THE relationship between Zimbabwe and Uganda on the cricket field is well-documented, but there will be no love lost when the two sides battle for survival and possibly the remaining ticket to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to be co-hosted by West Indies and the USA next year when they clash in Windhoek, Namibia this morning.
Both sides get into this T20 World Cup Qualifier Africa match equally wounded from respective losses against the same opposition, the hosts Namibia, and a slip in today’s encounter for either side may just spell doom to their aspirations of qualifying for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Only two teams are guaranteed a place at next year's showcase and as such the comradeship will cease temporarily until the conclusion of the fixture.
Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton who superintended over what he termed as “probably one of the worst game that I have ever been associated with in a Zimbabwean jersey,” following the embarrassing seven-wicket defeat to Namibia in their opening match on Wednesday, knows his charges must win all the remaining matches to sail through.
“It’s a terrible start to this tournament, but we do know we’ve got to win the next five games and still qualify,” an irate Houghton said after the chastening defeat.
“That’s important for us, but not my best day and certainly not my happiest day. In fact, I feel like we should be all out here apologising to our fans. We can’t sort of rest on our laurels and think we are a bigger side than the rest. We’ve got to turn up and play proper cricket.”
Uganda coach, Jackson Ogwang expects the Cranes to take the fight to the Chevrons this morning.
“I think this brings out the best out of African cricket; it is going to be a challenging one of course but with the kind of cricket my boys are playing now we give ourselves a chance,” Ogwang told StandardSport.
“It is T20 cricket, it’s a short format of the game, if you do your processes well on any day definitely you can come out with the win. I expect my boys to go out there and not only respect the teams, but go out fight with them, we respect every other team, Zim is a Test-playing nation, but we will fancy our chances if we get up on any match day and do our processes right.”
Cricket Cranes captain, Brian Masaba said the rivalry will be showcased on the field and afterwards the brotherhood continues to unfold.
“It’s the nature of competitive sport these days, you wake up against your brothers in one way or the other, but it would be brilliant to see Uganda and Zimbabwe make it to that World Cup. We will come and play hard on the pitch but at the end of the day we remain brothers and we will definitely share a drink after the game. We will be happy for each other’s success at the tournament, so I hope to see some good cricket, competitive and we continue to push that brand of African cricket,” he said.
Zimbabwe missed automatic qualification at next year’s T20 World Cup following a disappointing defeat against Netherlands in Australia last year. Had both Zimbabwe and Namibia gained automatic entries it would have opened two more African slots.