A rather puzzling break in the South African tour has enabled me to catch up on the statistical side of things during the past week. The South Africans actually flew home after the match in Bulawayo last Sunday, and will fly back again to Harare for the two one-day matches this weekend. It could have been made a five-match series, with two matches in Bulawayo and an extra game on Wednesday in Harare, as has been done for the England tour, but fortunately for the players they were not pressed this hard in an effort to boost finance.

I have now completed detailed Test career records of all current Zimbabwean players with five or more matches behind them. Included is Eddo Brandes, whose international career can now be regarded as over after the selectors failed to pick him last season despite his superb form. I heard recently he is considering a request to play for Kwekwe Sports Club in the national league this season. We will be following him up in the near future.

I have also been updating all the records for both Tests and first-class cricket (the latter up to the end of last season which finished as late as 31 July!).

There still remain records for Test grounds and for matches between Zimbabwe and South Africa to be updated, which should be ready for next week's issue. Then I will need to get on to the one-day records, which will keep me busy for quite some time, especially with England here now.

We haven't had time to stop and think about the England visit yet, but in view of the paucity of our bowling against South Africa we cannot be confident of winning unless there is a major turn-around.

It will be Carl Rackemann's last assignment as national coach, and as he is primarily a bowling coach he cannot be at all happy with the way his bowlers are performing. It is a puzzle why that should be, given the high regard in which both administrators and players hold him.

His replacement, Geoff Marsh, has a higher reputation internationally, and he also has more experience, having successfully captained the Australian national team. He is here for the England series in a take-over role and will be looking to identify the problems. We thank Carl for all he has done and look to Geoff to guide our players to better things in the future.

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