My All-time Zimbabwe XI
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani
The city council have been trying for many years to evict Gweru Sports Club from their current historic ground in a prime location in order to build residential or commercial lots. It’s one of the few sports clubs out in the provinces that has held out in the face of such pressures.
The cricket ground has been brought back into use - by hand! - from an overgrown jungle into a serviceable, now well used grass square and outfield by volunteers over the past five years and cricket is played there every weekend. It’s not Lord’s, but it’s serviceable and it gets used and there are community coaches who run sessions there regularly. It’s pretty much the only league cricket ground in the Midlands.
It seems that this promise of a pot of gold by ZC and the council will ultimately finally force Gweru SC out and for it to be bulldozed.
As for the new ground - they mention multi sports , so it seems like a replacement for the wider sports club.
What I can’t fathom is why on f***ing gods Earth would they want ‘VIP Boxes’ , ‘a Media Centre’ etc. what a gigantic waste of money. These will rot and be abandoned within months. By the articles own admission, the proposed ground will only be used as a ‘practice venue’ during the 2027 WC. International matches will never be played here!
If they really are going to invest in a new facility - and great if they really are - why can’t they just build a quality square and outfield and some change rooms and then spend the rest of the money on funding maintenance of it for the next X amount of years? Or funding coaches a s community cricket in the city. Bloody VIP centres and media boxes are a complete utter waste!
One thing is for sure is that Gweru City Council are so corrupt and have such a potted history that they make the likes of ZC look like angels.
I am extremely wary of this. Probably even more so than Vic Falls. Millions of dollars will go missing on this and you’ll suddenly see a few city officials driving around in new sports cars courtesy of ICC funds….
Nah, bro’s ain’t coming to watch Durham on their pre season 😂
10k capacity when the justification was HSC and Queens aren’t big enough with their 10k capacity 😂
I’d seen ZC are fronting the dollar and will own the ground for 25 years, but then what? Whose ground is it then ? and they reckon it will be built in a year; seems legit.
It does seem quite ridiculous when the season just gone two token regional (?) games were at Queens ahead of the Sri Lanka tour and everything else was in Harare.
ZC secures land to build a 3rd new stadium. ZC and Mutare Sports Club have had a lot of long-running disputes over the years, so it seems they want their own venue.
Vic Falls, Gweru and Mutare. An insane amount of money wasted. We are doomed.
A good opportunity here for a franchise of cricketing strip clubs.
My All-time Zimbabwe XI
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani