Tour of  West Indies 2012-13          Captain: Brendon Taylor

Zimbabwe’s 23rd Test tour

Third Test-playing tour of West Indies by Zimbabwe

   (February - March 2013)

Zimbabwe’s Cricket Committee recommended that the management structure on tour should in future consist of the head and assistant coach, an analyst, a physiotherapist and a manager appointed on a tour-by-tour basis. On Facebook captain Brendon Taylor regretted that the team would be without the guidance of specialist coaches Heath Streak and Grant Flower

Having been hammered in the first one-day international, Zimbabwe competed worthily in the second match, but feebly in the rest, and could not prevent a ‘whitewash’ in the limited-overs series. The Test series proved to be a complete mismatch. The Zimbabwe batsmen could score only one fifty in four completed team innings.  In short it was a disastrous tour.

Other Zimbabwe tours

Previous tour

New Zealand 2011-12

Next tour

Bangladesh 2014-15

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen:  Tino Mawoyo, Vusi Sibanda. 

Middle-order batsmen:  Hamilton Masakadza,  Timycen Maruma, Sean Williams, Malcolm Waller.

Wicket-keeper/batsmae: Brendan Taylor, Regis Chakabva.

Spin bowlers:  Graeme Cremer,  Prosper Utseya, Raymond Price.

Fast bowlers:  Chris Mpofu, Tendai Chatara, Kyle Jarvis, Keegan Meth.

District representation  

 Castle Logan Cup teams

Man - Manicaland (0)

Msh - Mashonaland Eagles (4)

Mat - Matabeleland Tuskers (3)

Mid W - Mid West Rhinos (4)

Mount - Mountaineers (4)

Sth   - Southern Rocks (0)

Average age of team at time of first Test match

   (12 March 2013) :

     27 yrs  3 months

ODI : one-day and T20 squad

Test Appearances made before the tour

Price 21,  H Masakadza 19,  Taylor 14,  Mpofu 9,  Cremer 7,  Sibanda 6,  Jarvis 4,  Mawoyo 4,  Chakabva 2,  C Ervine 2,  Waller 2,  Utseya 1,  Chatara 0,   Maruma  0,  Meth 0,  Williams 0.

Tour Officials

Zimbabwe’s Cricket Committee recommended that the future management structure should consist of the head and assistant coach, an analyst, a physiotherapist and a manager appointed on a tour by tour basis.

Batting coach Grant Flower, bowling coach Heath Streak and fitness trainer Lorraine Chivandire did not travel to the Caribbean because of financial concerns and in order to accommodate more players.

Selectors

Givemore Makoni (convener of selectors),  …..

Selection

A provisional 24-man training squad was announced in January 2013.

Former captain Elton Chigumbura was not included owing to his poor form.

Unavailable: 

Tour Party Announced :  29 January 2013.

Not selected :   Cuthbert Musoko,  Tinashe Panyangara,  Edward Rainsford,  Brian Vitori,  Nathan Waller from the provisional training group  were not included in either ODI or Test tour squads ;  Ray Price

Time between selection and departure from Zimbabwe

     18 days

(29 January to 16 February)

Travel

Harare   Q Grenada

Staring on Monday 4 February all the players went into a two-week training camp apart from Kyle Jarvis, who was playing in New Zealand, and Brendon Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza, who were in the Bangladesh Premier League.

Fourteen players for the one-day internationals and five officials left Harare on Saturday 16 February and arrived in Grenada  (Point Salines International Airport) on Sunday 17 February.

Brendan Taylor who had arrived home from Bangladesh on the previous Thursday evening was unwell with a viral infection and did not leave Harare until 19 February after he had passed a stringent test supervised by the fitness trainer, Lorraine Chivandere.  Hamilton Masakadza was able to fly out with the main team.

For the Test matches, Sean Williams, Timycen Maruma, Ray Price and Graeme Cremer left Zimbabwe on Sunday 3 March, joining the team at the end of the one-day series.

Time spent in West Indies         

      36 days

(17 February - 25 March )

On-tour selection panel

Alan Butcher (coach),  Brendon Taylor (captain),  Stephen Mangongo (assistant coach)

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

Itinerary announced

 27 November 2012

§  ODI

ϯ not first-class

Å  T20 international

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:

      23 days

(17 February -  12 March)

.

Test appearances on tour

2  -  Chatara,  Cremer,  Ervine,  Jarvis,  Masakadza,  Mawoyo,  Sibanda,  Taylor,  Waller.

1  -  Chakabva,  Price,  Utseya,  Williams.

0  -  Maruma,  Meth,  Mpufu.

Highlights

•   Ervine, Masakadza and Sibanda all scored fifties as Zimbabwe raised a competitive total in the 2nd ODI.

•   Mawoyo reached 50 in the first Test at Bridgetown but this was Zimbabwe’s highest score of the series.

•   His opening partner Vusi Sibanda got a start in every Test innings, scoring  12, 15, 32, 35.

•   Kyle Jarvis with 5-54 in the West Indies’ 1st innings reduced West Indies to 150 for 6 before a century stand.

Tour Summary

Return to Zimbabwe

Dominica   Q  London??   Q Harare

Four members of the limited-overs squad - Craig Ervine, Chamu Chibhabha, Tino Mutombodzi and Natsai M'shangwe - returned home after the ODIs and T20s.

The team left the Caribbean on 25 March.

Time away from Zimbabwe

   38 days  

(16 February to 26 March )

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

The Zimbabweans’ tour of West Indies was a complete failure and there were really no signs that things would get much better. However, with Test series against Bangladesh and Pakistan coming up in the next few months, the players had an immediate chance of making some improvement under new coach Andy Waller.

Alan Butcher’s term as coach came to an end. He had taken on the task in 2010 of putting Zimbabwe cricket back on its feet in Test cricket but was hampered by a severe lack of resources. The best players continued to drift away for a more secure future elsewhere meaning that he was always overseeing an inexperienced team.