  supervising  their  day  to  day  activities. He, together with Development Coaching Co-coordinator Ian Tinker and National Development Manager Nick Singo, an assessment programme with over 100 coaches was conducted nationwide in an attempt to assess the current level of expertise and plan for future needs.

Coaching courses

Uplifting  the  standards  of  cricket  in  the  schools  has  remained  as  one  of  our  major  objectives. In  order  to  improve  the  standards  we  have  run  several  coaching  courses  for  both  school  masters  and  school  coaches. Towards  the  end  of  October  some  national  development  coaches  started  assisting  and  coaching  in  the  high  density  areas. Some  have  already  been  to  private  schools  like  Lomagundi,  Peterhouse and  Ruzawi.
Also through the development programme, army sports masters undertook a Basic/Intermediate Cricket Coaching Course.
All courses were designed to further the knowledge of the current coaches/teachers in the various franchises and schools and to keep them updated with new ideas, coaching skills and techniques.

Spin Doctor Terry Jenner’s visit to Zimbabwe

We learned with great sadness of the death of world renowned wrist spin coach Terry Jenner in May 2011.
Young Zimbabwean cricketers were able to – if only for a moment- benefit from the expert coaching and mentoring that helped shaped the careers of Australian greats like Shane Warne.
During three coaching clinics held in Harare and Bulawayo, Children from Prince Edward High School, St Georges College, St John’s College and junior spin bowlers from Takashinga Cricket Club were treated to some top class training by the man who will always be affectionately remembered as “the spin doctor.”
The 66 year old coach believes he still had a lot to offer Zimbabwean players especially at the franchise level, he wrote on his personal blog soon after his visit “My passion is for Spin Bowling and I live this through assisting to develop spinners by enhancing their gift,” a lucid indication of an assertive man who was on a mission.

Breast Cancer Awareness

The CBZ Bank Zimbabwe National cricket team pledged its support for the Global Breast Cancer Awareness month by wearing their pink ribbons during the MTN ODI match against the Proteas in Benoni.  This is the second year that ZC has supported this worthy cause.

Coaching Boys into Brothers for Life

The Zimbabwe office of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is currently working with four of our players: captain Brendan Taylor ; Hamilton Masakadza; Tatenda Taibu; and Elton Chigumbura in its multi-media communication programme “Coaching Boys into Brothers for Life” which focuses on using sport to influence HIV prevention and positive behaviour in the areas of sexuality, violence against women, substance abuse and trafficking.