A Happy New Year to all our readers and to all genuine cricket-lovers everywhere. It has not been a happy New Year, though, for Zimbabwean or South African cricketers, struggling unsuccessfully overseas, or indeed for Bangladesh, overwhelmed yet again in a manner that should wake up the ICC to the fact that they did far too little to prepare their latest full member for the realities of Test cricket.

For Zimbabwe, the First Test match against Sri Lanka went pretty much as could be forecast. Sri Lanka batted first and their grossly talented batsmen built up a huge total against an innocuous Zimbabwe bowling line-up. Then, aided as usual by umpiring errors that really did no more than hasten the inevitable, they failed twice with the bat, following on to be beaten by an innings.

Incredibly, Zimbabwe set a record by being the first Test team to play in Sri Lanka without a specialist spinner. Captain Brian Murphy, out of form and confidence, felt he had no alternative but to stand down – and there was no other specialist spinner in the touring party! Surely the experienced Paul Strang should have been there, with Raymond Price a good alternative. Instead Zimbabwe had to rely on a four-man pace attack, backed only by two part-time spinners in Trevor Gripper and Grant Flower. Perhaps this was what persuaded them to take what at this distance (and in the absence of any discussion of the issue in the match reports) seems to be the incredible decision to put Sri Lanka in to bat on winning the toss. However justified it may have seemed at the time, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and this decision proved indigestible.

The present trend of play in Zimbabwe cricket suggests we can hope for no better in the two remaining Tests. Sri Lanka have an awesome array of talent, especially in batting, and Zimbabwe have found the island the hardest place of all to tour – so far they have lost every single match they have ever played against the home side there. Four years ago, as I have mentioned before, they almost did achieve the near-impossible by winning a Test match there, only to be robbed by craven umpiring.

If they play their best, and the home side does not, it is just conceivable they might be able to match Sri Lanka in one match, although they are without several of their experienced players on this tour. But to play their best they need to show more spirit than they have done for a long time. Just occasionally Zimbabwe surprise us with an unexpected victory, but things look very bleak at the moment.

Further evidence that they could do better, with the bat at least, comes with the statistic that in both innings of the First Test, five batsmen passed 20. Yet not a single one reached 50. They did the hard work, but then got themselves out when they should have been setting their sights on a really big score.

Back home, Bryan Strang, whose accuracy would have been invaluable on this tour, has in disenchantment announced his retirement from Zimbabwe cricket. He fought his way back to fitness after a hamstring injury in August, only to be overlooked by the selectors yet again, even for the Zimbabwe Board XI. He has now had enough, and is looking to find a job and play out his career overseas, in England or perhaps for a provincial side in South Africa.

Bryan is a mercurial character and may change his mind, as he has done before. He has not always been easy for the administrators to get on with and he has sometimes been his own worst enemy, but Zimbabwe cricket cannot afford the loss of another experienced player with much to offer. Player dissatisfaction, some of it perhaps self-imposed, is surely a part of the team's current failures, although it is impossible to say how much. But it is an issue that needs to be recognized, tackled and resolved.

A New Year is also a time for looking back, and we can spare a moment for what might have been in Zimbabwe cricket. Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson both walked out on the country just over a year ago, while several months ago Trevor Madondo, our most talented black batsman, sadly died of cerebral malaria. Updated profiles of all three are included in this issue, along with one of Bryan Strang.

ZIMBABWE A IN KENYA

The Zimbabwe A team has just returned from an unsuccessful tour to Kenya, although they did fight back to win the last two one-day matches once the series had already been divided. Alistair Campbell, who was there, talks about that tour in this issue and he reveals how Kenya's distinctive game plan took the Zimbabweans by surprise.

THE JUSTIN ONTONG AFFAIR

South African cricket, battered by the Australians as their players appear to have lost their spirit as well as their quality pace attack, is embroiled in another controversy as their board president vetoed the team chosen for the Third Test against Australia, insisting that coloured player Justin Ontong replace white player Jacques Rudolph in the selected team.

This is an issue that also causes controversy in Zimbabwe, but here I am only going to comment on the situation as it concerns the young all-rounder Ontong. Playing for one's country for the first time, being selected as one of the eleven best, should be a source of tremendous personal joy and sense of achievement. Is that still possible when the player knows that he is in the team, not because his ability demanded it, but because the colour of his skin got him in?

How can Ontong be expected to take a real pride in his selection under these circumstances? The decision to put him in the national side because of the colour of his skin has stripped him of the dignity and worth he would deserve as being officially rated as one of his country's eleven best. Surely he must feel demeaned by his inclusion under such circumstances, especially as he failed as a player in the warm-up match against New South Wales immediately before the Test.

The `quota system', supposedly designed to combat racism, actually exacerbates any that is there. White players omitted in favour of black or coloured players of lesser quality will naturally resent it; so will their team-mates, who want to play in the strongest possible team. The policy hits at team spirit and demeans the individual promoted on race rather than merit.

By all means spend extra money to help the disadvantaged, but when it comes to selection on merit, surely all unprejudiced people must agree: the best team must be selected. It only causes trouble to put race or age or privilege or lack of it ahead of sheer merit. Ontong has become a Test player but at the same time, knowing he was not there on merit, he has become a victim.

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