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Robson Sharuko

Senior Sports Editor

BY the time the Malian undertakers completed writing the epitaph on our tombstone on Sunday night, no one was still crying for the slain Warriors buried inside the shallow Doula grave in Cameroon.

“Here lie the Warriors, the worst collection of players, and coach, to represent their country at a major football tournament,” read the message.

“They were devoured by the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, their carcass trampled upon and dragged by the Stallions of Burkina Faso to be preyed on by the Eagles of Mali.”

And, among their long suffering fans, the majority of them far away in Zimbabwe, there was just silence.

After nine days of mourning, for a team and a game, which they feel they have lost along the way the voices of pain had long been replaced by the silence of shame.

Where there used to be a rainbow of hope, now resided only a dark cloud hopelessness, where there used to be optimism, now existed just a bout of pessimism.

A nation’s collective grief amid the brutality of the torture that comes with yet another national soul-searching exercise.

It’s called the sound of silence, what one hears, in the middle of one’s worst nightmare, when you feel like you are trapped in the presence of ghosts.

It’s what an entire nation feels when its flagship sports team is dragged into the fantasy world where dead bats, forever associated with vampires, become part of the tale of its doomed campaign.

And, it’s what it feels like when you suffer the embarrassment of being knocked out of the world’s first major post-Covid-19 football tournament, without even a point to your credit.

Of course, we scored a goal, just one goal in 270 minutes, at an average of a goal every four-and-half hours.

One which came from someone who, just 10 months ago, was fighting for his life in a Harare hospital. 

If anyone had told Partson Jaure, that he would be the Warriors’ top-scorer at these CHAN finals, the Dynamos captain would probably have taken that as a sick joke.

After all, the very possibility he would still play competitive football, after suffering serious head injuries in an accident, was as remote as expecting Zdravko Logarusic to have a cool head.

Or, expecting the firebrand Croatian coach not to make, at least, five changes to every side he throws into battle, including pulling out one of his men after just two minutes.

Loga, whose very appointment divided the domestic game amid concerns of his lightweight profile, in a country largely suspicious of foreign coaches, found himself at the very deep end.

The first foreign coach, to be handed the honour of leading the Warriors at a major football finals, the Croat was always going to find the going tough in Cameroon.

The freezing of domestic football, especially the catastrophic decision to abandon the proposed Premiership tournament last month, meant Loga carried players without the match fitness required at such levels.

No one has dared explain why domestic football didn’t end up restarting, even for a short period last year, despite the injection of funds from FIFA to help it take such baby steps.

Especially when every other country around us restarted their game in one way or another.

Neither will anyone explain why there was need for an investment into non-existent leagues like Division Three and Four at a time when such funds could have been channeled towards helping these Warriors prepare for this tourney.

The contrast can be found in the way domestic football and cricket has reacted to the crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Sunday, Zimbabwe Cricket announced that players targeted for national team selection will go into two bio-bubbles in Harare and Bulawayo to prepare for the Chevrons tour of Afghanistan next month.

This is the same sports code which successfully put their players into a bio-bubble to enable the Chevrons to successfully tour Pakistan last year where they picked 10 World Cup qualification points.

And, until they suspended their domestic matches when the latest lockdown was announced, Zimbabwe Cricket were staging their tournament using the bio-bubble concept.

If the cricket leaders can find a way to do it, why is it that the domestic football leadership didn’t come up with a concept to ensure the Warriors side, set for the CHAN finals, would get proper preparations using a similar concept?

Where, the selection of the players would have been based on those who would have excelled at tournaments, held under the bubble, rather than just choosing them on the basis of their profiles?

By the second game against Burkina Faso, it became clear that even Loga didn’t either know or trust the players who were playing for his team.

The number of changes he made to his team, after the first game against the hosts, provided the testimony the coach wasn’t really sure of either the quality, or lack of it, of his men.

The tournament became a trial-and-error platform for the Croat and, when that happens, the results are usually disastrous.

And, as much as it’s unfair to lump all the blame on Loga, given everything appeared to be working against him, he knows he will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

In just about nine days, he has become the first coach to come out of a major football tournament, in charge of the Warriors, without a point to his team’s credit.

It’s something that will convince those who have always argued that foreign coaches, and the Warriors, have never been the best of friends, are right.

They will argue that they didn’t see anything from the Warriors, in this adventure, to suggest even Lloyd “MaBlanyo” Chigowe, would not have done a better job.

And, they will say, six games under Loga, two draws and four defeats, hasn’t given them any reason to feel there will be fair return on the US$7 000 monthly investment into his services.

In such difficult times, when emotions are raging, there is very little room for sober reflections.

And, after the worst campaign by the Warriors, there is no hiding place for the coach and those he employed him.

That’s what happens when we start making headlines around the world, with outrageous beliefs dead bats can influence football results, than how we prepare for tournaments.

A return to Cameroon right now, for the AFCON finals next year, now looks remote for the Warriors and their fans.