"Shortcat" reminisces on yesteryear Warriors gaffe...

"Shortcat" reminisces on yesteryear Warriors gaffers

Japhet Mparutsa Statement On Warriors Fiasco – ZimEye — Japhet Muparutsa

Japhet Muparutsa

I played under many coaches in the Zimbabwe National team...and each of them related differently with players. Coaches like Obediah Sarupinda were father figures and created a family atmosphere in camp. If a player had a problem, it was easy to approach him and he would listen.

As players, we often joked with Wasu.

Coaches like Peter Nyama maintained professional distance so did Mick Poole who stressed discipline. "Head up, chest out, confident posture!" were the qualities stressed by Mick Poole. As an ex soldeir he expected this kind of behaviour from Us.

Shepherd Murape was easy going so was Barry Daka.

One man we could not mess around with was Gibson Homela. He had a reputation for being short tempered and as players we knew this.

I remember when we went for an international trip to Eritrea, Asmara. Together with Elvis Chuchu Chiweshe, we decided to go out for a quick drink. We sneaked to the nearest pub and settled down. Just as we ordered our drinks, we caught a glimpse of Homela entering the pub.

We just said "Homela!" to each other and disappeared from the bar with the speed of lightning. I am sure the people in the pub were puzzled to see two grown men running away as if they had just seen a lion..we forgot about the drinks!!

Homela indeed was no nonsense and was not one to get into an argument with. If that happened, there was only going to be one winner!!

If you met Homela in the corridor, you would try to disappear, looking for a door where there was no door. That is how fearsome he was.

Even if he wanted to be nice, we preferred to keep our distance because we never knew what could happen!

He was a disciplinarian!

Then there was Wieslow Grabowski who, after our match against Senegal, bought the following morning’s paper and saw pictures of the "Lions of Teranga's Jean Bertrand Bocande cause a stir among our defence. His anger shot through the roof.

"This is criminal defending!" He called Ernest and Misheck and showed them the pictures.

"Where were you" Kurwa ", tell me where were you?".

Misheck had no answer but Ernest was not called "Mr Cool" for nothing. He said, "I was there, the cameraman did not see me..!"

Graboswiki stormed away to his room still swearing to himself.

We lost that match 3-0. Bocande scored a hatrick!!

Football memories.