Greetings from your new Manicaland correspondent, Nigel Fleming. I was born in Umtali, as it was then, in 1951 and came back to live here in Mutare, as it is now known, in 1983. I played a few times for Manicaland as a batsman but turned to umpiring in the mid-eighties and stood in 20 to 30 first-class games, before retiring a couple of years ago.

Manicaland, under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, are gearing most of their energies these days towards development. Our player base is small, but would be non-existent if the province's white players were to up and leave tomorrow. Accordingly, our coaches, mindful of the threats facing the game, have embarked on a charm offensive in the public schools, in an effort to bring more black players into the fold. Very few of the teachers in these public schools are cricket-minded, so it amounts to taking over the whole process. The old infrastructure – nets, grounds with turf pitches, rollers and pavilions - are still there from the colonial days but are used for anything but cricket nowadays. Unfortunately, with 20 years of non-use, only cricket fanatics would recognize them for what they were originally intended.

There are six fulltime coaches on a two-year secondment from the Z.C.U. Cricket Academy. In addition to their coaching brief they all play for the Manicaland team, which makes a big difference to the provinces competitive efforts. Neil Ferreira is a wicketkeeper/opening left-hand batsman. He comes from a farming background in Selous, 60 kilometres west of Harare. His father Andy was a fine batsman who represented Zimbabwe Country Districts for many years. Patrick Gada is a right-hand bat and occasional seamer. Richie Sims is a right hand bat, off-break bowler and fine gully fielder who is tipped to make it to the Zimbabwe team one day. Jason Young is a right-arm away-swing bowler. Kingsley Went and Alec Taylor are two local lads who learnt their cricket at Hillcrest College, the new private school over the pass in Toronto. Kingsley is a middle-order bat and reserve wicketkeeper, grandson of the colourful entrepreneur Harry Went, who would be amazed that any of his line knew which end of a cricket bat to hold. Alec is a seam bowler -currently injured but he bats well enough to command a first-team spot.

These six liaise with Joel Muzeya who up until their arrival was the only full-time coach in the province. One of Joel's main tasks is to introduce tennis ball (Jumbo) cricket into the schools and pass on the names of talented performers to the academy coaches. These boys are then bussed three afternoons a week to Mutare Sports Club for intensive coaching with proper equipment at the recently opened `centre of excellence' net facilities. A private bus is hired for this purpose and each session lasts for 2½ hours.

From these beginnings much is hoped for for a revival of cricket in Manicaland.

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