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THE Chevrons are back home, after one of the most successful tours in their history and, fittingly, our boys received a heroes’ welcome with scores of fans thronging the Harare International Airport on Wednesday evening to salute the team.

The scenes were remarkable as a noisy multi-racial crowd converged at the country’s biggest airport to welcome the cricket team following their heroics in Sri Lanka where our boys captured the imagination of the world.

Heath Streak and his men became the first visiting cricket team to chase more than 300 runs in a One Day International in Sri Lanka and then, to top it up, came back from 1-2 down to win the last two matches to secure the ODI series.

It was our first series win in Sri Lanka and the Chevrons secured victory playing a brand of positive attacking cricket which caught the imagination of many neutrals around the world who showered them with praises for the way they performed.

Then, in the one-off Test match, the Chevrons battled toe-to-toe with their hosts, even taking a first innings lead, and showed remarkable recovery to come back from a poor start in their second innings and post more than 300 runs for Sri Lanka to chase and win the contest.

In the past, the Chevrons would have collapsed when they lost their top batsmen at the start of their second innings but this is a different team now, playing with both freedom and style, and Sikandar Raza’s hundred and notable contributions by Malcolm Waller and skipper Graeme Cremer powered that recovery mission.

At the end of the fourth day, the Chevrons were on top and when Crèmer led from the front to get two early wickets in the first session of the final day, the pendulum had well and truly swung in Zimbabwe’s favour and history was in the making.

However, a controversial decision by the third umpire to rule that Sri Lanka batsman Niroshan Dickwella had not been run out, when all the replays showed that he had perished, proved the turning point of the match.

And, provided with another life, Dickwella provided the foundation on which Sri Lanka built their successful chase and although they won the one-off Test, a number of international pundits were scathing in their condemnation of the Indian umpire for the way his diabolical decision helped the Asians win the match.

Cremer, too, was highly critical of the umpire.

It was a bad way to lose such a big contest but what can’t be disputed is the fact that, even in that loss, there were a lot of positives for our boys and, going forward, it’s what matters for a game that means a lot to the people of this country.

We have always argued that cricket is a very important sporting discipline for us because it is one sport where we are one of the best in the world and, every time we plunge into battle, there is a lot of media attention on this country.

When the team wins, it presents us with a lot of positive headlines around the world and that is what sport should be all about and we are happy that, on this tour of Sri Lanka, the Chevrons represented their country very well.

We came out loud and clear in support of Streak to be given the job to coach the team because we believed he was the right man for it given he knows the team very well, having captained it and also he has a lot of respect from the players.

We are happy that, within a short space of time, Streak has proved to be what our game badly needed and has created the right conditions for our boys to play their cricket without fear, even in places like Sri Lanka where we used to be beaten badly in the past.

We have to build on the success that we enjoyed in Sri Lanka because, clearly, we have the players who can match the best in the world and, crucially, their mindset has been changed now and they believe they can compete against anyone.

We are happy that the current Zimbabwe Cricket leadership, under chairman Tavengwa Mukhuhlani, has been prioritising the welfare of the national cricket team and investing a lot into it so that we can compete well on the big stage.

They didn’t only send the Chevrons straight into battle against Sri Lanka but wisely chose to first send them to the Netherlands and Scotland to prepare to play in conditions they were not familiar with and that all played a part in our success in Asia.

We have to qualify for the next Cricket World Cup and, judging by the way we have been improving as a team, that is mission possible.