In less than a week, Zimbabwe lost at least three of its icons in the world of sport.

The announcement was made of the passing away of Black Rhinos goalkeeper, Simbarashe Nkosi the 26-year-old who joined the club from Tenax and had attended his military training. Nkosi passed away during the early hours of Saturday due to a chest infection.

Next week he was set to officially be part of the Rhinos Team.

On Saturday, Zimbabwe was awakened by sad news as the Zimbabwe Cricket announced the passing away of Sinikiwe Mpofu. Sinikiwe Mpofu was the Zimbabwe women’s assistant coach and she died aged 36. Her death comes less than a month after her husband, Shepherd Makunura who was the men’s team fielding coach, died on December 15.

She was pronounced dead on arrival at a medical facility after she collapsed at her home in Masvingo this past Saturday.

She became part of the first ever women in the country to take part in the international cricket match in December 2006.

In 2007, Sinikiwe joined Takashinga cricket club and then she furthered to the Northern teams after she moved to Harare to pursue further education.

After ending her playing career, she returned into coaching and scoring became an integral part of Zimbabwe Cricket’s game development structure at provincial and national levels.

Zimbabwe Cricket managing director Givemore Makoni said:

“Death has robbed us of a genuinely warm individual, more importantly a loving mother, and deprived so many others, including all of us, of one of the pioneers of women’s cricket in Zimbabwe who went on to excel as a coach at provincial and national levels.”

“With her sudden passing coming just a few weeks after the death of her loving husband, who was also a part of our national team coaching setup, this is particularly a difficult and painful time for their young children, families, friends and the entire cricket fraternity,” he said.