Chigumbura stays put

Chigumbura stays put PDF Print E-mail

By Austin Karonga, Sports Writer

Sunday, 04 March 2012 11:38

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HARARE - Zimbabwe cricket all-rounder Elton Chigumbura’s bid to find an overseas club has been stalled by the impending tour by South Africa in June.

The Proteas are scheduled to visit the country in June to play five Twenty20 matches in preparation for the 2012 Twenty20 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka in September.

Zimbabwe and the Proteas have been placed in the same group as the hosts for the fourth edition of the tournament.

Chigumbura, the former national team skipper had earmarked the off-season break in the domestic franchise league to harness his skills in a foreign club.

The recent tour of New Zealand in which Zimbabwe were bruised and battered after losing in all forms of cricket has shown local cricketers the necessity of improving their ability to adapt to foreign conditions by playing for foreign clubs.

“I was looking forward to travelling abroad but with the talks of South Africa coming here in June I guess I don’t have much of an option but to work on my shortcomings here at home,” Chigumbura told the Daily News on Sunday.

“When you play in England they expect you to finish the whole season there in order to sign you up and in this instance it will not be possible because the next national assignment will be coming soon.”

The 25-year-old had a stint with England County side Northamptonshire as one of the team’s overseas player for the County Championship and 40-over League in March 2010.

Chigumbura also spoke about how the team struggled to cope with the New Zealand conditions but said that there was no justification for losing the Test match inside three days.

“It wasn’t a good tour for us largely because of the fact that most of us were touring New Zealand for the first time and we only had little time to acclimatise” he said.

“In the warm up match, we only batted once while the New Zealand XI batted twice which was unfortunate but it’s no excuse for being bowled out twice in a day as we did in the Test match.

“We played poor shots and lost wickets unnecessarily and I believe that we gave them a lot of unwarranted runs through our sloppy fielding.”

The disastrous tour of New Zealand has convinced Chigumbura to urgently work on his weaknesses.

“I’m just trying to work on the things that I haven’t been doing well lately. I want to develop a better technique by trying to keep as much strikes on the ground and going way over the top if I intend to clear boundaries as well as bowling with consistent lengths.”