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ZIFA and Zimbabwe Cricket are the country’s biggest sports governing bodies as they are in charge of our two largest sporting disciplines.

Football is, by a considerable distance, the country’s biggest sporting discipline while cricket has made significant progress in the past two decades to ease into second place.

From being a small sports code, mainly for the white and Asian community of this country, cricket has transformed itself into a mass sporting discipline here in the last 20 years.

The stunning success story written at the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup in England, where the Chevrons beat powerhouses like India and South Africa, laid that foundation.

Fans love winners and when a national team performs well at such showcases like the World Cup, it can attract patronage, and that was the case with our cricket.

Spectator interest exploded after that World Cup and we also saw a big number of black athletes who, normally wouldn’t have chosen cricket as a sport where they can earn a living, turning to the sport in their thousands.

The exploits of Henry Olonga, who took three wickets in a dramatic final over in the win over India, was inspirational and now we have a huge constituency of black cricket players in this country.

The fans, too, have also turned to the sport and, in the Chevrons’ final ICC Twenty20 World Cup Qualifier against the United Arab Emirates at Harare Sports Club in April last year, we saw a record crowd of more than 12 000 packing the stadium with as many as twice, that number, being turned away.

Football has always been the king of sport in this country – it has the biggest clubs and the biggest support base and, when the Warriors play at home, an average 40 000 people are always there to cheer them.

However, despite their leading status, as the two biggest sporting disciplines in Zimbabwe, football and cricket have been stalked by serious challenges over the years which, according to many analysts, have been the reason why these two sports codes haven’t really reached their full potential.

For, one reason or another, administrators, thrust into the deep end to provide the right leadership to transform that potential into success stories, have, in one way or the other, failed to execute their mandate.

Some have either been overwhelmed by the responsibility while others have simply been clueless and should never have been found anywhere closer to the corridors of power in those two sporting disciplines.

Cricket leaders, at least, can point to an alibi – how the domestic game was transformed into a pawn, in the political battles between this country and some of its adversaries, with the sport losing tens of millions of United States dollars in potential revenue.

Take, for instance, how Zimbabwe Cricket ended up being sucked into the diplomatic stand-off between Britain and this country after the land reform programme, resulting in English cricket authorities freezing any bilateral tours between the two countries.

However, thanks to the drive by the new political dispensation in this country to promote re-engagement, we have seen some barriers starting to be removed and, only a few months ago, two English cricket county sides, Derbyshire and Durham, touring this country.

It was a landmark tour as it marked the first time, in 23 years, that this has happened.

In the past, the authorities in Britain would have stopped those teams from touring this country.

This means tomorrow might not be as dark as yesterday, when it comes to relations between the England and Wales Cricket Board and Zimbabwe Cricket.

And, revelations that ZC have been making great strides, under the International Cricket Council controlled funding, by settling their loans, which were a major stumbling block to the organisation’s operations, could not have come at a better time for the sport.

ZC have now paid off the International Cricket Council loan of US$3 million and the $10 million local bank loans that were housed under the Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation in 2017.

With these liabilities now cleared, way ahead of schedule, ZC are now on course to come off ICC’s controlled funding and could be receiving a huge chunk in financial support which is crucial if the game is to keep developing in this country.

We are also seeing similar encouraging signs coming from ZIFA who have begun to settle the huge legacy debt which was making it difficult for the game to move forward.

The ZIFA board have their crippling weaknesses, it’s there for the record, but when they start doing something positive, which the settling of the legacy debt running into millions of dollars represent, they need to be praised.

With that debt hanging over their head, and creditors feasting on any revenue streams that might come into their coffers, there was no way the ZIFA board could have taken our national game forward.

What they are now doing is what represents taking a huge step forward, because once they have cleared their arrears, they can be able to concentrate on executing their mandate to develop this national sport.

ZIFA chairman Felton Kamambo had a rough ride when he came on board to lead the organisation but, his decision to confront and deal with this mountain of debt, which has been choking his association, is something that represents a silver lining in his leadership.

Football, just like cricket, has a responsibility to lead the way in this country, to set an example for other smaller sporting disciplines and, this way, we can see real change in sport in this country.