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THE Zimbabwe Cricket leadership is in the midst of a process to pick the coach who will guide the Chevrons and hopefully lift them from the quagmire of mediocrity where the team has been trapped for quite some time now.

It’s a very delicate process and they don’t need to make a rushed decision because this is a team that is crying out loud and clear for someone who can help turn it around at this crucial stage where we could either improve and get back where we belong or sink deeper and become another Kenya.

We have watched for some time now as the fortunes of our national cricket team take a spectacular nose-dive and, suddenly, we can now be beaten repeatedly by the likes of Afghanistan.

Of course, we understand the argument of those who say there is need to put Afghanistan’s rise into context, that a number of the players who are now playing for that country would have failed to make the Pakistan national team, an Asian powerhouse that has a very large pool of talented cricketers.

But, we also can’t understand why we should remain stagnant, or worse still, as appears to be the case now, we are taking a number of steps backwards while everyone in this game appear to be taking steps forward.

Others have argued that the Chevrons have relied, for a very long time, on the same players who have been representing us for the past decade and they can’t get any better and, with age having caught up with them, they have become less of a force, in terms of their athletic prowess, as was the case when they emerged on the scene.

Because these players are virtually guaranteed their places in the team, the critics have argued, they have had little incentive to try and improve themselves at a time when they should be working even harder to try and do so because they are no longer the youthful batsmen or bowlers that they were a decade ago.

We don’t understand why our cricket, which prides itself in investing a lot of money into its development programmes, has not produced another Tatenda Taibu or Hamilton Masakadza as of now and we still have to rely on the old hands to represent us when it comes to international competitions.

What happened to Takashinga Cricket Club and all those gems that it used to produce who went on to make a name for themselves in our national team?

After all, Steve Mangongo, who was instrumental in identifying and nurturing of those players, is still employed by Zimbabwe Cricket and working with the emerging talent and Givemore Makoni, who was part of the set-up at Takashinga, is also a very influential official in our cricket administration.

Are these men being frustrated by a system that no longer appreciates what they gave to our national game and, crucially, what they are capable of giving to the game going forward?

We need answers to all these questions so that we can understand what has gone wrong with the production line which used to give us the likes of Taibu, Makasakadza to name, but a few.

Yes, bringing in a new coach might change our fortunes, in the interim, but that could not be the lasting solution to ensuring that we return to the levels that we set for ourselves when we were considered one of the best cricket nations in the world and we could take on the best there is and give them a fight for their money.

A national team coach only works with what is available and if our development structures are not producing very good players, as appears to be the case right now, not even the best coach in the world will be able to make a huge difference and make us compete once again with the heavyweights of the game on the globe.

We hope that as the Zimbabwe Cricket authorities deal with the issue of who to lead our national team they will also look at what has gone wrong with the development structures that used to produce quality players who made a mark for themselves when they began to play for the Chevrons.

Having said that, we also believe that it is about time that we give Heath Streak a chance to take charge of the team.

Why?

Because if there is anyone who understands Zimbabwe Cricket very well, then it is this man — a former captain of the side who once lead our attack as its pace spearhead and proved that he was a world-class bowler.

He is also a product of the development structures that we have been talking about, having been nurtured on his family farm by a father who wanted him to make a mark, and he understands what needs to be done to deal with our dysfunctional development system.

He has already distinguished himself working in Bangladesh and India and it’s about time we give him his chance.