Melville CookeTHE RECENTLY set cricket record that I am most interested in is not Brian Lara's 400, which is as much a monument to his self-absorption as his talent, but Zimbabwe's 35 in the third one-day international against Sri Lanka. That 35 is a record low for a one-day international and, with all the Red Stripe Mound partying in the world, it is doubtful that even our happy bunch can beat that. It is a record that was set by the first real 'All-Black' team in Zimbabwean cricket history, after over a dozen white professionals, led by captain Heath Streak, effectively went on strike. Their action was against what they term as the corruption of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and the intrusion of Robert Mugabe's government into their sport. The reclamation of land from white farmers may just have something to do with the matter as well. Just maybe.
ZIMBABWEAN FIELDING
My purpose is not to rail against the white players, but to celebrate the fielding of a Zimbabwe cricket team with Africans that look like me. The only persons happier than me, I suspect, were the players themselves, if one pre-series picture I saw was anything to go by. To even step on the field was a triumph all in itself, no matter the score.
So, to set the record straight, I am not in some perverse way saying 'yeah, we made our mark! We set a record! We will not be forgotten!' I am celebrating a team of Black people representing an African country in a sport that is as white as they come.
At time of writing, the Zimbabwe All-Blacks, to borrow a name from the New Zealanders (whose blackness usually stops at their clothes) seemed destined to be a short-lived phenomenon, with the white players set to take up bat and ball again. But, for me, it has been good. Very good. Cricket, they say, is a metaphor for life, what with the patience of the long innings, determination in the face of adversity, the flurry when opportunity arises, the strategy involved and all that. In this case, it is illustrative that Black people can do without white people.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
One of the most repeated Marcus Garvey quote is "if you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started". As Black people we are bombarded with images of the failures of our race, with the few examples of what is termed as success often being either in support of the existing structure (Colin Powell), so tainted that it pales (Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson) or reinforcing stereotypes of thugs, hoes and bling ('Fiddy' Cent, BET).
Conversely, we are inundated with images of successful white people, from the Gates to the Trumps. It is never overtly said, but there is the lingering thought you cannot do it. It was not expected that the Zimbabwe All-Blacks would be successful, in terms of winning against Sri Lanka. They did not, but they went out and did the other 'it' - they played. Zimbabwe was represented. When a set of people have been systematically underdeveloped, which is what has happened in Zimbabwe and South Africa both on and off the cricket field, the tendency is to look at them in the current perspective, not where they are coming from and where they can go to.
When the West Indies started playing test cricket we were whipping boys, but it was not too long before Kitchener was leading a bunch of Black people around Lords, whooping, hollering and singing as they celebrated beating England. Who knows how long it would take the Zimbabwe All-Blacks to be competitive, then winners, then maybe dominant, if they were allowed to continue playing without 'salting up' the team again? We will, it seems, not know.
And that is another lesson. The white players will be back, which means to me not so much that the team needs them, but that they need the team. They need Zimbabwe. They need the Black majority. Which, frankly, does not need them. Sure they would struggle for some time, but they would truly learn self-reliance. Remember, cricket is a metaphor for real life.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
