EDITORIAL

By John Ward (jward@cricinfo.com)

I'm sorry to say it, but I have never seen Zimbabwe play so badly so often as they have done this year. Another defeat, this time by an England team that was not impressive on the day, except during the partnership between Nick Knight and Nasser Hussain.

I can find no other way around it: a large part of it has to be an inferiority complex, which the players prefer to call lack of confidence. Andy Flower is the greatest exception, but so few players in the team seem to be following his example. He can lead the way in teaching the other players the mental strength that has made him the world's number one Test batsman at present, but are many of the others listening?

Gary Brent has also come out of the last three matches with great credit. His sheer enthusiasm and enjoyment of the game is evident. Perhaps that is missing from some of the others, who have perhaps become either rather jaded with so much cricket over the past two years, or allow themselves to be overcome with fears. More mental strength is needed. If Andy Flower can do it, so can others.

Gary's accurate medium-pacers have also put most of the other bowlers to shame. The selectors might be advised to think a bit less of sheer pace and the ability to bowl wicket-taking deliveries (we haven't seen many of either), and look to bowlers who can bowl line and length, whatever the pace. Obviously we need a mixture in the side. Bryan Strang did a fine job until he was injured, but the selectors did not look at Brent, or Pommie Mbangwa, similar types, until they were desperate. Now Gary Brent is in and doing a superb job. He is a thoroughly wholehearted cricketer and deserves every success.

He is not the most talented of players, as he will admit, but like John Rennie before him, for example, he has followed the Andy Flower path of making the utmost of every bit of ability he does have. These are the cricketers Zimbabwe needs to turn to. Too many others have potential that is not being fulfilled.

In this issue we welcome Tristan Holme, a sixth-form student at Speciss College in Harare, who sends us a school match report. He hopes to cover more of schools cricket in the future, but is finding, as we have found before, how difficult it is to squeeze information about the schools. He will do his best. We also include provincial reports and a national first league fixture list, courtesy of Viola Muza of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.

On the statistical side we include updated Test and one-day international records of matches between Zimbabwe and South Africa, and one-day records between Zimbabwe and England, up to the start of the present series and Zimbabwe's entire one-day international records, 191 matches at the start of the England series.

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