Zimbabwe used to inconsistency: Alistair Campbell

Former Zimbabwe skipper Alistair Campbell has lashed out at the Zimbabwe side following their 3-0 drubbing at the hands of India in the recently concluded ODI series. It didn’t seem like a competition given the one-sided nature of the series. Campbell touched upon the domestic aspects of the game stating that the Zimbabweans must change their internal structure to achieve the golden era of the 1990s once again.

“It’s at the crossroads,” Campbell told Cricbuzz. “It has been for a while now, jostling with getting more cricket and internal issues. The ICC ruling of having to qualify for the next World Cup if you’re not a side in the top eight and having a side good enough to be able to do that. There are a lot of sides catching up now.”

“Afghanistan is playing some really good cricket. They beat us 3-2 at home. You talk about Ireland, they’ve been the sort of guys that have been there and thereabouts to not having enough cricket, so those guys are coming up well and are challenging the likes of Zimbabwe. We haven’t responded as well as we should’ve like Bangladesh has. With Bangladesh, we’ve all seen an upward curve. I don’t think Zimbabwe cricket has been able to achieve that and that comes from a variety of reasons.”

“The senior players need to play a bit better, focus more on the job at hand and lead from the front. There’s too many guys who have underachieved and the need to look at themselves in the mirror. You talk about self-assessment and say, ‘hold on, this is the plan’, and not look too far ahead. We need to qualify. Realistically, we’re not going to be in the top eight, so how are we going to come back to Bangladesh and win that tournament? That’s really the bottom line,” he said.

Also read – International cricket is international cricket: Jasprit Bumrah

“Our domestic structures, first-class, and league cricket were something that I wanted to address and make arrangements to get those more competitive. Because, if it’s not competitive and doesn’t have vibrant development structures, then you don’t have talent coming through. We’re in desperate need of the likes of the (Tatenda) Taibus and (Hamilton) Masakadzas and those guys. We haven’t seen enough of those coming through and when they do, one of the things we can’t control, and unfortunately I don’t know what the answer is, if we get a guy that’s good enough and he chooses to go to England and play because he feels he’s got better opportunities there, then it’s a loss to us.”

“At the moment, you have guys like Gary Ballance playing for England, Kyle Jarvis playing for Lancashire, you have the two Curran brothers… Sam, who’s playing the Under-19 World Cup for England is one hell of a cricketer. We’ve lost a few to South Africa as well. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about that. I suppose the new generation of young kids doesn’t really have that great allegiance to play for their countries. It’s not about the green cap for them, it’s about making a living.”

Also read – Billy Bowden dropped from NZ international panel

“Brendan Taylor has left and played county cricket, he played the BPL (Bangladesh Premier League), the Masters Champions League; you can go all around the world and play these leagues and choose where you want to play and make a very good living than being stuck in Zimbabwe for X amount and not be able to play these leagues because you have a tour of Afghanistan,” observed Campbell.

“It’s a tough one and out of authorities’ control. That’s a big issue. The fundamental matter is that we need to play more cricket for U-19s, for the A team and the main team. By that, I mean more bilateral tours and higher level cricket. If that happens, that gets you to slowly turn the wheel. You can’t play one series and then wait three months – you’re just going back to square one!”

Also read – Zimbabwe v India ODI series: Zimbabwe player ratings

“We’ve done that last year and the guys have got a wake up call as to what is required. Everyone thought if you’re playing more cricket, you automatically get better. That’s not the case: you have to learn from those mistakes that you make, from the good things that you do and make sure that you’re improving game after game. I think we’re so used to being inconsistent that it takes the time to be consistent. If you’re trying to drag yourself out of the mire and trying to get better, you need your big players to lead from the front, as it happened in the 90s. It’s a fundamental part of getting back on track. You can’t just rely on some new guy coming in of 19 and win us games. It doesn’t work like that. If he contributes and wins it for you, great, but the core of the group have to be the senior players and they have to be performing. I don’t think we’ve got that right yet.”