'Lady Chevrons' brace themselves for the hard road on return

Mary-Anne Musonda expected July to be the best month of her career. Along with teammates Anesu Mushangwe, Tasmeen Granger and Sharne Mayers, as well as the coach Adam Chifo, she was preparing to embark on a flight to the UK. Years of investment and hard work, often with little reward, was finally set to pay off with the Zimbabwe captain and her colleagues handed the golden opportunity of joining a Women's Global Development Squad. Not only would they be playing against Kia Super League teams, but they would be training at world-class facilities.

Musonda, for one, was excited with the timely opportunity and was busy packing. She had even maintained a notebook, scribbling down her goals. Then came the news that would shatter her dreams.

With the ICC announcing on July 18 that Zimbabwe had been suspended as a Member of the governing body, the players and the coach were barred from playing against Kia Super League teams. The enduring image from the time is a series of tweets from the Zimbabwe women's captain, which encapsulated her disappointment about the missed opportunity. To make matters worse, Zimbabwe were barred from ICC events, which extended to the World T20 2019 Qualifiers. The national side's limited-overs tours of Ireland and Netherlands were also cancelled due to financial issues.

"It was a huge disappointment. I mean you don't come across that kind of opportunities," Musonda tells Cricbuzz. "So for us, the whole team, we were really devastated. It was a tough time for us. We had really worked hard since January. And we were looking forward to the preparation games and the Qualifiers. As a leader myself, I was quite disappointed with the way things were done. I think I was hoping that the issues would have been resolved, we would have been a bit quicker, as we had a lot to lose. But that didn't happen that way."

In tough times, the African nation was desperately searching for oxygen to stay afloat. Over the last 15 years, cricket in Zimbabwe has been caught in a whirlpool of turmoil, paddling through cycles of crushing levels of debt and uncertainty. From time to time, a glimmer of hope would spring up from darkness only for it to be crushed. And then came the hammer blow for the players - the suspension.

The consequences of the decision were massive, as the governing body's funding to its constituent member was also frozen. The ICC had taken the decision on the basis of "government interference", after Zimbabwe's Sports and Recreation Commission - an arm of the Sports Ministry - had issued a directive to suspend Zimbabwe Cricket's electoral process until further notice. The board, though, went ahead with the scheduled AGM in June and Tavengwa Mukuhlani was re-elected as the Chairman of ZC. Subsequently, SRC suspended the board and also ZC's acting managing director Givemore Makoni.

In the wake of the ICC suspension, Kirsty Coventry, the former Olympic medallist and Zimbabwe's Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation, aptly pointed out that "athletes always have to be put first". She stated the words "government interference" were being used loosely, and also provided the examples of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where heads of state had named the Chairman of the respective boards.

In sport, after one chapter ends, it is time to begin the next one and script a new story. For Zimbabwe's cricketers, it was a case of taping those shattered dreams and exploring a new path. Despite wading through such a phase, Zimbabwe's players kept believing that they would get back to playing professional cricket. However, for that to happen, the cricketers needed the help of administrators. In August this year, their faith in the system was met with hope when the SRC and Zimbabwe Cricket accepted an "order of consent" and Mukuhlani and his board were reinstated. Eventually, during ICC's Board meeting in Dubai in October, the ban was lifted. It came as a relief for all the stakeholders of Zimbabwe cricket.

"I mean words can't explain how excited I am, that you know Zimbabwe has been reinstated. Something we have been wishing for probably should have happened earlier. We are so excited," says Musonda. "Through all this, the minister backed us. Once everything happened, we were in close contact with her. And for her to have been instrumental in all this, we really have been appreciative of her efforts. As a team, as much as we have missed out, we are looking ahead to the future tours, we are excited about the new chapter."

The Zimbabwe team can at least look forward with confidence, having steadily climbed up the ladder in recent years. After failing to progress to the World T20 Qualifiers in 2018, Zimbabwe went on an unbeaten run, seeing off Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mozambique and Namibia in the final of the African Region to seal their spot in the 2019 Qualifiers. During that spell, they also posted their highest total in T20Is - 198/3 versus Mozambique.

It has also been a good year for Zimbabwe's captain after taking over the leadership duties from Chipo Mugeri. She didn't just lead the national side with authority but also notched up her maiden T20I fifty.

"What we just did after losing out on missing the 2018 Qualifiers was we tried to really come together," says of how a vision was scripted. "And I had a conversation of what really happened, what went wrong. We hadn't lost any Qualifiers (in Africa) before. It was the first, so it was a hard pill to swallow, So, we sat down and talked about what happened; probably complacency that had kicked in. And so with that we just redefined ourselves.

"We came up with a nickname 'Lady Chevrons' that we derived from the men's squad, their name as well. We just redefined our team culture, values as a team, everyone agreed to a certain work ethic, certain ways of doing things that is going to be unique to Zimbabwe. And then we embarked on the Namibia tour and tried out everything we had spoken about," she added.

Zimbabwe as a country has been ravaged by unemployment, inflation alongside constant lack of fuel, medicine and food. Despite all the problems surrounding them, a set of women cricketers will continue their journey by juggling these challenges, their own ambitions, and family life. "My team has ladies who have families and children, and they have to balance that. I have seen some of my players balancing the two by taking breaks, going to see their family here and there. To balance professional life with the fact that you're a mother, it is a delicate dynamic which I have seen my players handling very well."

Fortunately, there is no expiry date for achieving goals. The 'Lady Chevrons' will chart through the hard road once again and put their collective skills on the line in the 2020 World Cup Qualifiers in Sri Lanka.