Mutare has received six or seven inches of rain over the last few days so our opening first-class fixture in this year's Logan Cup is looking under threat. A patchy rainy season which threatened at some stages to lapse into a full-scale drought has culminated in Biblical-like downpours. Our part-time curator 26-year-old motor-mechanic Jason Sparrow and his team of three full-time groundsmen have been working furiously to overcome boggy conditions. The Mutare Sports Club outfield drains well, but the pitch which was overlaid with clay in the off-season resembles a newly planted rice paddy. The three-day match is supposed to start this Friday, 16 February.

Manicaland are hoping for a surprise inclusion in their ranks with the news that Andy Flower has expressed an interest in playing for us this season. Contractual niceties have to be smoothed and the games ever-vigilant administrators humoured, but our skipper Mark Burmester believes it's a done deal. He is understandably excited at the prospect of the rub-on effect on younger team members the presence of the number two Test batsman in world rankings will have. The ever-improving Guy Whittall will play for us again this season. It could be argued that he is one of us anyway. The Whittall family farm in the Lowveld borders Manicaland and they own property near Mutare in the Odzani area.

Guy's bowling will be a big bonus to Manicaland, who have often struggled to finish sides off. The funny thing is that when he was a schoolboy at Falcon College his first-team coach – who happens to be my elder brother — wouldn't allow him to bowl. Not first-team material, he was told.

With the greatest of respect to all the teachers who do make a difference to our schoolboy cricketers, it does highlight a problem in our approach. During the colonial era when we seemed to churn out fabulous players without trying, schools cricket and their coaching regimes were sacrosanct. It has conclusively been shown that those days are dead and gone and that maybe the era of the Australian club approach should be adopted. Teachers do not have the time to study coaching manuals and modern training methods. They have full-time jobs and in any case a lot of them are reluctant cricket coaches. If the club system is good enough for the best team in the world and our schools system has imploded, the Zimbabwe administrators should show some initiative.

On a sad note, one of Manicaland' great characters of recent past, Neil `Butch' Sparks has died in Pietermaritzburg – reportedly by his own hand. He was a huge and much-loved character who blitzed many an unsuspecting attack with his lofted straight drives and clever off-spinners. In the mid-eighties during a club tour to Blantyre, Malawi, he smote a series of sixes onto the club roof – situated on a hill reputedly a full 165 yards away - which the locals still marvel at. He was only 54 and had immigrated to South Africa ten years ago. He was a no-nonsense umpire later in life whose stern look and presence ensured no backchat from disgruntled appealers.

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