dyton mupawaenda
Sharuko on Saturday
THIS month, 30 years ago, Dynamos took their league championship tally to a DOZEN with nine-point advantage over runners-up Highlanders.
Given that DeMbare had just celebrated their 30th anniversary the previous year, this represented an impressive return of a league title every two-and-half years.
To many of the Glamour Boys fans, this success story represented a measure of revenge over Bosso after Highlanders messed up their 30th anniversary bash by winning the championship in ’93.
For DeMbare and Bosso fans, those were the days of their lives.
Back to the good old days when they were the flagship clubs of our PSL, when a capacity crowd at their matches was the norm, and not the exception, and when Soccer Stars of the Year were part of their parish.
Bosso took the honour of becoming the first club to win the Premiership title, in its current version without the daily supervision of ZIFA, in its old version when it was called the Super League.
DeMbare had won the league title in ’91, Bosso had won it in ’90 while DeMbare had also won it in ’89.
Only Black Aces, powered by the talents of the Mugeyi twins, Percy Mwase, John Mbidzo, Emmanuel “Shumba” Nyahuma, managed to break the two giants’ stranglehold on the championship title between ’89 and ’95.
There were seven league championships, which were battled for, between ’89 and ’95 and DeMbare and Bosso picked six of them with Aces being the only club to disrupt their dominance.
The Glamour Boys won four of those six championships while Bosso took two of those league titles.
Little did we know back then that a time would come when a combined 28 years would pass without Dynamos and Highlanders winning the league championship.
For the record, 18 years have now passed without Bosso being crowned champions while 10 years have now passed without DeMbare being crowned champions.
There is a huge possibility right now that in the year that Bosso will celebrate their 100th anniversary, two years from now, the grand occasion will coincide with a reminder that it would also be the 20th anniversary of the year they last won the league title.
Bosso have not provided a Soccer Star of the Year award winner in 22 years with Dazzy Kapenya being the last one from their parish to take home the prestigious award.
That was in 2002.
DeMbare have not provided a Soccer Star of the Year award winner in 11 years with Tawanda Muparati being the last one from their stable to take home the award.
That was in 2013.
Muparati was the third Dynamos player, in three years on the trot, to pick the same award after Washington Arubi in 2011 and Denver Mukamba in 2012.
From a position of dominance, in which the Glamour Boys provided three Soccer Star of the Year winners in three years, they have now failed to provide even a single winner in the past 11 years.
Of course, there are questions about the purity of the Soccer Star of the Year award these days and this year’s selection process, in which five Simba Bhora players were picked, has not helped matters either.
That Dynamos and CAPS United ended up with three players on the calendar, despite their poor seasons, and ZPC Kariba didn’t get a nomination, despite having the best defence, doesn’t make any sense at all.
But no one can argue that the Bosso player who ended up on the calendar, Lynoth Chikuhwa, thoroughly deserved his place in the sunshine.
It’s been such a stunning turnaround for Chikuhwa who struggled to make an impact last season he even looked out of depth at domestic Premiership level there were times he even appeared to be an insult to the word striker.
But, those who invested their faith in him deserve to be praised and Chikuhwa has responded in the best way possible.
1994, 1995, DEMBARE, SUCCESS
Thirty years ago, Dynamos provided the Soccer Star of the Year when Memory Mucherahowa deservedly won the gong.
The following year another DeMbare player, Tauya Murewa, the Flying Doctor, won the Soccer Star of the Year award.
When I look back to those days, I get reminded of a time and place when the Glamour Boys were the real deal, not only in this country, but also across the continent.
Sadly, all that is gone now.
It has been destroyed in a big way by the selfishness and short sightedness of a man who suddenly believes he is God’s gift to club leadership, is allergic to progress and remains trapped in an analogue past in a world that has digitalised.
A man who probably believes that this is 1964, and 2024, which is about to come to an end and the club which has just been crowned champions is Bulawayo Rovers and not Simba Bhora.
A man who will reject an approach from Elon Musk to donate US$50 million of his fortune into Dynamos, not for any stake whatsoever in the ownership of the Glamour Boys, but just to nurse his ego as a billionaire from South Africa looking for a charity to splash his money on.
To Bernard Marriot, the arrival of someone like Musk, with his millions capable of transforming Dynamos into a proper football entity with both movable and immovable assets, will be deemed a threat to his bizarre ownership of the club.
A loose arrangement which will come to an end when he dies or when the courts finally decide to give this club to its proper owners who are its former players and supporters, whatever comes first.
Dynamos can win the Chibuku Super Cup at Rufaro today but those celebrations should never mask the reality that this isn’t the Glamour Boys that we used to know before Marriot came along and sucked life out of them.
DeMbare won the same tournament last year and amid the celebrations we warned that they should not mask the reality that the Glamour had long left the Boys.
One year later, I’m pretty sure that we have been proved right and that Dynamos can be eliminated by Orapa United in the CAF Confederation Cup doesn’t appear to be something that surprises us now.
Others will say that how do we expect DeMbare to be successful in the CAF Confederation Cup when they could not play even one game at home?
Fair question.
But, this is the same Dynamos team that beat the same Orapa United in their backyard in the first leg and, if they could do that, what then should have stopped them from doing the same in the second leg?
We all now know the story as to why the Glamour Boys failed in that adventure, thanks to the candid interview which Murape Murape gave to Yvonne Mangunda.
That interview confirmed our exclusive reporting that they were forced to eat sub-standard food at sub-standard backyard restaurants in Francistown.
Many of the players were sick ahead of that big match and it showed in their shocking performance in the second half.
That Marriot chose silence rather than address the issues which were raised by Murape, which are quite damaging for someone who claims to be the leader of the remains of what used to be the country’s biggest football club, is not only shocking but an illustration of his deficiency as a leader.
Someone who cannot be trusted to lead even a kindergarten football club.
How can you call yourself a leader when you are in charge of a club that doesn’t place any value on Moses Chunga yet the same player is feted like a king for a club he played for in Belgium?
TAUYA MUREWA, WHAT A GENIUS
I really feel sorry for today’s football writers.
Please don’t judge them, accusing them of lacking creativity and covering the game in a way you claim does not reach the standards which some of us used to scale when we were very active in the field.
These guys are very talented but their creativity is being compromised by the lack of quality on the field.
It’s different from us and this week I went back to the days when, just like them, I was in the trenches and covering the domestic Premiership.
I drifted back to an article I wrote for this newspaper after a game between Dynamos and Blackpool in a league match at Rufaro.
“A Blackpool attack down the left flank, led by the impressive Collins Kabote, came to a halt when the Dynamos defensive shield found a way to repel the intrusion.
As the Dynamos move approached the halfway point of the field, the Glamour Boys, as they usually do in such circumstances, located Tauya Murewa and moved the ball into his path.
A touch on the run took the ball into his stride, wide on the left flank, in the kind of acres of space in which Murewa flourishes.
The increase in the volume of expectation among the Dynamos fans was an endorsement of their faith in Murewa’s talent, their expectation that in his boots there was the possibility something special could emerge.
‘The problem was that giant defender Twaibu Saini provided a physical hurdle which looked quite imposing in protecting the interests of the Blackpool defence.
Forced into a tight spot, Murewa needed something special to smuggle himself from the protection which Sani had provided for Ndochi.
What followed next needed to be seen to be believed – Murewa seduced Twaibu into a tackle and as the giant defender flew in, the Dynamos forward somehow twisted his frame in mid-air, leaving the defender to slide wildly.
Inevitably, there was no contact for Twaibu, either with the ball or with the man, his wild lunge taking him out of the field, to the obvious delight of the DeMbare fans.
He was probably still wondering where his target had gone, lost in a haze of confusion, as Murewa sped into the freedom of the city which Twaibu’s embarrassment had afforded him.
What happened next was as predictable as it was profitable for Dynamos – another goal for Murewa, another raft of headlines for Murewa, another set of maximum points for the Glamour Boys.
This was a genius at his work and if the Dynamos fans had paid to watch just this moment then it was worth every penny that they paid.”
This was Dynamos, as some of us know it, not this counterfeit which Marriot is parading before us.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldhinoooooooooooooooooo!
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E-mail: robsharuko@zimpapers.co.zw
You can also interact with me on the ZTV football programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika on Wednesdays
