Everything happens for a reason:Tino

Sport
BY ALBERT MARUFU ZIMBABWE and Manicaland opening batsman Tinotenda Mawoyo has vowed to reclaim his position in the national team after missing out on the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup currently underway in the subcontinent due to an injury.

The ICC Cricket World Cup, being hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, kicked off yesterday but Zimbabwe play their opening game tomorrow against heavyweights Australia.Zimbabwe is in Pool A together with the best ranked One Day International teams Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Canada and fellow Africans Kenya.  Mawoyo, who will be out of action for at least four to six weeks owing to the abdominal muscle tear, was not on the original list of the travelling party, but had gatecrashed his way into the team after replacing Sean Evans who turned his back on his motherland on the last minute.Evans abandoned his country a few days before the team departed for the subcontinent prompting the national selectors to turn to Mawoyo.Mawoyo however found himself on the plane back home before the tournament started after sustaining an abdominal injury. “It is every player’s dream to represent his country at the World Cup and I am no different. However, I have a firm belief in God and I take it as his will for me not to play at the World Cup. Everything happens for a reason.“However, I have enough time to recover, as the national team’s next series will be in August against Bangladesh. That is enough time for me to recover and I am confident of bouncing back into the team,” the former national youth captain said.He added that it is unfortunate that Zimbabwe went into the tournament having lost their warm-up game against South Africa.“It is unfortunate that we lost the game against South Africa in the warm up. It would have been a good advantage if we had won the game. However, we still have the ability to compete at any grand stage,” he said.Mawoyo led the Zimbabwe Under-19 at the 2003 Youth World Cup in Bangladesh and was stripped of his captaincy of Zimbabwe A in 2007.Another Zimbabwe batsman Edward Rainsford also had to come back home last week after being replaced by Tinashe Panyangara owing to an injury.Zimbabwe will have to win at least three games to have any hopes of reaching the Super Eight.Zimbabwe’s matches are as follows:  Monday 21 Zimbabwe vs Australia (Ahmadabad), Monday 28 Zimbabwe vs Canada (Nagpur), Friday 4 March Zimbabwe vs New Zealand (Ahmadabad), Thursday 10 Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka, Monday 14 March Zimbabwe vs Pakistan, Sunday 20 March, Zimbabwe vs Kenya (Kolkata).