I know fuck all about AFL but the first sentence in this post is spot on. For once we agree on something. 2024 is shaping up to be a surprising year alreadymnelson68 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 01, 2024 10:18 pmIn any organisation and particularly in sport the only way you get good results is if you have your house in order and that starts at the top. Laying blame without taking responsibility will just make matters worse and results will continue to be sub standard. In my national sport of AFL I have seen clubs being close to extinction and almost lost forever turn it around and become a power again because of getting the right people involved at the top. It has a flow on effect , you don't need dictators just people doing their jobs properly and professionally. This may not be possible for zim cricket which is sad but until the top of the tree gets itself together then nothing will change. A great culture is a huge necessity for success, without it you are doomed.
Nobody is saying players and coaches aren't responsible for certain things, of course they are. Everyone in any role in the organisation at any level has responsibility. But everything goes back to the top - the board are accountable for everyone and everything.
I am bemused that people on here are trying to absolve the board of any blame and pass the buck to others. Okay, so Wes and Mavuta and possibly others are pot heads. Yes the players should be ashamed of themselves, yes it's their fault. But actually how the fuck is the system and environment so bad that that's been allowed to take place anyway? Also, it is an extremely well known, 100% fact that several members of the national squad have been drug users for many years - absolutely everybody knows it, including the top dogs. They NEVER did anything about it until now. They let the issue fester for literally years.
That's just 1 example out of 100's of issues.
The fact is there are only 3 batters in the entire country who'd you ever stake actual money on to score big runs. One of them is not a product of ZC and the other two are largely products of the pre-coup ZC twenty+ years ago. The rest of the side are products of a failed system. It's really not their fucking fault that they aren't Joe Root or Virat Kohli. Yes some could be marginally better if they applied themselves better. Others do apply themselves well but are still not world beaters. Why? because they are products of a school system that only has about 100 players active per year, only half of which are any good. The few rare age group tours and squads ZC used to put on are now almost entirely obsolete. We have NOTHING until u19. As Googly says, thats way too late, especially for batters. It's a bit easier for bowlers to prosper hence Richard & Blessing, but for batters you need serious coaching, serious structures, support, funding, a whole system for them from a young age.
Once they finish U19's, what happens next, for the few who re good enough and are interested in spending the next five years scrapping for a $600 a month part-time contract?
Nothing. That's what happens. Absolutely nothing.They can go around with their begging bowls, desperately asking some clubs to give them a run in the NPL, which although a good tournament only lasts for 2 months of the year. If they are lucky they will get a game, usually do quite well and before you know it they are straight into professional men's first class cricket? Oh by the way, the franchise sides almost never actually have training sessions together. They usually have 1 net the day before a Logan Cup match starts and that's it.
If they don't even get into a club or franchise side straight away, what then? Even worse.
Then even if they somehow magically become great promising young players, they probably won't be picked for at least the first 2-3 matches of the season whilst the franchises watch the usual 'local stalwarts' fail for the 50th time before finally giving them a go.
I'm off on tangents here, forgive me.
But there is NO STRUCTURE in place for ANYTHING.
The current setup is:
1. School cricket
2. U19 World Cup against 30 year old Asian pros
3. Franchise cricket
4. International cricket
There are at least 5-6 steps missing from that ffs that really should be there. You are asking kids who have very very little coaching or training or experience to make vast jumps up to each stage in very quick succession and suddenly expecting them to be successful?!?!
Still no national academy.
Still no high performance pathway.
Still no high performance strategy or plan.
Still hardly any coaching available unless the kid happens to be extremely wealthy and can afford private. A lot of private needed as well.
The absolute miniscule size of our cricketing system (way smaller than Nigeria's, smaller than Rwanda's, quite possibly smaller than Uganda's? I don't know) means 15 year old kids become the chosen ones and know the fucking weight of the world is on their shoulders for their entire careers. No wonder Wes turned to smoking joints tbh. The pressure must be immense. He knows as well as any of us that THERE IS NOBODY ELSE. He was labelled by our unscrupulous bastard admins and coaches as the next Brian Lara at the age of 15! Literally the weight of the entire existence of Zimbabwe as a cricketing country on his shoulders. To a lesser extent Shumba, Marumani etc as well. Maybe if we had 100 high quality kids instead of 3 then we'd be a bit better off? Maybe they could develop better and concentrate on their skills and grow over time before being expected to carry the team at the age of 20?
After all, ZC has only had about $200m of ICC funding over the past 20 years.
$200m and what has it bought us since 2003?No national academy. No high performance pathway.
Dozens of good players lost to other employment or systems.
A significant reduction in the number of schools playing cricket.
A significant reduction in the number of good quality coaches in the country.
A significant reduction in the number of recreational cricketers.
A significant reduction in the number of facilities.
A significant drop in on-field results.
Frankly it's a miracle we are still as competitive as we are when you consider we have 6 cricket schools and we pay most of our professional players $600 a month and most of them barely ever have a training session. it is actually miraculous. When you actually think about it, genuinely, we are probably overperforming and the players almost deserve credit.
I could go on and on for hours. We've not even got to how they are treated. Mr Makoni turning up in Bulawayo last week and screaming at certain players apparently. Who the fuck does he think he is?
Yet another example of mismanagement - Hosting Logan Cup games at a ground with a hugely inadequate pitch, drainage and facilities during the rainy season (despite your only world class ground being unused and empty that week). Why do that, you ask? Of course because it benefits our Managing Director and his stake in that ground.
There are hundreds of examples. I could literally write the longest post in history. I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface.
Are you guys really expecting us to be a decent competitive team? Really?
