India have come and gone, leaving a chilly message to the Zimbabwean Test selectors. That the game in Mutare was a draw was incidental; this was a side on the up stretching its muscles. It didn't serve their purpose with a day lost to rain to enforce the follow-on and force a two-day victory. Their focus was on the First Test.

Highlight for me was the bowling of Harbhajan Singh, recent destroyer of Australian egos in India. Definitely ahead of Pakistan's Saqlain, he must be close to edging Muralitharan as the best off-spinner in world cricket. Ask Manicaland spinners how easy it is to spin the ball at Mutare Sports Club and most would tell you it's simpler bowling on a sandy riverbed. If Harbhajan's captain had allowed him, he would have knocked Zimbabwe A over twice in a day. Umpire Alan Walsh told me later he could hear the ball whirring past his ear. Batsman Travis Friend will long remember playing inside a slower one to watch his middle stump cartwheel two paces, as if from a fast bowler.

A festive daily crowd of 700-plus happily disproved my pre-match predictions of a consumer boycott. The social winter-district cricketers had a marquee plus bar which had a noisy 70 to 80 supporters every day. School kids in uniform were admitted free and Nissan Zimbabwe gave the Manicaland Cricket Association Z$20 for every child through the gate. This offer prompted one headmaster to declare Monday afternoon a compulsory cricket-watching day.

There were encouraging signs that the game is reaching the black population too. Black kids were thrusting autograph sheets at anyone who looked remotely like a cricketer. On Wednesday afternoon I noticed a dozen black supporters watching India going through the motions, logging up batting time. Travis Friend suddenly uprooted S.S. Dighe's middle stump and as one all twelve surged to the boundary edge with arms upraised shouting their approval. When last did we see a bunch of whites getting so excited?

Sadly there were a couple of shows of petulance from players on being given out by the umpires. There was also plenty of over-the-top appealing and gamesmanship. It seems the only time some professionals behave is when a match referee is officiating. There was a report earlier in the year of how schoolboy Hamilton Masakadza had refused to leave the wicket when adjudged lbw during the Churchill-Hillcrest College fixture. One can understand why when one sees the example set by some first-class players.

Makoni traveled to Goromonzi last weekend and were beaten by 15 runs. The ground is seven kilometres out of Ruwa and reportedly has the best pitch in country districts cricket, courtesy their curator Dirk Moore-Gordon. Dirk (who opens the bowling for them at 60) has also recently been appointed head groundsman at Harare Sports Club.

Batting first Goromonzi made 185 with Eddo Brandes hitting 39. Bokkie Moolman, Simon Ballance, Nigel Hough and Terry Coughlan each picked up two wickets. In reply Makoni only managed 170 with Hough making 63, Ziehl 40 and Ballance 24. Derrick Carr took four for 17 and Eddo Brandes three for 33. Normally the players umpire these games themselves, but for this match international umpires Robinson and Goosen turned up to get their eye in before the upcoming Test series.

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