Elton Chigumbura is here to stay as Captain!

I think the forum must take it easy on these replace Elton Chigumbura comments. He's had a very good record since becoming captain. In those 15 months he's captained in 31 matches, 853 runs, 36 avg, 2 hundreds and 2 fifties at a Strike rate of 83.

No way he's getting sacked after just 15 months I can promise you. If you look at the stats closely you'll see that Craig, Raza, Willaims & Chibhabha have dispappointed or failed to deliver in some of the most important moments since the CWC, so the same being said about Chigumbura for yesterday's match, would have been said about them anyway after those several matches where they flopped bigtime under pressure.

Chigumbura has stood up when Zimbabwe has faced the biggest challenges:

- 90 vs SA to save Zimbabwe from mega embarassment

- stood tall against AUS when everyone else failed

- half century & partnerships with Mire+Regis to prevent embarassment in the Bangaldesh ODIs

- great efforts with bat & ball in two of the Tests in Bangladesh

- His great century nearly won Zimbabwe the 1st ODI against Pakistan away with the whole world watching and set the tone for the rest for the rest of the series

- Again he set the tone for the T20 Series away in Pakistan with a near match-winning half-century with even more of the world watching and paying attention.

- 100 aginst India after that when everyone else flopped - the 2nd strongest attack in Zimbabwe after Pakistan this year, only Chibhabha did well in that India Series

- His fearless half-century ensured Zimbabwe's 2nd greatest ODI victory in maybe 10 years (after Australia) when they beat Pakistan.

No other Zimbabwean batsman has made a bigger impact since he became captain! He has simply outbatted Willaims, Hami & Raza, yet until the last 2-3 years only, he has never really been a top batsman when discussing Zimbabwean batsmen in general. In comparison, the only innings that stands out about Taylor in all that time is his century against India, but that's about it(Ireland's batsmen scored their runs much higher in the order against a stronger attack, and won the match for their side). Overall Chigumbura has stood head&shoulders above every other batsman. In T20s pretty much everyone has scored a half-century, with Hami alone not scoring a half-century but being the most consistent.

None of the other players really have raised their hands up conclusively in all formats. Williams' bowling has been economical with his strike rate the worst in the team, plus he's gone missing in every important match with the bat. For someone batting so low, Raza has been underwhelming more often than not, especially in T20s with bat&ball. His bowling a liabilty, but he has made no doubt made Dua and has at least two umpires in his christmas list. :D Chigumbura aside, only Chibhabha can lift his hand up and say his performances have been up there at the most crucial times, but he didn't face SA, AUS&BD and triumph so that doesn't count.

If enthusiasm and being vocal in the field was the only requirement for captaincy, one of my favourite characters Romesh Kaluwitharana would have captained Sri Lanka at least once.(?)

Anyway, the earliest they'll review that Chigumbura captaincy decision is maybe 2017 if something goes wrong, but I doubt Zimbabwe will be playing enough after 2015 for that to be judged accurately. In any case - Mutombodzi, Chakabva, Mutumbami etc, all experienced FC captains will be in the frame to take over anyway with 2019 CWC in view.

But it would be interesting to know what - other than a selective memory - leads others to think Chigumbura has to be replaced, and how the decision-makers would justify their choice of replacement based on stats or ability to cope under pressure, considering a lot of the favourites have flopped badly overall barring one or two occasions.