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Cricket’s Testing crisis of captaincy

Sport
Zimbabwe national cricket team all-rounder Sean Williams has emerged as the hot favourite to replace the departed Brendan Taylor as the Test team captain, but some have observed that the team is in a crisis of worthy candidates.

Zimbabwe national cricket team all-rounder Sean Williams has emerged as the hot favourite to replace the departed Brendan Taylor as the Test team captain, but some have observed that the team is in a crisis of worthy candidates.

by Kevin Mapasure

Taylor resigned from Zimbabwe Cricket after he was offered a contract at Nottinghamshire in a three-year deal.

Williams had the best performance after Taylor, who scored 433 runs, at the ICC World Cup in New Zealand and Australia where Zimbabwe, however, won just one match and lost the rest — actually five.

Williams scored a total of 339 runs in the tournament while taking seven wickets.

The 28-year-old, who has suddenly become the fans’ heart throb has, however, only played two Tests in his career while he has got lots of one-day international (ODI) experience under his belt.

His two Test matches came against West Indies in 2013 and South Africa last year.

It is his temperament, talent and competitiveness that have thrust him at the top of the rather small pile of candidates to succeed Taylor.

Williams was left out of the squad that toured and lost heavily in Bangladesh last year due to disciplinary reasons, but made good use of the opportunities at the global showcase.

Officials in influential positions at ZC have touted Williams as the best candidate to take the important post.

“I think based on what we saw at the World Cup despite the differences in the two versions (Tests and ODI), Sean Williams is the natural choice,” one official said.

“He is a very competitive player and he has got the talent and attributes to lead from the front. He has had his disciplinary problems, but maybe that position will make him more responsible, plus I think he has learned his lesson.”

The Cricket Committee has got the mandate to consider candidates and make recommendations to the board which has the final say.

The Committee will only meet on April 15 to consider reports from the party that toured New Zealand and Australia.

It is then that the issue of captaincy is likely to be tabled.

Zimbabwe will play their next Test match in August when they host New Zealand, but before that they will play India in limited overs. Elton Chigumbura is the ODI captain.

One official observed that the Test captaincy issue was, in fact, a crisis because the options were limited mainly due to inconsistency by senior players, while there is not much promise from the emerging talent.

“Based on performance, we do not have too many that can raise their hands and say they deserve the job,” he said.

“The senior players have been inconsistent. Anyone in that team can be dropped, and in cricket, there are no non-playing captains.”

He added that the first challenge was for ZC to choose whether they wanted a short-term fix or a long-term solution.

“Hamilton Masakadza would have been the best candidate with all that experience in Test cricket, but as we saw at the World Cup when things don’t go his way, he gets affected so much. Regis Chakabva has been doing well in Test cricket and he could be a long-term solution. He still has some years ahead of him. But Williams has done well of late. The only challenge is his discipline and whether other players can respect him.”

Masakadza has played 29 Tests where he scored 1 712 runs, hitting four centuries and six half tons along the way, while he played 150 ODIs, scoring three tons and 26 half centuries.

Chakabva has played eight Tests, scoring one century and three half tons and he is set to inherit the gloves from Taylor.