Former national all-rounder Gus Mackay has been appointed as general manager of the Mashonaland Cricket Association. In the past the MCA has earned itself a reputation among many as an insipid body without vision. Gus intends to change all that.

Some time ago the Zimbabwe Cricket Union decided that the four main provincial associations should become professional, employing a small staff under a general manager to run day-to-day affairs and plan for a better future in their areas. The Mashonaland Cricket Association advertised for the position of general manager, and Gus, who had been a member of the Mashonaland board for four years, applied for the job.

“I decided that I had a passion for the game and this was the route I wanted to take,” he says. “It was a good career move. Being involved in the game as a player and having worked as an administrator on the board, it was really something I wanted to do.”

Resigning from his previous job in commerce, he started on 1 June 2002, based in two offices on the ground floor of the media centre at Harare Sports Club. “It was a good job,” he says, “but this is a much better challenge. I’m enjoying this far more.

“We have a situation here where we’re trying to raise the standard of cricket in the province,” he says. “The position in cricket now that it is such a professional game and one of the fastest-growing sports is that there is so much administration and channeling of ideas that has to be put in place. To do it, you have to raise the standard to produce the best players. There are certain things we have changed, to try to make sure that everyone is getting a fair chance to show their ability, in whatever league they’re playing.

“It also involves helping other clubs. It’s really an interaction rather than Mashonaland on the one hand trying to run cricket in the province, and the clubs on the other hand trying to run it. We plan to be interactive to a much greater degree than before.”

Last season there were problems with the local Umpires’ Association: the membership was falling below danger point and many members felt they were getting no support from the authorities. “I can safely say that is back on track,” asserts Gus. “We have now a partnership deal going with the Umpires’ Association, whereby this office has more control concerning the umpires; we’ve had a massive recruitment drive and an addition 15 have been recruited through a development programme. We also have an abundance of scorers now.

“So things are slowly starting to come together, but all these things take time. Financially many clubs over the last few years have found it very difficult, and we’re into a situation now where we take responsibility for certain improvements in grounds. If you go to Old Hararians and Alexandra Sports Club, the outfields have been scarified.

“We try to help the clubs as much as we can because it’s our duty. If we want cricket to survive in this country we have to help them as well.”

Under Gus’s direction, MCA have produced a document entitled ‘Raising the Standard’, which outlines the direction that he would like to see cricket in Zimbabwe in general and Mashonaland in particular taking. It includes such headings as Mission Statement and Core Values (named as commitment, equality, excellence, innovation, loyalty, respect, teamwork and transparency). It outlines the structure and requirements at various levels of the game, and the requirements of clubs, players, grounds and facilities, umpires, scorers and development, and how each of these needs and goals is to be developed further.

When the past reputation of Mashonaland cricket administration is mentioned, Gus replies, “This is a business now. I think it stems from the top, where we have Vince Hogg, who is a very good communicator, a very good businessman, and that has filtered down into the provinces. If you look at the general managers of the provinces, I think we have an excellent team. We played the game, we have a real passion for it and we want people to know about it. The only way we can do about it is by communicating and letting the media know what’s happening.

“I think over the season you will see a lot of improvements in certain areas because that’s the way we need to spread the game. Obviously with the restructuring of the Logan Cup and with the World Cup coming up, this will probably be the best season for domestic cricket because everyone is vying for places. The whole standard will rise, aided by the national players being here for most of the season.”

In the past, Logan Cup cricket was played in Mashonaland in an air of seeming apathy, in contrast to the enthusiasm with which matches were greeted in Mutare and Kwekwe. There was no advertising, no facilities for spectators - who, it seemed, were neither expected nor desired - although last season the MCA did finally get round to operating the main scoreboard for matches at Harare Sports Club. What plans does Gus have for promoting this competition, in which he himself will be playing?

“We need to promote the game,” he acknowledges. “We as cricket administrators and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union have been a bit at fault. If you look what we’ve done for Test matches over the last two years, I believe we should have been doing that five years ago, bringing in these young children to watch the matches. We want to do something similar for the Logan Cup and the one-day games because the national players are going to be on display.

“Yes, it does cost money, but at the end of the day if you’re going to bring in 500 children and one of them turns out to be a Test player because he came and developed a passion for the game, it’s money spent now but a long-term investment.

“I have just finished negotiations with a major sponsor, PG Timbers. This will cover the Logan Cup teams, and the Vigne Cup will be renamed the PG Timbers Vigne Cup cricket league. On top of that there will be a results column in the paper every week to cover Vigne Cup fixtures.

“On 24 August we held our six-a-side tournament here, which is sponsored by the Keg and Maiden (the English-style pub in the Harare Sports Club pavilion), in conjunction with Mashonaland. It’s going to be an annual event now, known as the Keg and Maiden Six-a-Side Tournament. We had 12 participating teams, including a Golden Oldies side, the stars of the past, which was the Keg team. All the Harare first-team clubs had sides, and there were teams from Bulawayo, Kwekwe and Mutare; CFX Academy at well.

“It went off really well. It was a fund-raiser for clubs and we raised about Z$1.2 million, which was put back into the clubs. The Golden Oldies team had players like Geoff Marsh, Kev Curran, ‘Bundu’ Waller, Robin Brown, Malcolm Jarvis, Ali Shah and Rob Bentley, and they actually got to the final. It was a fun day, a family day, and above all the players enjoyed it. I think next year’s tournament will be a bigger event and will raise more money. So there’s a lot been done since 1 June, and there’s still a lot more to happen.”

Awakening the slumbering national media to domestic cricket is a difficult task. What ideas does Gus have in that regard?

“I’ve had a major gripe over the last year,” he says. He pays tribute to the work done for the Zimbabwe website to promote domestic cricket, but says, “I think we can improve on that. A lot of people have already asked me if the cricket season has started. Last week’s results were sent to the papers, but they weren’t in. At least now by securing a sponsor I know that every week we will have the results in the paper, so everyone will know what’s meant to be happening.

“It’s the only way to spread the game, telling people that certain clubs or certain players are doing well. Then when a guy walks on to the field to play for his country someone will ask, ‘Where does he come from?’ - ‘Oh, he’s done well in league.’ They’ll be aware of what has happened. As I see it, the role of this office is very important. We want the information to be given to as many people as we can.

“The media plays just as big a part as the players and sponsorship in developing the game, because that’s the easiest way of spreading the game. We’re all working for one goal and that’s Zimbabwe cricket. We have a huge task on our hands.

“I think the PG Timbers Vigne Cup will be the strongest competition in the country this year. When you see the results of national league matches, you need to remember that all the players come back to Harare to play Vigne Cup.

“We’ve actually changed the playing conditions for the first league this year. It is now declaration cricket, modelled on Birmingham League rules, where I played for many years, so I know how the system works. I find it to be a system that produces cricketers, and what we’re trying to do is bring out cricketers to play the longer version of the game.

“Instead of a bowler bowling ten overs, he’s now probably going to bowl 15 to 20 overs if he’s bowling well. It makes batsmen think how they’re going to score runs. It’s 110 overs in a day, a maximum of 55 in the first innings, but you can declare before that and use whatever overs are left to bowl at the other side. It’s basically an outright win or a winning draw or a losing draw.” He produces another booklet outlining the playing conditions in detail.

Where does all the finance come from, apart from PG Timbers. “Mashonaland has been lucky in the last couple of years in that we’ve been a major Test venue and we’ve raised a lot of money through match takings. We’ve never really had big sponsorship, but we try to cover what costs we can through sponsorship. Obviously we are going to need funding, because of cost of kit and everything else; we’re just in the process of ordering a big shipment of kit from Pakistan for our clubs.

“The World Cup participation is a key, and we need that money, especially from television rights. We will feed off ZCU a bit, but where we can I want to treat this as a separate fulltime business. We are the healthiest province financially and that’s why we’re able to do things that other provinces can’t. Hopefully in time other provinces will catch up. We’ve set the standard and hopefully the others will follow. If it happens at provincial level it’s easier for the ZCU. And the role of the general manager is to cover all those aspects.”

Gus at 35 is still playing for Old Georgians Sports Club in the club competitions and for Mashonaland in the Logan Cup, although no longer as captain. Where does he see his own career going?

“I’ve still got a bit left in me,” he muses. “I had a fantastic season last year and I still have a lot to offer the game. It’s nice being a player and having a job like this because you’re on the ground and know firsthand of any problems. You’ve experienced problems in the past so you can actually rectify them, as opposed to somebody coming in who has been out of the game and saying ‘How is everything operating?’ I know how things operate and what we need to do to improve. I plan to carry on for another year or two, to help the club and province.”

One major problem that was getting out of control last season was that of player behaviour, with a number of players and clubs earning bad reputation for abusive language and other misbehaviour normally deemed inappropriate on the cricket field. What is to be done about this?

“In this booklet of playing conditions for the season we’ve actually included a code of conduct to be adhered to,” Gus replies. “This is also part of our partnership with the umpires’ association. We have given an undertaking to the umpires’ association that any instances of on-field misbehaviour will be dealt with in a severe manner, because I think that was part of the problem with them last year - they didn’t want to umpire certain teams because they were getting abused. So we have given them a guarantee that if they umpire and they have a problem, they report it and it will be dealt with. So far, so good.

“With reference to sledging, there are two aspect to it. A bit of ‘chirping’ is all part of the game, but when it gets personal it goes too far. There is actually quite a fine line, because we want the games to be competitive, as you see it in Australia and South Africa and all these world teams. But we need to channel it so that it still remains a competitive game, played in good spirit, with a bit of ‘chirping’, perhaps, but once it crosses that line we will stamp it out.”

Gus gives every impression of being a dynamic administrator, a man with a mission. Fiercely competitive on the field, he is now applying those same qualities of determination to his job behind a desk. Mashonaland and indeed Zimbabwe cricket will be all the better for it.