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TWO big things happened in our two biggest sporting disciplines this week — one was a welcome move, the other left the nation in tears.

The return of the legendary Dave Houghton into the structures of Zimbabwe Cricket has been cheered throughout the game as a master-stroke.

The former Chevrons captain is one of the most respected people in the game, throughout the world, known for both his passion and expertise.

Having spent a big part of his coaching life in the trenches of county cricket in England, he has returned home to give back to the constituency, which groomed him.

ZC announced this week Houghton was now their director of coaching, which gives him the huge responsibility of taking care of their coaching portfolio.

He will be in charge of developing, and implementing coaching programmes across all formats and levels of the game in Zimbabwe, and also run special cricket camps.

According the ZC, the ultimate mission is for Houghton, who will also be the head coach at provincial side Mountaineers, to “help coaches to get the best out of players”.

ZC bosses know the value that a man like Houghton brings because he showed his quality, during his time as Chevrons’ head coach in the late ‘90s, when they had a memorable run to the Super Six stage, of the 1999 World Cup in England, after stunning group-stage wins over India and South Africa.

He has also gained a lot of experience on the English county scene where he was Derbyshire’s director of cricket while also having spells on the coaching staff at Worcestershire, Somerset and Middlesex.

Coaching is a key part of any game, which should always be taken seriously, if that sporting code is to enjoy any level of success.

When it comes to national sporting disciplines, like cricket and football, it’s not just about taking care of the coaching requirements of the senior national teams.

It’s also about taking care of the coaching requirements of the grassroots, the very key structures from which the next generation of the stars, who will play for the national teams, come from.

Without a steady supply of good athletes, coming through the grassroots, the national teams stall, because you can’t depend on the same crop of players forever.

The brutal reality about sport is that age is a huge factor and, as athletes get older, they also get slower and their effectiveness becomes compromised.

That’s nature, even the greatest athletes in the world were forced to realise, at some point, that Father Time is one thing they can never fight and conquer.

The good thing is that the ZC leaders know that and, for some time, they have been trying to inject new blood into the Chevrons to ensure the team remains competitive.

That’s why they have invested a lot into the youth brigade, led by the likes of Wesley Madhevere and Milton Shumba, because these young players represent the future, rather than the past, of our national team.

Of course, you don’t just throw a whole bunch of young and inexperienced players into the fold at once because they will be slaughtered at the high level where the Chevrons play.

You still need the wise counsel of experienced hands of the likes of Craig Ervine and Sean Williams to guide them along and help them in their adjustment in the tough terrain of international cricket.

While cricket appears to be building a foundation on which the game can build its future, the same cannot be said about our national game, football.

This week, our Warriors crashed out of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers after a 0-1 home defeat to Ghana, which was their third straight loss in their group.

It means, once again, our dream of a maiden dance at the World Cup finals are over, with two matches still to be played in our group, after the Warriors picked just one point, from a possible 12, in their first four games.

ZIFA issued an apology this week after shouldering responsibility for the debacle, with the association’s decision to replace Joey Antipas, the coach who started this campaign, with the hapless Zdravko Logarusic, proving the moment that our adventure skidded off the  rails.

The country’s football leaders claimed they had picked priceless lessons from the doomed World Cup campaign, which they hope to use in future, to ensure the Warriors represent the nation in a better way, rather than the humiliation which we have just seen.

But, isn’t it what the ZIFA bosses said, after our disastrous campaign at the 2019 AFCON finals, which was plagued by unrest among the players, as they protested the non-payment of what had been promised to them?

While we didn’t hear such similar stories in the World Cup campaign, there is everything wrong in coming up with an arrangement where the Warriors fly into the country, about 24 hours, before a do-or-die match against Ghana.

It’s wrong to settle for a rookie international coach, like Loga, someone who has never been to a Nations Cup finals, and ask him to be the man who can lead us to the World Cup finals.

And, it’s also wrong for our football leaders to think that their only mission is to ensure the Warriors, and the Mighty Warriors, fulfill their matches, with no attention, whatsoever, being given to the grassroots.

ZIFA have neglected the grassroots, the breeding ground of our future Warriors, even though the association gets yearly grants from FIFA for investment into that key arm of our national game.

That is the reason why we are now struggling to produce good players like Peter Ndlovu, Agent Sawu, Ronald Sibanda and Vitalis Takawira, to name but a few.