With its bumpy pitch, decaying benches for the teams and rusty stands that are opposite the VIP enclosure, the ground resembles a disused mine soccer pitch.
However, this is the home of Castle Larger Premier Soccer league side, Black Mambas and week in, week out, a group of jovial players converge the ground to prepare for forthcoming match and matches are even played here.
In that group of the jovial players who toil in that bumpy pitch is Zimbabwe soccer legend, Peter Ndlovu, whose 13-year flirtation with the English Premier Soccer League and lower divisions makes him one of its longest serving servants from Africa.
Not only is he just present, but appears to be equally at home sharing a joke with fellow players – most of whom were attending primary school when the Flying Elephant was sending shock waves in the UK.
He also participates in every task that the coach would have asked.
Like a true professional, you can see him joining fellow players in carrying the goalpost to whatever position the coach would have asked and doesn’t seem to mind.
This surely is not something that you can expect from one who spent the larger part of his career in the comfort of the English and South African Leagues where he at one turned out for the cash rich Mamelodi Sundowns.
What is such a decorated player as Ndlovu doing in such an environment?
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“I started playing soccer in exactly the same environment as this one. Twenty years ago, I was playing in the same environment and it made me what I am.
“After leaving Thanda Royal Zulu of South Africa I spend the much of my time thinking of what I could do for my fans most of whom were too young to see me play at Highlanders.
“I decided to play and Black Mambas is the right place for it has exactly the same structure that made me the way I am. This is my little contribution to Zimbabwean football and I am sure it will inspire many people.
“I intend to play for only one season and then next year I decide the next move. I have a C license coaching certificate and anytime I will be going back to England for the UEFA B license certificate,” he said.
He added that fans should not expect that speedy striker of yesteryear. “I am now a different player from that young boy of the 1990s. Of all my strengths, what is now missing is the speed so I should be used wisely.
“The football idea will never go away. Even Mudhara (Moses) Chunga can still do his tricks even though he is now slower,” he said.
Ndlovu, who was the country’s soccer star of the year on two occasions in 1990 and 1991 before sojourning to England, however laments the standards of soccer in the league.
“The approach to football has changed during my time here in the local league we used to play for funny and I did not know that I was going to make a living out of the game.
“In the old days football was just football, but nowadays people have to be very focused as everything revolves around money. It has now become survival of the fittest and requires total commitment and sacrifice from the players,” he said.
He added, “I cannot say standards have gone down but somewhere things are not the way they should be and everyone. You cannot blame the players only. You also have to look at the economic environment. We have Lionel Messis and Christiano Ronaldos in our league, but if we do not have the right infrastructure, the players will not realise their potential.
“That is the difference between Zimbabwe and South African leagues. The South African League just has money, but when it comes to raw talent, Zimbabwe is on top,” he said.
Ndlovu however warned young players against age cheating as he said that could be the reason why local players are failing to make it at the big stage in Europe.
“I was signed by Coventry City when I was a true 18 year old. I do not want to sound controversial, but these days you read so many stories about players altering their ages.
“That is not good for the development of football. When I was 14 years old, I refused to play in a tournament reserved for the Under 12 age group. You cannot develop a person registered as a 20 year-old, but will be actually a 25-year-old,” he said.
Such is the way the Flying Elephant started his career as a 16-year-old at Highlanders before leaving for England where he played for Coventry City, Birmingham Huddersfield, Sheffield United before joining South Africa’s glamour club Mamelodi Sundowns in a record signing in 2004.
He then rounded up his career in South Africa with the now relegated Thanda Royal Zulu before coming back home to Zimbabwe.
