The ManicaPost
When we hear the word Tanganda, we do not think about tea leaves, we do not even think about how Tanganda Football Club played, we only think about Lloyd Mutasa. He was Mr Tanganda, he literally carried the team to Castle Cup glory in 1993.
Such are the fond memories that linger on in the minds of many in Manicaland about how the beautiful game of football used to provide entertainment almost every weekend throughout the year way back in the early 90s.
The demise of Tanganda Football Club still hurts.
The drought which affected the country led to the management of Tanganda Tea Company cutting sponsorship for the team. Legal practitioner and former player Arnold Tsunga together with fellow legal practitioner Tinoziva Bere and the late businessman Hlanganiso Matangaidze tried to keep the team afloat using their own funds.
This was a big task and in the end the burden became unbearable.
Eventually, a decision was made to sell the club to a Gweru businessman, a decision which deprived the people of Mutare of their source of pride.
Telling the sad tale of how top flight league football has continued to elude Manicaland in general and Mutare in particular does not start or end there.
Sweet memories of the Buffaloes FC Class of ’98, with its charismatic Ndombolo brand, hang on in the minds of many with names such as Eddie Dube, his namesake Eddie Nyika and Lazarus Muhoni evoking sweet memories of how these and other yesteryear stars used to illuminate Sakubva Stadium.
Eastern Lions and Highway are part of the list of teams that came and left, leaving the football crazy fans in the province without a team to cheer their spirits.
To date, we have Manica Diamonds FC, a team that all and sundry in Manicaland thought would revive the spirit of the good old days when every weekend had something to look forward to.
The birth of Manica Diamonds gave hope that finally Manicaland would have a Premiership football club of its own that would represent the hopes and aspirations of the province.
After all, the shift by Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Mining from sponsoring a once off tournament, held in one month, to bankrolling a club that would compete the entire season, made sense even to those with a basic understanding of public relations.
Now that Manica Diamonds are in the Premiership, it appears more of a curse that football fans in the province have never had a chance to watch the team playing since the season started about 10 weeks ago.
Elsewhere in this newspaper, we carry a story on the possible demise of the club owing to a strain on their budget that came as a result of travelling costs incurred by playing away from Manicaland week-in week-out.
This is really sad news for Mutare and Manicaland given that this was the only chance that the province could have a team that would enjoy prolonged life in the top flight league.
Each time Manicaland as a team that is doing well on the big stage, it appears there are invisible forces that work against the good of the game in the province.
Even if they had the financial clout to withstand the pressures of playing in the domestic top flight football league in this harsh economic environment, surely did we expect the sponsor to fork out a fortune just for travelling to fulfil fixtures including their home matches?
With the ever increasing costs of food, accommodation let alone travelling, are we surely expecting Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Mining — the principal sponsor — to fund even that which was not budgeted for?
Is this not a big ask for the sponsor?
Sadly, this is happening at a time when the game is crying out loudly for sponsorship and yet our so called football administrators have the temerity to frustrate the few sponsors around.
Now that Manica Diamonds might crumble, or if it crumbles, it remains to be seen whether that will put smiles on the faces of enemies of progress who are working overtime to ensure that they squeeze life out of a club people of Manicaland call their own.
As the Manica Diamonds home ground saga continues, being ardent followers of the game that we are, we can only sit back in melancholy and we ask the big question — is football in Manicaland cursed?
