The Sunday Mail
The Zimbabwe Under-19 cricket team is set to embark on a spin camp to fix their travails against slow bowlers after “a wake-up call” against Afghanistan in India last month.
During their four-match Youth International games against Afghanistan, the Zimbabwe Under-19s struggled against slower bowlers, losing 57 percent of their wickets to spin.
The Under-19 World Cup starts in a fortnight in the spin-friendly wickets of Bangladesh, but questions remains over the local teenagers’ ability combat the challenge that lies ahead.
“I am very much a veteran coach and I am well aware that in sub-continent conditions, they eat and feast on spin,” said Under 19 coach Steve Mangongo.
“Their conditions are spin-friendly, just like if you are in England or New Zealand or Australia which are seamer-friendly pitches.
“So it’s natural you have to zone in on your ability to play spin in the sub-continent otherwise you will struggle.
“That’s the reason why we are working hard on spin because it’s only logical that going to the sub-continent you have to be competent against spin.
“We are spending a lot of hours with the boys trying to up-level their skills and ability to play spin and you have to be at peace against spin,” said Mangongo during a net session at Harare Sports Club last Wednesday.
Harare Sports Club curators have prepared slow turning wickets to challenge the batters and expectations are high that for the remainder of the team’s camp, they will be getting a high dosage of spin.
“That’s the basis of playing cricket in the sub-continent, you have to have the skill,” continued Mangongo.
“I am very happy with the way the guys have been progressing; we have to understand the context where these guys are coming from.
“They are coming from school boy cricket and I have said this countless times that it is totally different ball game on the international stage.
“There is a big gulf we have to cover for them to become professional international youth cricketers,” he said.
“The best way to reduce this gap is to play more international games because there are usually no short-cuts in cricket.
“When the New Year starts there is suppose to be a tour, which ZC is frantically trying to put together for these boys to play another four or five games before the World Cup begins.
“I have always said if these boys play 15 games before the World Cup it will be better, because other international teams are playing 60 games for example Bangladesh, so this is the difference,” Mangongo said.
He reckons playing Afghanistan helped the boys.
“It was a very good tour.
“Some of the Afghans admitted that they were Under-25, while others were Under-23s, so we played against some of the big old boys and it was good for my boys.
“Afghanistan is coming up in leaps and bounce, as you can see by the way they are beating our national team, so nobody takes them lightly.
“It was a good wake up call for my boys.”
