zimcricketnews.com

Mashonaland Eagles were crowned the winners of the BancABC under-13 cricket week, which was held at Prince Edward School in Harare this week, after defeating the Mountaineers by 125 runs.

The annual tournament had six under-13 teams coming from the country's five franchises and a Development XI squad as the sixth. It was used as the selection tournament for the Zimbabwe under-13 national squad (President XI) team.

The final started off with some gripping action before poor batting from the Mountaineers resulted in the most comfortable of wins for the home franchise. Eagles went in to bat first and posted a 201 runs for the loss of six. Nicholas Welch, in fine form, scored a patient 67 off 145 balls conquering the slow out field and bowler friendly conditions.

Mountaineers' bowler, Adriaan Kok, was the peak of the bowlers doing well to reduce the extent of the damage the Mutare giants were taking. He took four for 48 runs in 10 overs but his gallant effort was overshadowed by Mountaineers' disappointing run chase - they were all out for just 85 runs. Mountaineers however got a consolation after captain Sam Curran was voted the player of the series.

In other matches played of the final day:

Matabeleland Tuskers vs. Development XI
Tuskers beat Development XI by eight runs. Tuskers' Ryan Minter-Brown and Dumoluhle Dube propelled the Bulawayo outfit to a competitive 129 runs. Development XI came close to causing an upset before they were bowled out
for 121 runs. Mathew Conolly shone for the Tuskers with 3.5 over spell which yielded three wickets for just 14 runs.

Midwest Rhinos vs. Southern Rocks
Manson Chikowero's 5 five wicket haul ensured that Rhinos restricted Southern Rocks to low score off 58 all out and Midlands boys dispatched Rocks in a seven wicket victory with ease.
[Source: ZC]

Mashonaland Eagles and Mountaineers will clash for honours in the final of the Banc ABC under- 13 cricket tournament after coming tops in their respective groups.

Eagles finished at the summit of group A after beating Midwest Rhinos and playing out a draw against Matabeleland Tuskers in a match that was washed out due rain while Mountaineers ruled the roost in group B after inflicting a big defeat on Southern Rocks and drawing with Development XI.

Eagles will march into the final the more confident of the two after beating Mountaineers by 4 wickets in low scoring preliminary round match. Mountaineers were the first to bat and could only manage a paltry 52. Angus Curtis was the chief destroyer with 4 wickets at the cost of just 3 runs in 4 overs while Keith Jaure and Nicholas Welch took 2 wickets apiece.

In other matches played on day three of the Banc ABC under 13 cricket week, the Tuskers bowling trio of Jason James, Mathew Connolly, and Dumoluhle Dube did the damage as the Matabeleland outfit defeated Midwest Rhinos by 2 wickets. Rhinos went in to bat first but could only put 91 runs on the board as the overcast conditions made it difficult to bat. Rhinos bowlers were however not going lay down easily as a team effort made the run chase difficult for Tuskers who managed to crawl on the finishing line with only 2 wickets in hand.

Development XI got their first win of the tournament with an emphatic seven wicket victory over Southern Rocks in which Tinashe Nenhunzi's bowling figures of 3 wickets for 9 runs in 5.5 overs forced Rocks to an average score of 108. Something that the Development XI batsmen managed to chase with much ease coupled with some wayward bowling that saw Rocks conceding 32 runs in extras.
[Source: ZC]

Zimbabwe Cricket's (ZC)'s annual under-13 cricket tournament - formerly known as the Partridges Week, began on the 6th of December and will run until the 9th of December at Prince Edward School in Harare. The junior tournament received a major boost after one of the country's leading financial services providers, BancABC committed to sponsoring the tournament which will now be known as the BancABC under-13 cricket week.

The tournament caters for young cricketers in the under-13s category and was designed to cater for primary school children in the game of cricket. Six teams are participating in the 50 over matches comprising of a Development XI team and five the country's five franchises' junior teams.

The history of the Partridges week dates back to the early 60s. It draws its name from a little bird 'partridge' It was designed to accommodate primary school children. The week was used to select a national side from primary schools and up to now it is still used to select the zimbabwe Under-13 national team.

A sizable number of Zimbabwe's current international cricketers used this tournament as their launch pad into professional cricket. The likes of current national team captain Elton Chigumbura, Dave Houghton, Ian Buchart, Kevin Arnott, Tatenda Taibu and Charles Coventry have taken this path and were nurtured into the fine brand of international cricketers that they are now.

"Members of the corporate fraternity have played a major role in cricket development in the country and we are grateful for BancABC's commitment to junior level cricket. We are look forward to continue to developing our next breed of stars with them," said ZC's Head of the Commercial Department, Cheryl Muregerera.

Admission to all games in the competition is free. You can find the fixtures list on our Domestic Fixtures page.
[Source: ZC]

The Under 16 Western Schools T20 cricket tournament came to end over the heroes’ holiday with Luveve High School and Mpopoma High School squaring up in the final. The tournament which featured 28 schools was held on a knock out basis and saw Mpopoma walk away champions after winning the final by 14 runs.

In the final, Luveve High won the toss and elected to field. The decision seemed to have worked well for them when they bowled out Mpopoma out for 120 runs. The Luveve outfit put up a good fielding performance and at this point fancied themselves to win the match. However, the Mpopoma XI came out equally determined and showed great discipline in restricting Luveve to 92 runs for the loss of 9 wickets.

The Matabeleland Development Officer, Chris Phiri, expressed satisfaction with the level of competition shown at this year’s tournament but stated that he would like to see some low density schools participate in the tournament next year. He said schools like Northlea, Hamilton, Founders and Gifford High schools, who are currently rebuilding their cricket structures, would benefit from the tournament.

Mr Phiri also said the province where looking forward to the new cricket season and had, at the moment, two games lined up for the schools select team. The boy’s team will play against a Hwange select team on the 29th of August, 2010 while the girl’s team will also play the Hwange team on the sometime in September.

Meanwhile, the Tuskers umpires and scorers association will hold its annual general meeting on the 4th of September at Queens Sports Club. The chairman of the association Donald Nyoni said the meeting was to elect office bearers for the year 2010/2011.
[Source: ZC]

Prince Edward High claimed the title at the schools Twenty20 Cricket Festival held at Petra High School, Bulawayo over the weeked, with PE beating fellow Harare side Churchill High in the final. Sports minister David Coltart was at the event, and was pleased that two state schools had reached the final:

"I am delighted that two government schools made it into the final. It is good for me as Minister of Education because they were competing with private schools that have all the resources. I was particularly impressed with the spirit in which these young cricketers played the game and I hope they carry on with this spirit when they go on to represent the country."

Sunday News - Petra Twenty20 Cricket Festival a success

Today's Chronicle has a short piece on the role Matabeleland Tuskers are playing to re-introduce cricket to school in their area, for both boys and girls, as part of ongoing efforts to expand the sport's reach. The full article is reproduced below the cut for those interested.
The Chronicle - Schools cricket to resume

Zimbabwe's Under-15 side were on impressive form at the Ekurhuleni Cricket Festival in South Africa last week, ending the tournament unbeaten, while the Under-13's won seven out of their nine matches. Full details of the matches aren't available, but the U15 results were as follows:

30-over matches
Zimbabwe 148/8, EJCCA 123 all out. Zimbabwe won by 25 runs
Zimbabwe 176/5, Easterns 143/6. Zimbabwe won by 33 runs
EJCCA 187, Zimbabwe 188/7. Zimbabwe won by 3 runs
Namibia 148, Zimbabwe 150/8. Zimbabwe won by 2 wickets

Twenty20 matches
Zambia 51 all out, Zimbabwe 52/1. Zimbabwe won by 9 wickets
Northerns 98/6, Zimbabwe 100/1. Zimbabwe won by 9 wickets
SE Gauteng 88, Zimbabwe 89/7. Zimbabwe won by 3 wickets
Griqualand West 128/9, Zimbabwe 131/5. Zimbabwe won by 5 wickets
Zimbabwe 187, Easterns 167. Zimbabwe won by 20 runs.

Zimbabwe's U13 and U15 sides are heading to South Africa to take part in the Ekurhuleni Cricket Festival, to be held in Benoni between June 30th & July 5th. In the Under 13 age group, Zimbabwe will play against the Botswana Development and Invitational teams and a side from Swaziland. In the Under 15 section, Zimbabwe will face Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia and South African provincial sides Griqualand West, North West, South Gauteng and the Ekurhuleni team. The sides will play each other on a roundrobin basis, with 30-over matches in the morning and Twenty20 ties in the afternoon except on the final day when they will play 40-over fixtures.

The Zim teams taking part have been named as:
Under 13: Clive Chitumba, Stuart du Preez, Ryan Higgins, Luke Jongwe, Farai Kabike, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, Patrick Mambo, Thabani Moyo, Jack Myers, Tafadzwa Potsekai, Campbell Saul, James Suddens and Daniel Wells. (Coach: Shepherd Makunura; Manager: Moses Chitare.)
Under 15: Matthew Bentley, James Bruce, Joy Chitate, Reason Deka, Hieronymo Kabvundura, Gordon Lindsay, Vuyisile Maphala, Isaac Mapimha, Luke Masasire, Tinashe Mungoshi, Tarisai Musakanda, Joseph Musorosekwa, Boyd Rouse, Michael Scruby and Peacemore Zimwa. (Coach: Clement Mahachi; Manager: Brian Rouse.)

I'm not hugely hopeful of much publicity being given to the results of these matches, but I'll post what I can track down.

CricInfo's Steven Price takes a look at the state of schools' cricket in Zimbabwe, and finds things to be in better shape than he expected, especially given the current economic situation there. The tone of the report, the first in a series on how the game is coping away from the top tier, indicates that he was expecting to find the sport in collapse, with little or no support working down from ZC:

In the aftermath of the World Cup, it was well publicised that Zimbabwe received approximately US$ 11 million from the ICC, and questions were inevitably raised as to how that sum was being spent, given the relatively few matches played by the team - they remain in self-imposed suspension from Test cricket - and the small number of players inside the country.

The board, and Peter Chingoka, its chairman, countered the queries with bullish rhetoric about the state of school and club cricket and the investment being made in those areas. But for all the confident talk there remained rumours all was not well, and so I decided to find out for myself.

Happily, that's not what he found - although conditions are hard, the game is flourishing as best it can under the circumstances:

The story in many of the schools was surprisingly good. "All the traditional junior and high schools are still playing cricket and the structures still seem to be there," one administrator told me. "All the age groups are still running." There was also good news among the government schools in high-density areas, where some were lucky enough to have ZC-funded coaches and many were still playing competitive cricket.

It's not all roses, though, as economic reality is forcing many to quit the sport after leaving school, and that may well have a knock-on effect further down the line. The full article is well worth a read, and is somewhat more positive than most of Price's pieces. Next in the series is a look at club cricket - and given the perceived problems with the quality of matches in the provincial & National Leagues, that one may not be so positive...
CricInfo - Battling on despite the hardships

Zimbabwe's various age-group sides have been announced, ahead of the traditional tours to South Africa over the next few months. The U19 squad for next year's U19 World Cup will also be chosen from the names listed here. The sides are:

Under-19
Tinashe Chimbambo, Tendai Chitongo, Hughes Dinembiri, Justin Gaisford, Kyle Jarvis, Edzai Jaure, Daniel Landman, Tendai Mashonganyika, Prince Masvaure, Stewart Matsika, Solomon Mire, Peter Moore, Simon Mugava, Mike Muguda, Tinotenda Mutombodzi, Richmond Mutumbami, Njabulo Ncube, Reginald Nehonde, Trymore Taruvinga and Michael Vickery.

Under-17
Wisdom Bandura, Tendai Chatara, Steven Chimamhiwa, Gary Chirimuuta, Keith David, Craig Dollar, Dylan Higgins, Kudakwashe Huni, Roy Kaia, Andrew Lindsay, Malvern Maphosa, Dean Mazhawidza, Jethro Mhandu, Edgar Muchibwa, Tony Mupariwa, Natsayi Mushangwe and Mazaru Zambuko.

Under-16
George Banda, John Burgess, Brian Chari, Malvern Chiwara, Tochukwu Enewerem, Bradley Ferreira, Baxton Gopito, Ronnie Makohwera, Paul Maloney, Godwell Mamhiyo, Tanaka Matsiya, Grobelaar Mazambara, Calum Price, Kudzai Sauramba, Shadreck Shawarira, Lennon Simairi and Corey van Rensburg.

Under-14
Ryan Burl, Bright Dzowa, Tapiwa Gamanya, Tinashe Ganyani, Martin Hulbert, Vaence Kucherera, Charles Kunje, Malcolm Lake, Alistair Macleod, Cornelius Maparura, Odecious Mhanje, Michael Mlambo, Ronald Moyo, Tarisai Musakanda, Andre Odendaal and Matthew Wicks.

Under-13
Nathan Arnold, Desmond Chigwedere, Saul Campbell, Clive Chitumba, Keagan Higgins, Jeremy Ives, Farai Kabike, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, Peter Lindsay, Patrick Mambo, Thabani Moyo, Tafara Mupariwa, Linsley Ndlovu and Tendai Nyamayaro.
zimcricket.org - Five national age-group squads named