The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
JUST when everything appears on course and a path set for them to have a dance at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s World Cup, the Lady Chevrons somehow always seem to suffer a setback of some sort.
This has been happening to captain Mary-Anne Musonda and her troops at almost every turn in the last three years.
Their desire to make a mark on the international cricket stage has been hampered by circumstances beyond their control.
In 2019, having won the African qualifiers and with all set for their campaign for a place at the ICC 2020 World Cup, Zimbabwe were suspended from the ICC family because of the tiff between Government and Zimbabwe Cricket.
They were later replaced by their Southern African counterparts Namibia at the global qualifiers.
Two years down the line, the gods smiled on them as they were granted full member status.
And just as all was seemingly going according to plan, cruel fate struck again when the women’s World Cup qualifiers that were being hosted in Harare were called off midway through the tournament.
This time it was due to the sudden introduction of travel restrictions imposed on Southern African countries, including Zimbabwe, following the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant — Omicron.
Musonda described the recent cancellation of the qualifiers as similar to circumstances surrounding the Pakistan tour, which was also called off after only a single match had been played.
Then, Zimbabwe and Pakistan had been scheduled to play three One-Day Internationals.
“It is always bad news that breaks your heart. For us it was the first World Cup qualifier as a full member after being granted the status in April, and we were looking forward to the tournament, and it is never a good thing not to finish the games,” said Musonda.
“When the news was broke, we felt it was a repeat of what happened during the Pakistan series, which was called off because of Covid-19, so it was like going through the same thing again, but this time we handled it better knowing that there was nothing we could do.”
Lady Chevrons coach Adam Chifo told The Sunday Mail Sport that he felt the cancellation of the two World Cup qualifier campaigns were inevitable.
“We have no control whatsoever with what happens outside our change room. We can only hope and pray for the best, but, yes, it looks like it never rains but pours for us as a team. So many things have happened outside our change room to our disadvantage.
“But there is absolutely nothing we can do about it,” said Chifo.
He said despite the setback, his charges picked up lessons from the three games they played during the qualifiers, which eventually saw Pakistan, Bangladesh and West Indies qualifying to the ICC World Cup set for New Zealand.
“We were obviously looking forward to the tournament, which had a lot at stake, not to mention our recent entry to the ODI league.
“A big blow for us as we stood a chance just like any other team to not only qualify for the World Cup, but also a chance to be included in the champions trophy.
“We noticed a lot of areas that we really need to improve on as we are now playing bigger teams, so we will definitely use this setback to self-introspect as a team so that when the situation gets back to normal, we will be a better team,” said Chifo.
