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Albert Nhamoyebonde Sports Correspondent
THE death of former President Robert Mugabe brings back memories of his love for sport, especially tennis which I have been involved in for over 45 years.

I had been told by the late Nathan Shamuyarira, a tennis enthusiast, and Patron of Mufakose Tennis Coaching Agency, that Cde Mugabe was a keen tennis player during their long detention by the Rhodesian government.

I persuaded Tennis Zimbabwe President that we should invite the then Prime Minister Mugabe to be guest of honour at the Davis Cup tie between Zimbabwe and Poland in 1987.

I was then Vice President of Tennis Zimbabwe. I delivered personally the invitation at the Prime Minister’s Office a month before the tie was to be played.

A week later, we were notified that the Prime Minister had accepted our invitation to come and watch the Davis Cup match on a Friday.

The security people came to inspect the venue of the match which was to be played at the City Sports Centre in Harare near the Harare Show Grounds.

The seating arrangements were such that the Prime Minister was to sit in my special box as Vice President.

I arranged for a special refrigerator for drinks to be served. No one was to sit in my box except the Prime Minister and his security officials.

I requested Nathan Shamuyarira to sit with the Prime Minister and explain the proceedings.

On the day of the match, which was to start at 12 noon, I confirmed with the Prime Minister’s office all the arrangements that the International Tennis Federation rules for guests to arrive 10 minutes before the tie to be preceded with the opening ceremony.

The Prime Minister duly arrived on time and the spectators stood up to welcome him.

He was wearing a grey sport jacket, black trousers and tie.

He was led by the TAZ president on to the court to meet the tennis players and ITF officials.

The national anthems of the two nations were played.

The Prime Minister was then led to my box by the TAZ President.

The Zimbabwean players then were Byron and Wayne Black, Mark Gurr and Greg Rodger.

The first player on the court was Mark Gurr.

He lost to the number one seed from Poland in three sets.

Robert Mugabe then said he could not watch further matches since he had other appointments.

But he requested that if I could send him a video of the match between Byron and the number two seed from Poland.

I delivered the video later and was told that the Prime Minister had enjoyed watching the live match and the video match between Byron and the number two player from Poland.

Another occasion I met the former President was at a reception at the British Ambassador’s residence.

The reception was to welcome the Queen to Zimbabwe to open the Commonwealth Conference.

I was invited to the reception as chairman of the Zimbabwe Britain Society.

Cde Mugabe spoke to me about tennis development in general and high-density tennis in particular.

I was later told that he followed tennis on the back pages of The Herald.

The Government, through the Ministry of Sport, would request me to provide players to represent Zimbabwe at Youth Games in Moscow and solidarity celebrations with other countries like Mozambique.

Cde Mugabe was a keen follower of sport such as tennis, cricket and football. I am sure the sports fraternity mourns his passing into another world.  Albert Nhamoyebonde is the life vice president of Tennis Zimbabwe