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CHIMANIMANI — “COME on you can do it! Don’t give up so easily without trying; you can do it!”
These are the words of Mash Eagles wicketkeeper Regis Chakabva shouting to the franchise¹s B Team coach George Tandi.
On any other day at practice or during a match it is the other way round.
Tandi should be the one telling Chakabva what to do on the pitch.
However, the roles have been reversed in this scenario because it is the player who has stepped into the shoes of the coach.
Tandi cannot gather enough courage to go down to the bottom of a 30-metre cliff.
His players try to persuade him that it is easy to go down the cliff while clipped onto a rope and a safety harness.
The coach’s face is full of fright, his entire body shaking and after another worried look down to his intended destination he gives up.
“I can, but I can’'t,” Tandi said.
This was all happening at the Outward Bound camp in the Chimanimani mountain range where Mash Eagles were conducting their pre-season training ahead of the new cricket season next month.
Back to his days, Tandi earned a reputation for being a lightning quick and aggressive bowler, but the mountain did not care about any reputations.
Since arriving at the camp Mash Eagles players stepped away from their comfort zones back in Harare to settle for the rough and rigid mountain life.
Even cell phones, iPods and any other electrical gadgets that most people from the city life seem to have been born with are not allowed in the camp.
With communication from the outside world cut-off the only thing the teammates can do is to talk to each other.
Those mischievous ones manage to hide their cell phones so that they would not be confisticated.
You can trick the camp instructors, but there is no way of outwitting the mountain.
Most of the times the areas around the camp and the mountain range is without power and the cell phone signal is next to zero because of the large pine and gum trees densely scattered around the area.
The boot camp has been a rude awakening for the squad that also includes the likes of Douglas Hondo, Forster Mutizwa and Trevor Garwe, Cephas Zhuwawo, Prince Masvaure, Simba Gupo and their new signing Zimbabwe Under 19 captain PJ Moor were all here.
The mountain has been brutal since the camp started with fog and rain both coming down and the temperatures have been freezing almost towards the zero degrees celsius.
This is no place for weaklings. It is definitely not a place for the faint hearted.
The day starts with an early morning jog, which ends with a body dip at Tessa’s Pool where the temperature is just above freezing point.
Most of the cricketers who ooze with bravado and cockiness on the pitch have all found the going tough some 1 630 meters above sea level.
The entire four days consisted of a series of challenges that require problem solving, communication, cooperation and trust, all ingredients that make a good team.
It is Mash Eagles’ hope that they would emerge from this camp a better prepared and a solid unit this coming season.
The Harare-based franchise set high standards when it clinched the country’s premier tournament the Logan Cup last season.
They also lost to Mountaineers in the final of the inaugural Stanbic Twenty20 competition.
“There is more unity in the camp and the guys are enjoying themselves,” Mutizwa said.
“Over the last few days we have learned that we must be one unit; it’s not about individuals, but the team.
“Teamwork is the most important thing we learned because everything we did, you needed your team mates’ help to complete." Chakabva said: “I have discovered a lot of things about myself on this mountain. This mountain has taught me that whenever I come across a challenge I have to face it head on. Even if it seems tough you have to trust your team mates around you and as a team we can conquer anything.”
This should be a warning to all the other franchises that Mash Eagles are not yet ready to relinquish their Logan Cup title.
If they apply on the pitch the lessons they have learned during this trip to the mountains they would be even harder to beat.
Zimbabwe Cricket introduced the franchise system last year.
The franchise system is part of the many recommendations made by an International Cricket Council task-force headed by West Indies boss Julian Hunte for the country’s quick return to Test cricket.
The revamped domestic system decentralised the administration of cricket by creating self-sufficient franchises to run alongside existing provincial associations.
The franchises are Matabeleland Tuskers, Mashonaland Eagles, Midwest Rhinos, Mountaineers and Southern Rocks. The franchises have a professional set-up and the players receive salaries.
BY NIGEL MATONGORERE
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