Houghton time for reflection
AFTER serving Zimbabwean cricket for over two decades, Dave Houghton has stepped down as national team coach
Itayi Viriri
30-Apr-2000
AFTER serving Zimbabwean cricket for over two decades, Dave
Houghton has stepped down as national team coach. The Standard
sought him out to gain some insight into his views, memories and
plans for the future. In a wide ranging interview, Houghton
explained why he has opted to quit the national team before the
expiry of his contract.
"Having had such a torrid last few months during which we lost
most of our matches, especially after the highs of the World Cup,
I felt I was not getting through to them.The potential is
certainly there, but there was the need for someone else to
motivate the players," said Houghton
He is confident that the cricket team, which is touring England
at the moment, will improve on its showing in the West Indies.
"We really deserved better luck, especially in the first Test
where we only needed 99 runs from a whole day's play to win or in
the second Test where we were on top for the first two days but
lost the match at the end," he said. He said his team had lacked
the positive mind frame to win the two Tests but he wished them
all the best in the England tour. "They deserve a little bit of
luck every now and then," he said.
As to his life after the national team, Houghton says he will now
focus his energies on nurturing young talent in the schools and
at the CFX Cricket Academy, a brainchild of his. "But before I do
that, I will be abroad doing commentary work during Zimbabwe's
England tour and spending time with my daughter, Kirsty, who will
be off to university in the United States where she will study
journalism."
Houghton says he is looking forward to spending more time with
other members of his family--his wife, Shelly, and two other
daughters, Carly, a prospective medical student, and Jamie, who
is in her last year of junior school.
Such is his dedication to his family that he once returned home
from the World Series Cup in Australia to be with his family for
Christmas.
Looking back, Houghton says the most memorable highlights of his
career included the team's win of the Test series in Pakistan at
the end of 1998 and of course, the team's great achievement in
reaching the Super Six stage at last year's World Cup. Said
Houghton: "My time as coach at Worcestershire was also very good
for we reached two finals at Lord's, and won all of them."
During his four years at the helm of the English county side,
Houghton steered them from 14th in 1994, to third position in the
national county league, at the time of his departure in 1997.
However, he will never forget the sport in which he has for long
been involved. "Cricket has been fantastic to me, with all that
travel all over the world. It's one of the best careers in the
world and I am glad that I have been part of Zimbabwe's
transition to Test status. Mike Procter once said playing cricket
was like being on holiday all your life."
Surprisingly, Houghton admits that though he has travelled the
world over, he has not had the chance to really travel across
Zimbabwe and he now intends to rectify that anomaly.
One of the ringing calls during his tenure as coach was for the
inclusion of young players to the side, especially during the
times when some of the established players were performing badly.
Houghton says whilst the future of Zimbabwean cricket lies in the
hands of the young and talented prospects, the old players still
have a very important role to play.
"The older players have been around since our Test induction and
they are like the pioneers. They are needed to steer these young
players through the rigours of international cricket as the
margins of error at that level are very little."
Houghton believes Tatenda Taibu is an outstanding talent with the
potential to be one of Zimbabwe's leading batsmen and wicket
keepers.
He also feels that Mluleki Nkala is a young player with the
potential to become a very reliable all rounder. The two players
are currently with the tour party in England and should get a
chance to play in some of the matches especially those in the
triangular series.
Having always advocated for a strong first class cricket base for
the national team, Houghton says it is encouraging to see that
his dreams are gaining fruition.
"In fact, the ideal situation would be to have all the national
team players playing for their respective domestic teams when
they are not involved in international cricket."
This, he says, would go a long towards raising the standards of
the country's domestic cricket and providing a larger pool of
players from which to select the Test players.
Houghton says there is a great need to build more cricket clubs
across the country other tan merely in the urban areas.
Zimbabwe Cricket Union chief, Dave Ellman Brown summed up
Houghton's role in Zimbabwean cricket in these words: "His has
been an outstanding contributor to the sport and we have seen him
as a leading batsman/wicket keeper, captain and coach and of
course, there his role in the setting up of the cricket academy."
He added: "He has served the country for more than two decades
and is an internationally respected figure, who was in fact
recently made an International Cricket Council ambassador along
with the likes of Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter."