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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter

CRANBORNE BULLETS coach Nesbert “Yabo” Saruchera is one man who has thrived on experiments.

He has made a name for himself in the coaching trenches through converting virtual amateurs into professional footballers.

Saruchera, with no big names in his squad wrote an intriguing story in the Chibuku Super Cup only bowing out at the semi-final stages where his team lost to Ngezi Platinum Stars.

In a way, his youngsters, virtually unknown before their Chibuku Super Cup exploits, have been drawing interest from several big teams.

In fact, two of them, striker Malvern Whata and right-back Tapiwa Sibanda, good enough to make it into Norman Mapeza’s provisional Warriors squad for the African Cup of Nations, have since been signed by two of the league title favourites.

Whata is now at Chicken Inn while Sibanda has been snapped up by Ngezi Platinum, who even afforded letting go their most experienced player Keith Murera to pave the way for the stocky full-back.

Aware of the need to plug the gaps created by these departures, Saruchera has been attending amateur tournaments from which he has picked most of his men before, to scan for raw talent.

And on Saturday, he was one of the invited guests at the Harare West Christian League tournament held at Ellis Robins School from where he took aboard five players.

“This is where raw talent is abundant,” Saruchera said.

“Look, I have been able to assemble competitive teams in the first division and in the top leagues out of players that I have picked from amateur tournaments like these.

“I applaud the patron of this competition (George) Mashavave for affording these youngsters an opportunity to showcase what they are capable of delivering.

“I really like these kind of tournaments personally. This is how I have been able to identify raw talent which I have been able to develop over the years.

“You may be aware that this is how I got some of the players who I have lost to other clubs this window period.

“So I have decided to take on board five players who I have identified at this tournament.

“They will train with Cranborne Bullets for the next 10 to 12 days before I sign three of them. But if I see that they are all good as I have seen, I won’t hesitate to take all of them aboard.

“Look, there are talented individuals who confine themselves to these amateur tournaments because they wouldn’t have come across an opportunity to join professional clubs for one reason or the other.

“This is where I find good payers and I urge other individuals with the means to also afford youngsters a chance to showcase their talent.”

Mashavave, who bankrolled this tournament to the tune of $700 000, said he will continue supporting the youths.

“We have formed the Harare West Christian League which is now in its second phase.

“So we decided to host this mid-season tournament and we invited several legends and coaches to identify talent,” he said.

“Our age group for the league is mainly between 16 and 23, those players who can be identified and be further moulded into stars.  We have realised that the youths are increasingly becoming involved in a lot of socially detrimental activities and we have decided to play our small role taking them off the streets.

“Besides men’s football, which is in its inaguaral season, we also intend to introduce female soccer as well as all other sport codes so that youth engage in positive things which can expose them to further opportunities in life.”

Besides Saruchera, the tournament organisers also invited Black Rhinos legend Stanford “Stix” Mutizwa, who is currently the Black Rhinos technical director, Shingi Kawondera and Bigboy Mawiwi.