Door still open – Streak

Heath Streak says the door is still open for the ICC Cricket World Cup qualifiers hopefuls, with Douglas Hondo still in contention to seal national team bowling coach post on a more permanent basis.

“Only time will tell” said the 43-year-old gaffer.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the final leg of preparations for the World Cup qualifiers set for March 2-25 in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe take on the hosts Bangladesh in the opening match of the tri-series also featuring Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe’s last ODI opponents.

It’s been roughly 189 days since the Zimbabwe Cricket team donned their coloured kits in the one-day format and for Zimbabwe this tri-series comes at a crucial time of the journey to the UK ICC 2019 Cricket World Cup.

“It’s been a while since we last played our last ODI series, and that was against Sri Lanka roughly six months ago.

“So for us it will be important to get as many ODIs as possible under our belt in the build up to the cricket World Cup qualifiers.

“My concern is the lack of competitive cricket going into the series. With domestic cricket having been put on hold, the guys haven’t had an opportunity for match time . . . realistically I think it will take one or two games for the guys to get into the swing of things,”

“As we have seen in the past once we get some games we start to play better and better and hopefully by the time the qualifiers come I would love to have a successful and competitive series in Bangladesh, but I am hoping by the time we get to the Afghan series we really getting it together nicely and we can consolidate and get our confidence ahead of the World Cup qualifiers,” he said.

Because of time Makhaya Ntini is no-longer the Chevrons’ bowling coach and time will tell who comes in next.

In the meantime Hondo, the Zimbabwe ‘A’ team head coach is the interim bowling coach in charge right up to the World Cup qualifiers.

“Look at this stage he will be in that position through to the World Cup qualifiers and I am sure Zim Cricket will advertise on that,” commented Streak.

“Doug might continue depends if he wants to apply for that, that’s something that has to be discussed.

“For me I am really happy having Doug; he has worked a lot with these guys through his career . . . it’s good to have someone who knows the players it’s a good transition.”

When asked about the fate of some of the missing players that took part hugely successful Sri Lanka last year- namely Chamu Chibhabha, Tary Musakanda and Ryan Burl- streak said the door is still open.

“The door is still open,” he said.

“We have got till the end of this month before we have to launch our final squad.

““I think there is quite a few guys there is Welly Masakadza, Chamu Chibhabha, Ryan Burl all these guys are already knocking at the door and it’s good to have people fighting for positions that’s healthy.

“People can’t just relax and think they have knocked down the spot, but there are people that are breathing down their back necks eager to take their positions and that’s good for us. “But the thing is there is not much cricket happening now in January up until February so for the guys back home we are going have to try set something up for them to at least keep in form in case they are needed,” said Streak.

There are three debutants in the ODI squad, Blessing ‘Mabhunu’ Muzarabani, Brandon Mavuta and Ryan ‘Mazza’ Murray and many have been asking who is Ryan Murray and how did he find his way in the senior team?

“Ryan has been highly successful in the U19 structures and has done well. He is a handy keeper and has played a few games for the A team against Afghanistan and has showed that he is a pretty good talent. “Given that we don’t have a back-up specialist keeper you know we thought it was an opportunity to have a look at him.

“With Brandon Mavuta you know when we play in Bangladesh the spin plays a big factor and we need some back up in case we have an injury to one of our frontline spinners.

“Brandon has been performing well in the A team and as well for Rising Stars,” Streak said.