Sabre-toothed minnows — a visual image that is at the very least simultaneously puzzling and complimentary.
As has come to be almost World Cup tradition, Zimbabwe will enter the tournament in 2003 as one of the least fancied contenders. But, as Telford Vice wrote in the Johannesburg Sunday Times, they are nevertheless regarded by the stronger nations as sabre-toothed minnows—a visual image that is at the very least simultaneously puzzling and complimentary.
The reason for the appellation is fairly obvious, given Zimbabwe’s penchant for surprising top teams and pulling off odds-defying fighting wins in one-day internationals. Even in the 1999 edition of the championship, Zimbabwe reached the Super Six stage—emerging from the more difficult of the two pools on the back of shock victories against top contenders like South Africa and India.
Admittedly, their will to fight is hindered not a little by their enduring weakness—the lack of a disciplined and penetrating bowling attack. Occasional outstanding performances may have enabled them to upset a few illustrious apple-carts, but the niggling deficiency will only hamper the team further in the long run.
Their only bowler of true international class, Heath Streak, will be burdened by the captaincy as well, and much will depend on whether he has full recovered from injury. His support in the speed department will come largely from Andy Blignaut’s lively fast-medium, which has found considerable success of late in Test cricket, and Henry Olonga and Douglas Hondo’s erratic but potentially devastating pace.
On the pitches of South Africa and Zimbabwe, few teams are going to find the need to play too many specialist spinners, so the lone practitioner of that art in the Zimbabwe squad is leg-spinner Brian Murphy. If needed, though, the captain can fall back on the part-time tweaking skills of Douglas Marillier—also an exciting improviser in crunch situations—and Grant Flower.
Zimbabwe’s strengths, on the other hand, remain their tigerish fielding and a potentially mighty batting line-up. The former has come to become a significant factor in limited-overs matches, and Zimbabwe’s athletic abilities to not only save runs but also hit the stumps with amazing regularity give them the much-needed edge in needle contests that are often decided by slender margins.
The batting fulcrum, as one would expect, will still be Andy Flower, who has of late suffered a rather lean patch after his glut of runs around a year ago. Much will depend on him in this World Cup also, since he is a batsman capable of almost single-handedly carrying his team into the Super Six.
Flower has not had the best of support from his fellow willow-wielders in the line-up, and for Zimbabwe to do well, the batsmen must buck up and play around him. Grant Flower and Dion Ebrahim, as occupants of vital top-order positions, must take it upon themselves to assume anchor roles. Grant Flower does this well and has the ability to pace his innings nicely, while Ebrahim, who has tended to score slowly in one-day matches, has developed his off-side play of late and should be able to overcome that weakness.
The attributes applied to Zimbabwe over the years are just as pertinent with the squad selected for the World Cup. The selectors, however, in an attempt to compensate for the relatively weak bowling, have picked a large complement of all-rounders. The captain then has the luxury of juggling his options and avoiding the necessity of persevering with under-performing bowlers. The cloud to that silver lining is that the presence of an all-rounder or two—where specialist batsmen could have been played instead—takes away from the solidity in the batting line-up.
This battery of all-purpose men will be led by Travis Friend, an exciting prospect who has shown himself to be capable of match-winning performances with either bat or ball. Guy Whittall, a veteran, provides some reassuring experience in the middle-order, while Sean Ervine is a young cricketer who has shown glimpses of potential as a medium-paced bowler and destructive left-hand bat.
A team comprising in large part of all-rounders, while definitely affording immense flexibility, also runs the risk of mass batting collapses or bowling failures. On a batting belter, for example, the non-specialist bowlers may just be so much cannon fodder, while shaky techniques may be found out by class bowlers on a seaming wicket. Zimbabwe should try to avoid the heady temptation of packing their side with Jacks of all trades, for they can ill afford collapses in what promises to be a very challenging league stage, to say the least.
Their world ranking of nine meant that Zimbabwe were slotted into what the football scribes would rush to dub the "pool of death," and even the most optimistic supporter will deem it unlikely that their heroes will outperform teams from Australia, Pakistan, India and England in the preliminaries and thereby, as in 1999, advance to the Super Six.
The prognosis, then, makes for only the slimmest of chances for Zimbabwe’s progress into the Super Six. But as in the past, there will be at least a couple of matches in which the big guns will be obliged to sweat profusely for a win. It wouldn’t be stretching it to say that perhaps a nasty shock or two awaits them as well.