LAST ISSUE OF THE SEASON

This issue, number 21, will be the last of our regular weekly online magazines for the 2000/01 season. Domestic cricket has come to an end and there remain only the tours by Bangladesh, India and West Indies to cover, and material from these will appear on the Zimbabwe cricket site and in CricInfo immediately. As I will be reporting on all the tour matches, I will have little time to produce feature articles or do interviews, although the odd few will still be possible.

Instead, around each Friday we will be producing a `ZCO update', which will provide details and links for all the material to have been added to the site during the last week, for easy reference. I say `around' each Friday because our webmaster will also be involved in scoring or reporting on matches at times and may not always find it possible to update the site precisely on time. With only three members of CricInfo staff in Zimbabwe at present, we are not always able to do everything when we would like or cover everything as thoroughly as we wish – but we do our best and are grateful for the letters of appreciation and support we receive at times.

THIS ISSUE

The Logan Cup has been completed, with Mashonaland champions again after winning all their five matches. It is sad, though, that their performance has again been tarnished by their on-field behaviour – they are almost without spectator support at home and their attitude is unappreciated by the opposition, which is a sorry state for any team to be in. We hope that next season the provincial associations who have failed to support the Logan Cup may be enlightened and that ZCU chief executive Dave Ellman-Brown's promised action against erring players will be successful.

Manicaland found similar problems in their match against Mashonaland A, as reported by Nigel Fleming, but the Matabeleland match against the CFX Academy was a very pleasant game – especially for the former - played on a beautiful pitch in fine weather. The home province took advantage of the ideal conditions to register the highest ever first-class total by a Zimbabwean provincial team, as recorded by Derrick Townshend.

In Bulawayo I had the chance to catch up with four former Academy players, and their updated biographies appear in this issue: Mark Vermeulen, Clement Mahachi, Mluleki Nkala (who celebrated his 20th birthday a day early with a superb 168) and Ryan King.

We also include a preview of the Bangladeshi tour, which should see Zimbabwe at last improving its Test record and winning another one-day series at home – if the players are not over-confident. The tourists impressed with their open enthusiasm and considerable skill in the warm-up match against the CFX Academy, but their lack of experience and confidence is likely to be a handicap for some years yet, as Zimbabwe also found after gaining Test status. We can appreciate the difficulties our visitors have to face, but we are glad to welcome them to Test cricket.

At the moment, we plan for our ZCO magazine to resume in its present form after the South African tour in September, but there will be plenty of international cricket on the site between now and then. Keep visiting us!

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