Tours In retrospect: Zimbabwe in Sri Lanka and Pakistan

Much of the information contained in this article has been supplied by Sri Lanka tour manager Denis Streak, Pakistan tour manager Babu Meman, captain Alistair Campbell, coach Dave Houghton and vice-captain Andy Flower.

Sri Lanka
Zimbabwe's tour of Sri Lanka was the country's most disappointing to date. All the matches were lost: the three Singer Trophy matches and the two Tests. The main reason was simply that Sri Lanka were much the better side. They looked an infinitely better and more positive team than the one that had played such negative cricket on their tour of Zimbabwe two years earlier. On the other hand, Zimbabwe had to face a number of serious handicaps.

Zimbabwe went into the tour without the services of Dave Houghton, their leading batsman and their only player who had toured Sri Lanka back in 1983/84. Houghton was unable to tour owing to his coaching commitments with Worcestershire, and particularly frustrating was the fact that he is a brilliant player of spin bowling whose expertise would have helped his fellow batsmen. Then, in the First Test, strike bowler Heath Streak broke down with a groin injury that also kept him out of the tour to Pakistan. This was a sickening blow. This occurred after Eddo Brandes had returned home in mid-tour for business reasons.

The weather, practice facilities and pitches were all a serious handicap to Zimbabwe's depleted team. The rainy weather was of course beyond the control of the Sri Lankan authorities, but the practice facilities were unsatisfactory. Due to the rain, practice on dry centre pitches was very limited, and the Sri Lankan team were given what was available. Zimbabwe had to make do with indoor nets, which were totally different from the conditions they would face during the Tests. It is common practice for the home team to prepare pitches to suit their own players, and Sri Lanka did this. The pitches were slow and turned sharply, with the ball constantly keeping low; in fact, in the Tests it turned half a metre on the first day. Zimbabwean batsmen are at the best of times comparatively weak against spin, and in Muralitharan and Silva Sri Lanka had two of the world's best. Zimbabwe had the rapidly improving Paul Strang; off-spinner Andrew Whittall bowled well, better than his figures suggest, but he was not in the same class and faced Sri Lankan batsmen who knew their own pitches and were adept at handling spinners. Zimbabwe did not even have the benefit of a practice match to help them acclimatise, an omission which further handicapped the team.

Faced with such overwhelming odds, it seemed that Zimbabwe were virtually on a hiding to nothing, and unfortunately at times they seemed to play like men without hope. Confidence was lost, and with this attitude it is impossible to play one's best. In addition the weather, when it was not raining, was very hot and humid. Sri Lanka lies near the equator and the low altitude and the time of year, late summer, made sticky, exhausting heat inevitable.

The Singer Trophy
The Singer matches, although all three were lost, contained some bright spots. In the first match, against Australia, Zimbabwe batted poorly and were easily beaten. The bowling proved inadequate against India, and an Indian journalist remarked on Zimbabwe's lack of ambition and self-belief; they no longer believed in their ability to cause an upset. He was, however, full of praise for Craig Wishart's superb fifty.

A similar attitude seemed evident against Sri Lanka. Zimbabwe, batting first, only lost five wickets, too fearful of a late-order collapse such as happened against India to pulverise the bowling. Then they removed the famous Sri Lankan openers for 25, only for Aravinda da Silva to come in and hit a brilliant match-winning century. Throughout the tour the experience and skill of Dave Houghton was sorely missed.

The Players
Then, in the First Test, Heath Streak broke down. The slowness of the home pitches meant that, apart from the spinners, only a bowler of real pace could hope to break through. Henry Olonga had some fine spells, and his figures did not do him justice. His job, however, is a strike bowler, and he loses his thrust if the situation demands a stock bowler, or a container in one-day cricket. The bowlers often found themselves unable to break through the lower order batting, and there were some frustrating tail-end partnerships. The skills of Paul Strang were vital, and he bowled immaculately throughout.

The poor form of the Flower brothers, especially Andy, was disappointing. All cricketers have spells of poor form to endure, and it was just one of those things. Andy should not be long in recovering his form, which showed signs of improvement in Pakistan, as he is feeling much more relaxed without the burden of captaincy. He is not hankering after the captain's job again yet, but is quite happy to continue for the present as wicketkeeper. Mark Dekker looked good at times, showing the class of a Test player but not the runs, as he frequently got out when he appeared to have settled in well. Guy Whittall played some good innings, but did not have the best of fortune with umpiring decisions, which as so often happens were a bone of contention at times.

In general, the batsmen tended to settle in and look set for a useful innings, only to get out without producing something of real stature. Perhaps the most praiseworthy innings of the tour was Ali Shah's 63 in the Second Test, where he gave an object lesson in occupying the crease and fighting for every run in difficult circumstances. It is sad for Zimbabwe that his business so often interferes with his cricket; he is preoccupied during home tours and often unavailable to tour overseas -- as was the case with the visit to Pakistan that follows. At the age of 37 he probably will not go on much longer, and at the end of his career he will probably leave behind a feeling that such a fine all-round player with a big heart never quite fulfilled his potential.

Alistair Campbell, on his first tour as captain, was generally agreed to have done a fine job. He handled the team well, and pays tribute to the support of his senior players, notably the Flower brothers and Paul Strang. He found that as captain a bad day's cricket affected him much more, and experienced the frustration of captaining a weaker team. He sees as a major part of his job the need to instil pride, determination and confidence in his players. These qualities appeared to be lacking at times in Sri Lanka, but there were more positive signs in Pakistan. He knows that, to be realistic, they cannot expect to win all the time, but the prime aim must be simply to be competitive. A positive and confident attitude is vital.

As usual when Sri Lanka are the opposition, the relationships between the teams were very good. The Sri Lankans are an open, friendly people, and their hospitality, according to Denis Streak, was `fantastic'. There are several personal friendships between the members of the rival teams, and they frequently enjoyed each other's company off the field.

Pakistan
Within a month, the team, or the remnants of it, was off to Pakistan, Zimbabwe's second tour of that country. They travelled without the injured Heath Streak, who had first made his mark on international cricket on the tour three years previously. Also unavailable were Ali Shah, Eddo Brandes, Craig Evans and Wayne James, while Henry Olonga was also soon on the way back due to injury. Zimbabwe's touring team was one of the youngest ever in Test cricket, containing six twenty-year-olds, including the promising young black pace bowlers Mpumelelo Mbangwa and Everton Matambanadzo. The great bonus was the return of Dave Houghton, both as player and coach, and as expected his presence was vital in every way.

Zimbabwe generally showed a considerable improvement on their performances in Sri Lanka, although they still did not play consistently to potential. They were based in the northern city of Lahore for most of their tour. This time they did enjoy the benefit of a warm-up match before the international matches, and this proved invaluable in helping the players to adjust, especially those who had not toured Pakistan before. Zimbabwe came close to repeating their performance in New Zealand by winning this match, but were frustrated by an unbeaten ninth-wicket partnership which earned the home side a draw.

Conditions were very different from those in Sri Lanka, but that is of course a necessary learning experience for our cricketers. The pitches were generally grey and barren, with no grass. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, rated by Dave Houghton as the two best bowlers in the world, do not assault the batsmen with constant bouncers, as so many pace bowlers have done over the years since Larwood and Voce, but instead pitch the ball right up to the batsmen, swinging the new ball in orthodox fashion, and then using reverse-swing when the ball aged, which only took about thirty overs on those harsh pitches. This put the Zimbabweans at a further disadvantage: after thirty overs their pace bowlers could do nothing with the ball, not having the extreme pace or ability to bowl reverse swing. Reverse swing also highlighted our batsmen's technical deficiencies; they were regularly rapped on the pads three or four times an over, and could not complain about most of the lbw decisions given against them. It was often fatal to play back, as a full-length ball frequently skidded through low, yet at that pace still carried to the wicketkeeper twenty-five metres back. At least they did not have to worry unduly about bouncers, as to obtain sufficient bounce a bowler would have to pitch the ball extremely short and the result would be fairly innocuous.

The Pakistani Tests
The First Test was played at Sheikhapura, a new Test venue not far from Lahore where the team stayed each night. It is an excellent stadium with good facilities, but the need to travel there and back from Lahore each day -- an hour's journey with a police escort; two hours without! -- was a disadvantage they would have preferred to avoid.

The sound condition of the pitch persuaded Zimbabwe to bat on winning the toss, but they slumped to 142 for six. However, Grant Flower was still there, fighting it out, and now Paul Strang joined him to play one of Zimbabwe's greatest innings and Zimbabwe's first Test century by a player not chosen primarily for his batting. Strang's century partnership with Grant and later an 87-run stand with his brother Bryan took Zimbabwe through to 375, a great improvement on Sri Lanka. This was the one innings where Wasim and Waqar were unable to apply a great amount of reverse swing; they kept asking for the ball to be changed, but supplies ran out, and they ended up using one of Zimbabwe's net balls! Pakistan were struggling at 237 for seven at one stage, five of them to Paul Strang, when teenager Saqlain Mushtaq joined Wasim Akram at the crease in preparation for one of Test cricket's greatest feats.

For Dave Houghton, it was a strong reminder of Kapil Dev's fantastic innings of 175 not out against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup in England. Wasim, like Kapil, had never played an innings remotely comparable before, and will probably never do so again. It was indeed a truly great innings, 257 not out. It included twelve sixes, a new Test record, but large portions of his innings consisted of patient defence against the good deliveries. He simply waited for the loose ball and destroyed it, for over eight hours in total. Saqlain at the other end, played primarily for his off-breaks, also batted with sound defence and good common sense, and their 313 for the eighth wicket was a new Test record, easily beating the 246 by Les Ames and `Gubby' Allen for England against New Zealand back in 1931. When Guy Whittall finally broke through to bowl Saqlain, the remaining two wickets also fell quickly.

Zimbabwe now had to fight to save the match, not too difficult a task on a solid batting pitch, unless their morale was low. They stood up to the challenge well, in a rather tame ending to a noteworthy Test. Unfortunately, Henry Olonga did not complete the match and had to return home with a groin injury.

The Second Test, however, was very disappointing as far as the batting was concerned. The team went into the Test with confidence, but this was soon shattered by truly brilliant bowling from Wasim. Only Andy Flower, showing an improvement in form, could hold him off for long, but some of the other batsmen appeared a little overwhelmed. Match referee Jackie Hendriks, the former West Indian wicketkeeper who also officiated at Zimbabwe's first Test victory, rated this as one of the best displays of fast bowling he had ever seen. Wasim's control was incredible.

The bowlers showed much more spirit; Zimbabwe's opening pair of Everton Matambanadzo and `Pom' Mbangwa took a wicket each to reduce Pakistan to 9 for two, but Saeed Anwar, a rising star in world cricket, led a recovery. Injuries had left the bowling short of firepower. Houghton and Campbell both scored fifties to lead a Zimbabwean recovery in the second innings but, when both were out very early on the third day, the team sank without much fight.

The Limited-Over Series
This began at Quetta, in the mountains near the Iranian border, and the weather was much cooler. The facilities were poor, though, and the outfield grassless. Zimbabwe might well have won the first match, but the batting of the Flower brothers stood out above a poor performance by the rest. Pakistan owed their victory to a fine 72 not out by former captain Saleem Malik.

Further poor batting resulted in defeats in the two remaining matches. Andy Flower at Lahore and Grant at Peshawar stood out with good fifties, while the other batsmen contributed little. The Peshawar match, though, quickly degenerated into a farce. Too many spectators were allowed into the stadium and they spilled on to the playing area. Then,, when local hero Shahid Afridi was dismissed first ball by Matambanadzo, the mood turned nasty. Rocks and glass were thrown on to the field, and the riot police led a couple of baton charges. Cricket could not be played properly under such conditions, with so many interruptions of play, but the local authorities feared what violence might be done were the match to be abandoned. So the match continued, but Zimbabwe could hardly be expected to perform well in the circumstances. Pakistan being a strict Moslem country, alcohol is banned; had this not been the case, the mind boggles at what could have happened!

The Zimbabweans found that, with Wasim Akram as captain, the Pakistanis were pleasant opponents and there was very little `sledging' on the field. Out of 20 Tests, Zimbabwe have played Pakistan eight times, more often than any other country. One Test has been won and five lost, with two draws. We owe a lot to Pakistan for their encouragement.