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Zimbabwe Cricket has announced that its first Test captain Dave Houghton has join the fold as the organisation’s Coaching Manager.
“Among his responsibilities in the newly created role, the 64-year-old will oversee the development and implementation of coaching programmes across all formats and levels as well as design and run special cricket camps, with the ultimate aim being to help coaches to get the best out of players,” said a ZC communique.
In addition, the 64 year-old will be coach of the Moutaineers provincial side in the 2021/22 domestic season.
As part of the continued improvement and rehabilitation of ZC, this is a ginormous move.
ZC has been working in recent times to clean up its act, and a reform exercise assisted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) has helped the organisation resolve its legacy debt issues as well restructuring the organisation.
This has resulted in more game time, in the domestic and international stage with a slow resurrection of ‘A’ side cricket.
While that has happened, the performances on field have not improved significantly. What is more, the domestic format has not really gone up as much as one would like.
Houghton’s inclusion in the developmental systems is key.
Institutional memory
Houghton holds a lot of the early memories of cricket in Zimbabwe. He was the country’s first captain when we got Test status in 1992. That is a lot of knowledge of what worked that might need reviving and mistakes made then that need avoiding.
Houghton holds Zimbabwe’s fortunes close to his heart. In a 2016 Cricket Monthly interview, he said, “I had opportunities to leave but I didn’t want Zimbabwe to go downhill and never play again.”
This was around the time Zimbabwe got its status and there was an exodus.
Houghton played an instrumental role in the establishment of the CFX Cricket Academy after he raised the initial capital for the project with a 22-day sponsored walk from Bulawayo to Harare in 1999.
In the same interview Houghton spoke of a club structure that needed reviving.
Critical to that is coaching.
His passion for coaching
In the same interview, Houghton said, “We as coaches are having to freshen up every year. I don’t coach batting the same way I did ten years ago.”
In a lot of players, you can see that some have hit a ceiling. That could be down to limitations that the coaches have or them having to spend too much time figuring things out for themselves.
Also, without a coordinated approach to coaching, there is no style of play for Zimbabwe teams. It means that players come to the national team without an identity and we see too many different styles in the same team.
And this can be seen in the lack of success in batting which has become an albatross for Zimbabwe.
Coaching experience
Having taken charge of Zimbabwe as a player-coach, since ending his playing career Houghton has gone on to become a successful coach and commentator.
He counts Tuskers and Southern Rocks at local level as well as Radlett Cricket Club and Derbyshire County Cricket Club in England among the sides he has coached, while he was also the batting coach at Somerset County Cricket Club and Middlesex County Cricket Club.
Before rejoining ZC now, he was the head of cricket at Derbyshire County Cricket Club in England from October 2018.
And maybe a little bit more
There has been a growing chasm between the new age of cricket and its past.
While Houghton’s relationship with some players from his playing days may be classified as somewhat attritional at times, something he points out especially when he was player-coach, there may be some goodwill left.
There are former players who may yet be interested in contributing to the local game.
Also, Houghton, having been instrumental in fellow Zimbabwean, Gary Ballance’s move to England, may yet hold sway in getting Zimbabwean talent to flow the other way.
A big moment it is, for these and other reasons.
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