Why Zimbabwe has become an issue

"Cricket? It civilises people and creates good gentlemen. I want everyone in to play cricket in Zimbabwe. I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen."

It is uncertain when Robert Mugabe expressed these thoughts. It would have most likely been the early to mid-1980s as at the time he was the African nation's prime minister.

Whether they reflected his genuine view of the game, or echoed a jingoistic expression at Zimbabwe's 1983 World Cup aspirations and victory over Australia, is uncertain.

Certainly they have made their way into the cricket quotations and the phrase "I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen" was a slogan during a visit to close friends, a Matabele-speaking couple and their three children in Bulawayo in 1983. One of them was a teacher who was involved in a new cricket development programme at the schools in the southern region of the newly independent nation.

They were proud of their product and wanted to show it off to visitors. Africans, so long denied the chance of being involved in the game, teaching it to aspiring youngsters who as Mugabe said, be part of "a nation of gentleman."

As with South Africa, however, there is no quick fix, no easy solution to the problem of transition and transformation. It all takes time. Not all though realise this and is where politicians and administrators of all ilk need to learn lessons from the past.

It needed that human element to explain to the politicians and administrators how badly they had erred. This is why Charl Langeveldt's decision to quit as an international player in March made the point that those in charge of the International Cricket Council should take note. It is where the South African politicians had seriously fudged its message of quotas.

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