Culvin Mavunga revel’s in league glory
Missing out on League glory with Ngezi Platinum was a painful experience for Culvin Mavunga who served in the position of team analyst during Tonderayi Ndiraya’s reign as Madamburo head coach. Despite that set back Mavunga’s wish has finally been fulfilled on foreign soil where the Zimbabwean analyst’s current club Simba Sports Club landed a 22nd league title following a 2 nil victory over Coastal Union last weekend.
Mavunga earlier this year moved to Simba Sports club and months after settling in at his new home he has a league title to put on his resume.
The man passionate about analytics and the implementation of scientific approaches in his native land Zimbabwe and on the African continent say’s winning a league crown is an achievement to cherish given his journey of pursuing excellence in the emerging field of performance analysis.
“It has been a great opportunity coming to Simba where I have embarked on an exciting journey which has been full of positives. It’s obviously gratifying to be part of a winning team. It’s a great prospect because for whatever that we do we want to be part and parcel of things that are well celebrated. The environment here, the vibe, the support, we have the greatest support base here in East Africa where every game we go and play is like a home match so the pressure that you have to win is so much. You look at all those people and it’s a motivation in itself”.
Having sneaked in an interview with Mavunga who at the time of writing was preparing for Simba’s evening clash against Azam FC, the essence of clubs making use of performance analysis became a main subject of discussion, “How can people use their minds to determine which areas they were lacking in without the back up of data and thorough analysis. If people in Europe are doing it and we admire the quality of their play I think it speaks volumes about why that particular department is important because there is no team in Europe that you can find now without a department not even 1 person, we are talking about a department because one has to focus on the team, one has to focus on the statistics only, one has to focus on the opposition so they have a team of people that are doing this but we are only saying that at least if we get one person into a club they can make a difference. The quality of performance will definitely get better.”
“According to research we are told that coaches only, remember 30 percent of actions in a game. The other 70 percent they do not remember which is why you need analysts that prepare statistics and a video of what would have happened in a game “.
