Date-stamped : 05 Jan97 - 18:14 3 January 1997 Scenes of jubilation as fans celebrate By Vuyisa Qunta Harare Sports Club broke into scenes of jubilation as 7000 spec- tators celebrated Zimbabwe`s historic triumph in the best of three British Airways London Gatwick one-day cricket series against England on Wednesday. Spurred on by a vociferous crowd, the Zimbabwe team did not disappoint. Drum-beating in the Castle Corner led by three women and a man dressed appropriately in national colours went on throughout the match. And every run scored by Zimbabwe in the morning was greeted with shouts of "Pamberi neZimbabwe cricket". One could have been forgiven for thinking that they were at a political rally as war songs punctuated the proceedings. The old traditional hunting song, "Dzinomwa munaSave", also brought some of the revellers to their feet stomping. With champagne spilling from the balcony, supporters sa- voured victory over a team widely resented for its administration`s numerous vetoes of Zimbabwe`s attempts to gain Test status in the 1980s. Zimbabwe Cricket Union development coach, Newell Ma- jengwa, said it was a pity the English had always vetoed Zimbabwe`s entry into Test cricket. "A sign of their continued arrogance is that even yesteday in the BBC they were calling our side a bits and pieces team. The joke is on them because they are the bits and pieces (maparts)." "It`s a huge victory for a country with such a small cricket population to beat the country which started the game," said Hamish Ruddland. "It`s going to have a massive impact on the sport," he said, echoing the sentiments of Angus Mackay and Ben Watson, who felt crowd support turned it for Zimbabwe in a finely balanced contest. For five-year-old Tawanda Masimbe, who said he enjoyed the game, it was inspiring. "When I`m big I want to play for Zim- babwe." A higly festive Manuel Gates said: "We`re a powerful na- tion in anything we do. We fought for the victory and deserved it. It`s beautiful." The heat-stopping final two overs which saw England need- ing 19 runs from the last two overs, 16 from the final six deliveries and eight from the last two, proved a bridge too far for the faded empire. Asked whether they would ease off in today`s final game with the series now safely in the bag, home captain Alistair Camp- bell said they were going for a clean sweep. David Lloyd, the English coach, said Zimbabwe were a de- cent one-day side and on the day and in the series came out the better side. Source :: The Herald (Harare) Contributed by Roger.Stringer (textpert@samara.co.zw)