By John Ward

Welcome to the first issue of Zimbabwe Cricket Online for the 2001/02 season. Every week we plan to bring you news of cricket all over Zimbabwe, although for reasons beyond our control we will not be able to cover every area of the game, or even as extensively as we have done in the past. Still, we will try our best.

In this issue we bring you news from Mashonaland, Matabeleland and Manicaland,and also a report on the first round of the Vigne Cup, the Mashonaland club competition. Unfortunately our regular club cricket contributor, Clive Ruffell, is no longer able to cover this, and we would like to thank him for his outstanding contributions of the past. Larry Moyo, sports reporter for The Herald, has willingly taken over this task. We also include a look at the coming season, through the eyes of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union managing director Dave Ellman-Brown, whose energy on behalf of cricket in this country remains as strong as ever. [More]

INTERVIEW

Dave Ellman-Brown

Zimbabwe cricket's dynamic chief executive (shortly to be managing director) Dave Ellman-Brown talks to John Ward about the coming season and reviews the past and present. [More]

CFX Academy players in the provinces
The Zimbabwe Cricket Academy year has ended and this year's players have been allocated to the various provinces. The Academy year lasts eight months; in previous years a four-month gap has been taken from May to August to allow the players to experience club cricket in England. This year, however, due to visa difficulties and the winter tours taking place in Zimbabwe, it was decided to run the eight months from January to August and then allocate the students to the provinces immediately, instead of the following January as usual. [More]

STATISTICS

Andy Flower in Test cricket [More]

Grant Flower in Test cricket [More]

Alistair Campbell in Test cricket[More]

Stuart Carlisle in Test cricket[More]

Thoughts on the South Africa series
Andy Flower is a great cricketer. After his feats against the powerful South African bowling attack, this can be said without any doubt at all. He is not a batting genius in the mould of Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara. He is simply a very talented player who has made just about the most of his ability that any human being is capable of making. He is in the same mould as Steve Waugh, a batsman rightly respected and admired round the world for doing exactly the same. [More]

More cricket in Mash than ever before
Nick Chouhan, chairman of the Mashonaland league and discipline committee, is delighted that more adult cricket is to be played in Mashonaland than ever before this coming season. [More]

Vigne Cup Report
by Larry Moyo

Defending champions Old Georgians opened their defence of the Mashonaland Vigne Cup First League title with a five-wicket win over last season's runners-up Alexandra Sports Club at Old Georgians. Elsewhere Old Hararians and Harare Sports Club posted crushing victories over Universals and Takashinga. [More]

Matabeleland Cricket Report
by Derrick Townshend

The Matabeleland squad will be announced within a few weeks and will be bolstered by players who have completed their term at the CFX Academy; namely, Wisdom Siziba, Matthew Townshend and Keith Dabengwa. The other two players from Bulawayo who also attended the academy, Terence Duffin and Ian Coulson, will be moving to provinces outside Bulawayo, the Midlands and Manicaland respectively. [More]

Manicaland Cricket Report
by Nigel Fleming

Whilst all eyes were on the action in the First Test in Harare a fortnight ago, Manicaland's own season got under way at Mutare Sports Club with the annual Casuals Junior Cricket festival. The event has been staged for over 30 years and draws young cricketers from around Zimbabwe. Participants are aged between 9 and 14 years and are graded into five balanced sides that play short matches in a weekend of intense rivalry. Originally named the Wilkenson Festival after its founder and long-time organiser Buddy Wilkenson, the festival has given an early stage to most of the big names in modern Zimbabwe cricket. [More]

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