By John Ward

Welcome to the final edition of Zimbabwe Cricket Online this year. With no cricket being played in Zimbabwe over the holiday period, we will take a break and will return in the New Year, by which time Zimbabwe will have played their Boxing Day Test against New Zealand and will be in the middle of the one-day series there before progressing to Australia.

In Australia Zimbabwe have a very real chance of reaching the finals against the home side, as West Indies, the third competing team, are at a low ebb and will not have Courtney Walsh in their side for the triangular tournament. In a similar situation in England earlier this year, Zimbabwe beat West Indies in all three of their encounters on the way to the final against England. It would be foolish to take anything for granted, but Zimbabwe have done it once already and the players know they can do it again. The wild card is, of course, Brian Lara, and if he plays to his best form there is not much Zimbabwe or anyone else can do about it. [More]

INTERVIEW

Gus Mackay

Since the retirement of Dave Houghton and apart from occasional appearances by Eddo Brandes, Andy Flower, now 32, has been the oldest member of the Zimbabwe team. Many may think it surprising, then, that a 33-year-old pace-bowling all-rounder should be poised to make his international debut for the country.

But Gus Mackay has had an unusual career. He spent eight years of his prime as a cricketer in England, playing in the Birmingham League, before returning to Zimbabwe in 1998 with the declared aim of playing for the country in the 1999 World Cup. Despite showing good form, he was overlooked for that event, but he did not allow it to crush his hopes and ambitions. [More]

Paul Strang

Paul Strang had his Indian tour with the national side cruelly cut short by a recurrence of the arm injury, a muscular or tendon strain that kept him out of most of last season. He had to return home and undergo treatment, the results of which are still awaited. He talks to John Ward about his injury and his visit to India.

Paul is a resilient character. This is his third successive international season severely curtailed by injury of one sort or another, but he remains positive, if rather frustrated, and eager to get back into action. [More]

Queens topple Alex as HSC crush Old Georgians
Club cricket report by Clive Ruffell

It was a weekend of surprise results as pace-setters Alexandra and Old Georgians were both humbled by less fancied teams in the Castle Lager National First League.

In Bulawayo, Queens Sports Club proved a point in beating Alex by three wickets in a low-scoring game to maintain their unbeaten record in the league this season. In hot and dry conditions, Alex batted first after winning the toss. Batting was difficult on a pitch which was producing some uneven bounce, but the Alex batsmen can only blame themselves for collapsing to 109 all out in just 36 overs. Spinners Ian Engelbrecht with 6/17 and Ian Coulson with 3/19 caused the damage while Gilmour top-scored for the visitors with 28. [More]

SCHOOLS

Falcon College Report, 2000
By Dave Grant (master i/c cricket)

Cricket has maintained its status as a top sport in the College. We lost virtually the entire first term to rain, which set us back considerably in terms of team and player development. At least one can say that our cricket was sacrificed to a worthy cause, but the effects were definitely felt in the third term. For all that, the College produced some good cricket and some excellent performances, and the future is secure.

2000 was always going to be a year of rebuilding. Nine of the 1999 team had left, and the team was young and inexperienced. Their performance through the year was uneven, but the development of the team was beyond doubt. By the third term the hesitant and introverted (on the field!) players that started the year seemed to realize that they were bona fide first eleven players, and played some fine cricket. [More]

LETTERS

Hi from Kanpur Dr.Situ (Kanpur, India)

Behaviour on the field Jeet Mukherjee (India)

Murray Goodwin Darren Schwarz (Melbourne)

More Under-19 cricket Roy Jones (U.K.)

School websites Ngoni Makoni
[More]

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