ZC sets up spin camp ahead of BD tour, SA coach "Summoned"

CrimsonAvenger wrote:http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2014/09 ... in-demons/

The Zimbabwe national cricket team is priming itself to confront its spin troubles after organising a spin cam ahead of their tour to the sub-continent next month.

The camp will be held at the Harare Sports Club between October 6-9 and Zimbabwe Cricket has already engaged South African coach Justin Summons to help them pin point their problems.

Bangladesh will look to use the spin weapon to good effect against a Zimbabwe side that generally struggles against spin bowling.

Already some of the senior national team batsmen in Vusi Sibanda, Tino Mawoyo and Mark Vermulen have struggled in sub-continental conditions while representing Zimbabwe A against Bangladesh A, and this might have triggered panic among fans.

National team coach Steve Mangongo said his team is working on sorting out the problem ahead of the tour.

“Generally we have struggled against spin and we have to improve ahead of this tour,” said Mangongo. “We are leaving no stone unturned in trying to bat better against spin and that’s why we have organised a spin camp and hired a specialist in that area.”

After their spin camp the team is set for a trip to Chiredzi where they hope low-veld conditions will help prepare them for conditions in Bangladesh where temperatures go over 40 degrees Celsius.

With some guys like Mawoyo it might be a technical issue, but most of the time our guys get out not because they can't play spin per se but rather because they always want to dominate the spinners and thus play too many risky shots. What they need is more PATIENCE!

I've said it before somewhere, but I really hope all the batsmen are force-fed a DVD of the Braithwaite/Chanderpaul partnership which set up the Windies in the first Test against BD recently. It wasn't pretty, in fact it was a terribly becalming experience (I think I watched an hour or so ... and my mind became wonderfully blank), runs only came in a trickle, but it was mighty effective. No sweeps, certainly no reverse-sweeps, no running down the pitch, just one forward defensive after the other, a push for a single, a nudge into a gap that seemed to drain all energy from the Bangladeshi fielders.

Sean Williams is a wonderful player of spin and he can play as many sweeps as he likes in the shorter format, but I hope he realises that this is the time to make his mark in Test cricket, knuckle down, not get out to a silly shot in the thirties or fourties, and score some big runs.