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Tuskers gear for second half

Sports Reporter

STRUGGLING Matabeleland Tuskers cricket franchise will today appoint a substantive captain before they take on Southern Rocks in a Logan Cup four-day match that starts this morning at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo.
Vumi Moyo, a convenor of selectors revealed this in a telephone interview and said they were hoping for a better year.
The captain will also be part of the selection panel.
"It's a New Year and we are hoping it will be a better one for us. Tomorrow (today) before the start of the match against Southern Rocks, we are going to announce Tuskers' substantive captain. Whoever is going to be given the captain's role will get the board, executive, technical department and the players' support. Whatever decision he will make, all the stakeholders will have to support him. The captain will be part of the selection panel," said Moyo.
Four players — Terrence Duffin, Dion Ebrahim, Sean Williams and Gregory Strydom — captained Tuskers since the beginning of the season.
Moyo said they had to rotate the captaincy so that they come up with the "right candidate".
"Tuskers has a number of talented guys and the qualities that we were looking at include someone with leadership skills who can balance up his game with the responsibility given to him. The reason why it took long to come up with the captain is that we wanted to make sure that we have the right candidate," said Moyo.
The captain will be expected to lead Tuskers to a better second half of the season.
Meanwhile, Tuskers will tomorrow feature their new signing, fast pace bowler Gerald Aliseni.
"We have a new signing who is an outright pace bowler Gerald (Aliseni). He's been playing his cricket outside the country and he has been fantastic in the nets and we hope he takes that performance with him to the actual game against Rocks tomorrow. His presence has strengthened our bowling attack and we are hopeful he will add value to the team," said Moyo.
Tuskers' will be hoping for a better start to the year, as they did not do well in 2009. They are fourth on the log having lost three matches, won one and drawn three in the Logan Cup. They have only won one match out of the seven they have played of their One Day games.
Tuskers welcome back Charles Coventry who has been out of action due to injury and Mark Vermeulen, out on disciplinary grounds.
The return of the two is likely to strengthen Tuskers' disappointing batting.
Gavin Ewing will be expected to continue with his fine batting form he displayed towards the half-way mark.
Some of the batsmen expected to lead Tuskers' attack include Bornapate Mujuru, former national team player Ebrahim and Mbekezeli Mabuza.
Strydom, Kegan Meth, Keith Dabengwa and skipper Williams will provide entertainment to the crowds with their batting and also claim as many wickets as possible.
Christopher Mpofu and Tawanda Mupariwa are the backbone of the bowling department and will be joined by Aliseni.
Tuskers’ best player so far in the league, hard-working spinner John Nyumbu will be hoping to climb up the success ladder, praying his ball turning skills won't fail him.