Chigumbura dropped for West Indies tour

By Joseph Madyembwa

Zimbabwe Cricket Convener of selectors Givemore Makoni announced a 24 member training squad to prepare for the upcoming tour to the Caribbean islands.

Zimbabwe will play West Indies in a two match test series as well as five limited overs’ games (2 T20I and 3 ODIs).

From the squad there was rather an unsurprising omission of former captain Elton Chigumbura.

Zimbabwe cricket fans are divided into three categories; one, those who have cricketing knowledge and love cricket; two, those who have cricketing knowledge, love cricket and love Elton Chigumbura and three, those who just love Chigumbura.

First of all, I’m a fan of Chigumbura and he has been my favourite player for a very long time but he is not more important than the Zimbabwe cricket team. Anyone who belongs to the first two categories will know Chigumbura does not deserve a place in the team and he was only selected in the side because he is Elton Chigumbura.

Chigumbura is a player just like anyone else. If players like Alistair Campbell could be dropped from the side for just a couple of bad performances; Hamilton Masakadza can be dropped from World Cup squads despite being one of the finest players we have had since the ‘rebel’ saga, then Chigumbura can be dropped over poor performances for the past few years.

People will argue that he was leading the side well and should still be captain; people will argue why a specific person was selected and not Chigumbura – people will have a thousand reasons to place him in the team, but let’s be logical shall we?

Chigumbura was not performing and got more chances than anyone else ever did.

People in the last category, those who only like Chigumbura, are confused about his actual role. Is he an all rounder, or a bowler who can bat?

Regardless of the fruitless argument, in both the cases he has just not been good enough.

The best criteria, for anyone to be selected, should be based on their most recent performances and Chigumbura was just not good enough. Let’s face facts: he has only managed a high score of 35 in his last 10 domestic games and has struggled to get wickets. His six wicket haul in the List A Tri-Nations being his only highlight of the season.

With all due respect, more often than not Elton Chigumbura has let down Zimbabwe.

Coming into bat and throwing his wicket away as if it means nothing, especially when Zimbabwe needed him the most and failing as a bowler too -this level of performance is just not acceptable at the international level and for the sake of the team, cannot be accepted!

Dropping him at this point can only be good for Chigumbura. This will give him time to reflect upon his performances and make him realise that he needs to work harder on his game. If he thinks he can perform for Zimbabwe and win matches then there is no doubt he will bounce back.

This incident, will, perhaps, also make people realise that individuals do not make the game great- it’s the combined effort and skill of all the players that make the game.

Zimbabwe 24 man training squad:

Brendan Taylor (Captain), Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chatara, Michael Chinouya, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis, Timycen Maruma, Hamilton Masakadza, Tinotenda Mawoyo,

Keegan Meth, Chris Mpofu, Natsai M’shangwe, Cuthbert Musoko, Tinotenda Mutombodzi, Tinashe Panyangara, Raymond Price, Edward Rainsford, Vusi Sibanda, Prosper Utseya,

Brian Vitori, Malcolm Noel Waller, Nathan Waller, Sean Williams.

Joseph Madyembwa is a former Zimbabwe National Team Analyst and Mash Eagles Team Manager