Alistair Campbell for the first time has been omitted from the Zimbabwean team, currently touring Sri Lanka – although he reveals that he had been invited at the last minute
John Ward04-Jan-2002Alistair Campbell for the first time has been omitted from the Zimbabwean team, currently touring Sri Lanka – although he reveals that he had been invited at the last minute. He has just returned from the Zimbabwe A team tour to Kenya, where he says the team was caught unawares by a well-prepared home side. Zimbabwe lost the first three-day match but drew the second; they were beaten in their first three one-day encounters but fought back to win the last two. Alistair talks about it to CricInfo.It is nice to have Christmas as home for a change, though obviously I would have liked to be on this last tour to Sri Lanka. The ZCU phoned me up last Monday [24 December] when we got back from Kenya, to leave for Sri Lanka that Tuesday. But the call came at the last minute, and I don’t think I’m mentally up to playing international cricket after the happenings of the last couple of months.I’ve put that all in a letter to the ZCU and said that my goal is to be ready for the India tour; I feel by then I will have had a nice break to regroup, as it were, and get myself back into the main side and play good cricket again. So they sent Gavin Rennie instead. Hamilton Masakadza had already gone as another batsman.I went to see the chairman of selectors before the Sharjah tour and he questioned my form, my fitness and my commitment, and those are the reasons why I was left out; until those things improve, I won’t get back into the side. I’ve just got to take it on the chin and improve in those areas so I’m beyond reproach, and get back in the side.It’s pointless wingeing about it; I’ve got to get down and get some runs, which I believe I have been doing. I’ve been working on my fitness, but I believe my commitment should never have been called into question. It was, and I’ve tried to rectify it by playing in all the domestic games for Mutare Sports Club and all the games I’ve been required to play.I believe I’ve still got four or five years ahead of me, and it was the most disappointing thing to miss out on this tour because I play relatively well on the subcontinent – I’ve done well there – so to miss out on Sharjah, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was most disappointing.I think this was my fourth visit to Kenya. It was good; obviously Kenya are the next nation in line for Test status, so whenever anybody visits there they’ve got to make sure the facilities are good. It was supposed to be the rainy period and it had rained prior to our arrival, so there were no net facilities as they were a quagmire.The groundsmen did a fine job preparing very good pitches. The Nairobi Gymkhana is the main ground there, and when I look back to when we played our first Test match for Zimbabwe at BAC [Bulawayo Athletic Club, in 1992/93], the Gymkhana ground knocks spots off that. It has the stands, the media centre, everything you require to play Test match cricket.They don’t need a second ground yet – they can start to develop that slowly – but when we did play there it was a good batting wicket. The facilities obviously aren’t the same and the infrastructure wasn’t there, but that can be built upon. After a couple of years of Test status they can build up another ground, as we built up Queens. The money can go initially to development, making sure that playing standards are maintained, and the rest will follow.We stayed in a beautiful hotel and all the infrastructure was there as though we were a main touring side. The only thing lacking was that on practice days we didn’t have nets, but I’m sure they will come to terms with that. All in all, their infrastructure is better than we had when we started.Strengthwise, Kenya’s strengths are their batting and fielding. They have one world-class player in Steve Tikolo, who really is a good batsman, backed up by Maurice Odumbe. Those two basically hold together their batting, although they have some other useful batsmen batting around them, who can hold their own.Their fielding is good; I think they have adopted the same attitude that we did when we first started, that if we were not as good as the opposition in batting or bowling, we might as well be the best in fielding. They are aggressive and athletic in the field, they have good hands and they’re working hard on their fielding.Their bowling is rather weak, as they have shown in the past. They don’t have any quick strike bowlers or quality spinners, but that takes time. If they’re given Test status they can only improve, as they’re playing a higher standard. Their quality players who haven’t had much exposure, once they get that exposure, they will learn and improve.I think they have an academy there now, and with Test cricket comes revenue. The main things Kenya have been starved of are good cricket and revenue, and if they have Test status they will get both.I think they are playing good one-day cricket at the moment: they beat us three-two. They really came hard at us; we expected them to be a bit circumspect and get boxed up in scores of 250 or 260, but throughout their innings they were really aggressive, and this took us by surprise.I asked them about it afterwards, and they said their game plan is to get 300 plus, because they know their bowlers are merely containing bowlers, not strike bowlers, so they are not going to bowl sides out. So it’s up to them to make sure they get as many runs as possible on the board to put the opposition under pressure. If they chase, they do the same; we set them 170-odd to win in one match and they won it in 25 overs. Other sides might have taken 45 overs, but they went for it and their consistency was good.I thought a side that wants to play like that and aim for over 300 every time they bat would be under pressure of getting bowled out once or twice every three innings by quality bowling. But they played that way and they played well. We dropped about 25 catches during the tour, and if we had held them we might have won the series – I felt that was very poor. But they capitalized, their batsmen going on to make big scores, and all credit to them.I feel they are ready to move up to the next level if we are to keep Kenya going as a cricketing nation, because the more you keep them in the dark and feed them occasional A tours, I think they are going to go backwards. We need to get them into Test cricket while their best players, like Tikolo, Odumbe and Ravindu Shah are at their peak. They are 29 or 30 now, and if we keep them out of Test cricket for two or three years they will need to rebuild their side and will be a lot weaker.I think after the World Cup would be an ideal time to give them Test status. They are playing the best cricket they have ever done at the moment; they have a good side that has been together for a long time, and I think they can start off by playing Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and some of the subcontinent sides, rather than have a baptism of fire against Australia. If they can gradually ease into it with one-off Test matches against teams dropping in on Zimbabwe or South Africa, they will gradually progress.I’ve already to spoken to the Kenyans – I’ve yet to speak to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union about it – but I think that their players should come and play first-class cricket in Zimbabwe. Not all of them, but five or six of their top players, perhaps one per province. It would not only benefit them, which would benefit the African picture that our administrators talk about, but it would improve our standard as well. That’s what we need at the moment, because our first-class standard is not good enough.I believe we are sliding backwards slowly because our league cricket and our first-class cricket are so weak. The cream is not coming to the top, but the stronger the standard of domestic cricket, the easier it is to identify the best players. At the moment, the weak standard brings everybody down to one level, so you have mediocre players able to do well and get recognition in the B side, whereas if the standard was higher only the quality players would come through. Then it would be much easier for selectors to pick the right sides.We used to bring English pros over, but why do that when you have a country with one-day international status, looking to gain Test status? The administrators talk about the African renaissance, let’s get Africa going, and so on; they have to start doing things with Kenya. We are playing in the UCBSA Bowl competition and there’s no doubt in my mind that Kenya should play in that as well; although it’s not first-class, it is three-day cricket. And they should be playing in our first-class season. The Kenyan players are very keen.I took over the captaincy for the last two one-day games, which we won. [Tour captain] Pom Mbangwa had injuries to his groin and his ankle, while Guy Whittall was also struggling, so they weren’t able to play. Pommie took over the captaincy for the tour and I think he’s learning with every outing, and in a couple of years he’ll be the ideal person to take over as B team captain/coach. He’s been good for the team: he has a good manner about him and is calm under pressure, and he’s a good understanding of the game from his experience over a number of years.We were a bit shell-shocked after our earlier losses; I don’t think the guys realized the Kenyans would come at us so hard. We sat down and make a pact to play aggressively for the last two games. In the fourth game we lost a few wickets before a few lusty blows got us to 240; I believe it was about a 270 wicket if guys batted really well, because it was the fourth time we used the same pitch. They came out blazing again, but the pitch was deteriorating and turning. They were 90 for one after 11 or 12 overs and it looked like they were running away with it, but I knew that once the spinners came on we would have half a chance.Campbell Macmillan was the guy who really did it for us; although he went for 60 in his ten overs, he took the three crucial wickets of Tikolo, Otieno and Odumbe. They were about 150 for four, but Viljoen and Price were bowling well. With the state of the pitch I thought we would either bowl them out in 40 overs or they would win the game, but I miscalculated a bit as they shut up shop for a while and I was short of a few bowlers. So I played my trump card: I gave Gavin Rennie a bowl and he picked up two for nothing! Then Macmillan came in and finished the game for us.So we won by 10 runs, which was a great achievement and the guys were really happy because our bowling had been hit everywhere and our batsmen hadn’t quite come to terms with the sustained assault we needed to challenge them. Even in those games where we chased their big scores of 300 or more, even 360 in one match, we were going at six or more runs an over, but we kept losing wickets at crucial times. So the run rate was never a problem – we just couldn’t sustain it for 50 overs.The real test was the last game, played on a damp pitch. They came out and played their usual way to score 320, and we said, "Guys, listen: this is a good batting pitch now, so just go out there and play it as you see it, but make sure we go at six an over. Try and play risk-free cricket if you can because we know their bowlers are going to give us some bad balls."So we did that, and Gavin Rennie played one of the best innings I’ve ever seen, getting 130-odd not out. We cruised past the target with overs to spare, and it was a really good victory because our bowlers, chasing 300 all the time, were a bit down. But it also gave them a wake-up call and they learned useful lessons about being accurate and how much variation they have to have playing on good pitches against good batsmen.It showed up the disparity between playing our league cricket and playing first-class cricket, even against Kenya. Our guys get away with far too much playing in the standard of cricket we have here in Zimbabwe, so when they get up to the B side, even in the South African B competition, they find out, "Gee, my bad balls are going for four and I’m not getting many wickets." Whereas if the standard is higher here, that won’t happen.Our batsmen learned as well, as we didn’t have a solid game plan and we needed to `up it’ one more level in order to compete. Kenya came hard at us and at first we weren’t able to answer with anything. Like I said, we dropped crucial catches, even in the last match, where we dropped Ravindu Shah first ball – we dropped him 12 times in the series, and he got two hundreds. Catches win matches, and they lost us a series. But, having said that, Kenya capitalized and they played better than we.I missed the first three-day game, which we lost, as my wife was giving birth and I was a week late in going to Kenya. But I spoke to the guys, and they batted slowly on a good batting pitch to get 240. The Kenyans played aggressively again; we dropped a lot of catches and they passed 400, and left us 60 overs on the last afternoon to bat. Maurice Odumbe knocked us over with his darting little off-spinners. The guys just capitulated; they didn’t play well enough on a pitch that was a little up and down but still good enough for batting.They weren’t able to cope with a turning ball on a wearing pitch. If you play enough cricket of a higher standard, you learn to deal with these things, but if you play too much of a lower standard like we do, and then suddenly the standard is raised, we struggle. If we could continue to play at the standard we did in those last few games in Kenya, that’s where we want to be, but instead we come back and play league cricket again and get stuffed back into the trough of mediocrity. That sort of thing needs to be addressed.We just didn’t bat well enough in both innings, and when we bowled, although we had our patches of bowling well and creating chances – and the guys put them down – we went through bad patches and were hit all over the ground. Whenever chances were created by good pressure bowling, the guys shelled them. That is an area we have to improve on, but towards the end we were getting where we wanted to be.Yet we did a lot of fielding practice: our coach Trevor Penney is one of the best fielders in the world and he’s very keen – the practices he runs are really good. We do everything right and yet just drop it out in the middle. I can’t help but feel that is just lack of concentration – the mental side coming in. You can do as much practice as you want, but if you’re not going to be mentally alert you’re going to drop it.All our matches were played in Nairobi, although it had been decided that if there was too much rain we would go to Mombasa. We played four one-dayers and one three-dayer at the main Gymkhana ground and one of each at the Simba Union. They have very good batting wickets which discourage the pace bowlers, but if you put the ball in the right area you get your reward. We weren’t able to do that often enough.It was good learning curve for the youngsters on the tour, and an eye-opener for me to see how good the facilities were and how Kenya are progressing. You get the West Indian feel about their players, the way they celebrate when they take wickets, and their enthusiasm for the game – that was great to see.Steve Tikolo is a fine batsman – his ball-striking was unbelievable on that tour, even though our bowling at times was not of the best. You still have to put it away and he played some awesome shots. Maurice Odumbe the captain is a quality cricketer and the Kenyan side is basically built around those two. Odumbe is a character as well, always with a smile on his face and a joke to tell. Tikolo is much quieter, very focused on the business of cricket.There are several promising youngsters, for example this leg-spinner who played in the triangular tournament in South Africa, by the name of Collin Zabuya. He bowled really well throughout the tour – he’s only 19 – and with a bit of coaching may turn out an Anil Kumble type of bowler. Martin Suji did a really good job for them opening the bowling in the one-dayers; no pace, but good variation and very accurate. Thomas Odoyo did not have such a good time of things, carrying an injury that hindered his bowling, but he did well in South Africa.It was a hard time for our bowlers, who struggled on tour. They would all look world-class for a few overs, but then lost it. The ability to be a good bowler involves sustaining pressure, and we didn’t do that. I think the guys need to look at that – it’s not all about bowling `jaffas’ and outswinging off-cutters and inswinging leg-cutters, but about bowling channels and good lengths and giving the batsmen nothing. If that’s good enough for Glenn McGrath then it should be good enough for a lot of people. There is no doubt we have ability there, but there’s not enough consistency.Campbell Macmillan took some good wickets on tour but was expensive, because he bowls too many loose balls, and the same goes for all the bowlers. Brighton Watambwa bowled with a lot of pace but was not accurate enough; he needs to do more with the ball if he wants to make inroads. I think he learned a good lesson there.The same applies to the batting side: there were some good innings, some good partnerships, but not enough sustained innings, while the fielding was atrocious – there’s no other word for it. Mark Vermeulen struggled a bit in the one-dayers – he has a few technical problems he has to work on but he’s a tremendous ball striker who played very well in the second three-day match. Gav Rennie, an old campaigner, has been working really hard on his game and showed a good aggressive approach.Guy Whittall and Pommie were the old warhorses, as it were: whenever they needed to bowl they got the ball in the right area. Guy played a few useful innings with the bat. There was something for everybody to take out of the tour, but whether they did so or not we will see in the months ahead. We talked about it, but whether people do learn from it is their prerogative.I thought Pom captained the side well, and Kish Gokal was a really good manager, top-drawer. Trevor Penney did a very good job, and I think altogether it was a very happy outfit, although we were a bit shell-shocked at first about the standard of the Kenyans and how they were prepared to come at us. We only got to terms with that towards the end of the tour and managed to rectify it.Our next objective is to win the B competition in the UCBSA Bowl and make sure we progress all the time, especially the youngsters. We all have our aspirations: I have my goal to get back into the side for India, and after this tour there are going to be places open for the taking. We know the standard that is required and hopefully we can more forward.