Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart has urged schools to take up cricket to ensure a wider pool of players for selectors when picking national teams.
Coltart said this while addressing Matabeleland Tuskers players at a function that was held at Queens Sports Club yesterday to congratulate the team for winning the prestigious Logan Cup for the first time in 13 years.
Matabeleland Tuskers won the cup in April after defeating Mountaineers.
“Our national team players are mostly picked from 10 to 12 schools. These include Churchill, Prince Edward, Peterhouse, Plumtree, Falcon, Christian Brothers College and other schools. If we are serious about playing top-flight cricket we cannot allow that to continue. We need to include more schools,” he said.
Coltart said they had launched a programme that would see rehabilitation of sporting facilities in the country in schools which include Plumtree, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Chaplin, Fletcher and Victoria High Schools among others.
Milton and Eveline High Schools in Bulawayo have already been identified as schools of sporting excellence.
He said there is need for political stability in the country as this would also increase investment into the sport.
“Cricket is fast becoming big business. If the economy picks up, cricket is going to develop in Zimbabwe. If we get our politics right, each one of you has a bright future in cricket and in our nation,” he said to the players.
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Matabeleland Tuskers chief executive officer Stanley Staddon congratulated the team for winning the Logan Cup.
“We have won the Logan Cup after 13 years. We have no words to describe what this means. Sport is a business and let us make a career out of cricket,” he said.
