The ManicaPost
Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Mutare United and Buffaloes’ attacking midfielder, Ticha Mabvura, is convinced that either his Ngezi Platinum side or sister club, FC Platinum will go down the annals of local football history by becoming the first team based outside the capital and Bulawayo to snatch the coveted Castle Lager Premiership title this year. The St Paul’s Musami team class of 1966 which was coached by Father Anthony Edward Davies is the only team from outside Harare and Bulawayo to have won the national league championship.
Since then no team based outside the two cities has won the domestic top flight league title. St Paul’s Musami went on to win the BAT Super Cup the following year with the likes of the legendary George Shaya, Felix Mbizo and Jawet Nechironga within their rank and file. However, that is all history and today, after enduring five years of very little game time in Dynamos colours, Mabvura’s career is suddenly on the recovery path at championship chasing, Ngezi Platinum where he has featured in all the league and continental CAF Confederations Cup assignments this year.
His performance has even attracted the attention of scouts from the south of Limpopo where he was recently invited and undertook trials at Ajax Cape Town. The domestic Castle Lager Premiership season canters towards the climax and Mabvura, whose team is in third position on the log table behind log leaders, FC Platinum and Dynamos, believes his team will prevail in their match against Dynamos tomorrow (Saturday). Ngezi have been serious title contenders this season albeit being bundled out of the Chibuku Super Cup in the first round by CAPS United.
Powered by the mercurial instincts of Partson Jaure, Terrence Dzukamanja, Donald Teguru, Edgar Tapera and Walter Mkanga among many others, Ngezi are now on the threshold of making history together with fellow platinum miners, FC Platinum.
“We are in the race for the title and we really mean business. We want the championship and we are confident that our chances are high. Obviously the match against Dynamos will have a huge bearing on the outcome of the race and we hope we will get the three points from that match. As far as I am concerned, I think it is either FC Platinum or us who will end up being winners in this race judging by the form as well as the remaining fixtures,” said Mabvura.
The former Mutare Boys’ High student, who honed his dribbling and ball control skills back then at Zamba Primary School in the heart of the sprawling high-density suburb of Sakubva before enrolling at Sakubva High One and later Mutare Boys’ High, thinks it will be an exciting finish to the season.
“It is going to be exciting. We are enjoying every bit of it. I am happy at Ngezi Platinum and I am enjoying more game time than my time at Dynamos. I had to compete with many talented players during my stay at Dynamos and the coach we had wanted to give everyone a chance to play therefore that would mean warming the bench in a considerable number of matches.
“We are actually going for the championship at Ngezi. We have tasted the sweetness of winning an accolade after that Chibuku Super Cup triumph and the players as well as the coaches want a repeat of that on a much bigger scale and that is the league championship itself,” said Mabvura.
From the Mazhambe section of Sakubva, young Mabvura earned the admiration of DeMbare scouts when he turned out for the Under-20 side in a regional tournament during his days at Buffaloes in 2010 resulting in the transfer to the Harare giants in 2011 for a stint that lasted until 2016. However, Mabvura’s career has suddenly hit purple patch, consistently commanding a place in the high riding Madamburo starting line up, thanks to coach, Tonderai Ndiraya.
