After the lackluster performance of the Warriors at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, the team’s skipper Benjani Mwaruwari announced on Monday that he is quitting international football. He felt frustrated by the treatment he got from the fans on Sunday, and given the drama surrounding the appointment of Tom Saintfiet, the alleged acrimony between him and Assistant Coach Norman Mapeza and his general lack of form, we wonder if this was not just the right to call it quits. Indeed, it was a sorry end to Benjani’s career as fans jeered him when he was pulled off, making way for Al Hilal forward Edward “Duduza” Sadomba. Sad for a man who has raised the flag of his adopted country by playing in some of club football’s biggest tournaments, making the millions of television watchers in the world notice this small landlocked country.
While Benjy has been a relatively useful cog in the Warriors set up, unlike when some past Captains quit, is there really a reason for panic in the warriors dressing room. In several interviews aired on ZTV last night, many current and past football players seemed to regret Benjy’s decision, and fell short of urging him to reconsider. But is there substance in that? Where they genuine views, or diplomatic statements sugar coated for national TV. Is Benjani really still needed in the current and future Warriors? No disrespect to the Captain, but we feel his time had really come, and we respect him for having noticed that. It will be unfair to compare Benjani to Peter Ndlovu like many have gone on to, or any other former Warriors Captain for that matter, but it will be important to review the legacy of the Undertaker’s captaincy of the Zimbabwean National Soccer Team.
Mwaruwari burst onto the international football scene through the National Under 23 side, notably in a game against a Mendonca led Angola team at the National Sports Stadium. His two goals, including a last gasp winner helped Zimbabwe irk out a hard-fought 3 – 2 victory in an Olympic Games qualifier. Tongues started waging as the nation looked forward to a new Mr. Goals. By his admission, the goals didn't eventually came as much as the fans expected.
Benjani took over the arm band in a new era for Zimbabwean football. We can look at Zimbabwean football in two eras. The first 24 years where we failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations, despite once being ranked amongst the continent’s best 10 teams, and the last six years where we had an opportunity to be at two of the continental showpieces. We have also twice qualified for the Championship of African Nations (CHAN) tournament and won the regional Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup 4 times. It is interesting that Benjani only played a minute part in these successful feats. Do we remember him rising from the bench to steal the ball from a bemused Lesotho goalkeeper and score the third goal (sixth in the tie) in the 2003 COSAFA Final Second Round Match at Babourfields Stadium? So limited was his role at crucial moments, that he was reduced to playing cameo roles, well after some of the vividly notable heroes like William Mugeyi and the forgotten Robson Chisango had done the hard work.
Some players can today claim to be some of the greatest Warriors, or captains of the Warriors ever. The late Francis Shonhayi and Ephraim Chawanda might never have played at the Cup of Nations, but they captained Reinhard Fabisch’s Dream Team is some of its unforgettable epic battles. Who would not have been proud to captain that side that held the Might Pharaohs of Egypt in that replayed match in Paris, France, or to wear the arm band as Zimbabwe banged four goals past a proud South Africa team, and a Cameroon side just returning from the 1994 FIFA World Cup?
After many heartbreaking attempts, Peter Ndlovu eventually captained his country to its first appearance at the Cup of Nations, and also for the second time for good measure. He scored the first ever Cup of Nations goal, and remains the country’s top scorer at the tournament with 3 goals. He has the second highest number of international caps, 100, second only to former defender John “JP” Phiri. He is the all time top scorer with 37 goals, and to date one of only two Zimbabweans with an international hat trick under his belt, after scoring three times in Mbabane, Swaziland in a COSAFA match. The only other Zimbabwean with such a record is Vitalis “Digital” Takawira who banged 3 past the mighty Cameroonians at the National Sports Stadium in the mid 90s.
Misheck Chidzambwa won the first ever regional cup for Zimbabwe in 1985, and added that with another silverware as the coach in 2003. William Mugeyi captained that side which ended the long silverware drought spell. Ndlovu lifted the second, James Matola commanded the third triumph, and Method Mwanjali’s charges currently hold it.
How about captain Benjy? What unique record does he hold for Zimbabwe? Yes, he might have played in some of Europe’s biggest leagues, and he has some personal moments he can brag about, but none of those have an illuminating effect on his role as a Warrior. He might have scored against Edwin van der Sar in the Manchester derby, set the South African premiership alight playing for Jomo Cosmos and attracted rave reviews from Arsenal’s great mentor Arsene Wenger after troubling David Seaman in a EUFA Champions League match, but thats just about it. From a Zimbabwean perspective, what can we say we are going to miss from the Undertaker? Are we going to have moments where fans will call for his return, when the going gets tough, as they did with the great Nsukuzonke?
He might have an opportunity to lift the COSAFA Cup simply because tournament shifted its attention to mainly players still based in Southern Africa, but again that’s a maybe. Through injury, he missed the first Zimbabwean dance with the Africa Cup of Nations, and missed an opportunity to make history, but although he scored one goal against the Black Stars of Ghana at the 2006 edition in Egypt, there is no denying that the most vivid Cup of Nations memory of Benjani we have is the infamous scoop against Senegal. Unbelievably, he lobed the ball over bar with Tony Silver, the Senegalese Goalie looking out of sorts, and it appeared easier to score than miss. That miss, and William Mugeyi’s against Egypt in Zimbabwe’s first ever Cup of Nations Finals match two years earlier, rank as some of the most costly misses by a Zimbabwean striker in our country’s history. It was a s costly as Johannes Tshuma’s infamous blunder in 1991, which allowed Congo to equalise and deny Zimbabwe another Cup of Nations berth. It is on that note that Banjani’s career with the Warriors ends.
As a striker, Benjani’s legacy would have been of hitting the back of the net. Unfortunately this was his Achilles heel. He doesn’t score as often as he should. In fact, right now we are struggling to remember the last time the Undertaker pushed one across the line, either for Zimbabwe in club colours. We know he hasn’t scored for his new side Blackburn Rovers, and if history is to repeat itself, it will be long before he finds his debut goal, as was the case when he made his much publicised move from Auxere in France to then English Premiership side Portsmouth. On the flip side, very few players can match his work rate, but the problem with that is on a day he doesn’t have that much energy, nothing more can be expected from the Undertaker. That attribute would have worked had been playing in midfield, where workhorses are needed to harass opponents and force matters in getting the ball to the strikers. Mwaruwari lacks the dribbling skills of typical strikers like Vitalis Digital Takawira, the sure footedness of Shack ‘Mr. Goals” Tauro, the trickery of Knowledge Musona, the lightening speed of Edward Sadomba or even the composure of Cuthbert Malajila.
If the truth be told, based on current form, and given the following strikers holding a Zimbabwean passport: Musona, Sadomba, Mwaruwari, Nyasha Mushekwi of Mamelodi Sundowns, Terrence Mandaza of ..., Malajila of Club Africain and Kingston Nkhata of Free State Stars, Benjani will easily fall right at the tail-end of that perking order, only that our coaches sometimes are scared to bite the bullet and select players on the basis of history, than current form.
We can’t say much about Benjy’s leadership qualities on the pitch. Although he is naturally a shy guy, its a bit too much for a Captain whose only legacy is to have other players refer to him as “Mudhara”. Fine that’s a sign of respect but we need to recall at least some of situations of changes in fortune which we can attribute to his inspiration. We are actually afraid that if we go to the archives, we might not be able to find a single match in which Benjy the Captain, was voted Man of a Warriors Match. Yet, we can easily remember, we dread to say it, Peter Ndlovu grabbing a priceless winning goal on a hot afternoon in a city called Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in West Africa. We remember him getting a kick in the groin, all in an effort to get the ball across the line in front of a hostile crowd in Kigali, Rwanda. Who would forget Chawanda emerging brutalised from a fiery game against Egypt in Cairo, during the Dream Team days, or William Mugeyi incredibly scoring from a corner kick in a COSAFA Cup final at B/F. Those are some of the moments when legends are born. Someone remind us of such images about Captain Benjy.
It will unfair to conclude this article without acknowledging that injuries have not given Benjani a fair chance, and vastly limited his game tie for the Warriors but there is saying that .... We believe Benjani Mwaruwari took this advice to heart, and is acting accordingly. Quitting international football might give him one last chance to revive his club career, and with luck on his side, be able to string another two seasons at Ewood Park. He made it into Europe’s big leagues on nothing other than sheer determination and an unquenchable work ethic. Unfortunately the same has not borne dividends for his country, and will retire as the man to be captaining the Warriors when they attained their lowest ever FIFA ranking since independence. We are very grateful for what Benjani did for this country, but as of now, as he hangs his boots and takes off the golden number nine shirt, we look forward more to the blossoming of Musona, Sadomba and Mushekwi as strikers of note, and the application of Method Mwanjali’s inspirational abilities in commanding troops on the picth, than a reversal of the retirement decision.
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