Any Zimbabwe qualified South Africans?

[aydee]

^ I actually agree with the overall point here. Ie, no Zim shouldn't look to exploit whatever loopholes are available to try and poach players from elsewhere, who are to all intents and purposes not Zimbabwean.

However, without international cricket, there would be no franchise cricket. It is a million miles away from being self-sustainable financially in Zim...

I ignored all the boring, irrelevant stuff about SA...

[ZIMDOGGY]

why not if they white hhm?


and brm, i seriously dont think its worth taking cricket to the ghetto. they cant afford equipment, and im sick of these malnourished ghetto types in the scene. they are no good. they are not fit... you arent going to get them to learn the subtle nuances of the game like the upper and middle class do.

hell ... you wouldnt get them to know the subtle nuances of anything....or what that even means...or how to spell it.



Dont get me wrong... my heart bleeds for those people and others who are less fortunate than us here. But these guys are just trying to find bread to eat.... we should be helping them learn, whack condoms on their meat so they dont have 6 too many kids they cant cater too,fight diseases, give them medicine, fresh water etc ...and much much more...WE ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE THEM INTERNATIONAL STARS.....NOR WILL WE ABLE T CONVINCE MANY TO BE ABLE TO WANT AND PRIORITISE THIS!

colds, hards , truth.

[sloandog]

hell ... you wouldnt get them to know the subtle nuances of anything....or what that even means...or how to spell it.

I shouldn't have laughed at that but i did, apologies

[CrimsonAvenger]

You make all the right points there ZIMDOGGY, but unfortunately, those who speak up on those lines would not go down as being politically incorrect. There is an excellent TED Talk by Ernesto Sirolli about helping enterpreneurs, which applies to any kind of helping hand being provided for that matter: http://www.ted.com/talks/ernesto_siroll ... isten.html

[aydee]

why not if they white hhm?


and brm, i seriously dont think its worth taking cricket to the ghetto. they cant afford equipment, and im sick of these malnourished ghetto types in the scene. they are no good. they are not fit... you arent going to get them to learn the subtle nuances of the game like the upper and middle class do.

hell ... you wouldnt get them to know the subtle nuances of anything....or what that even means...or how to spell it.



Dont get me wrong... my heart bleeds for those people and others who are less fortunate than us here. But these guys are just trying to find bread to eat.... we should be helping them learn, whack condoms on their meat so they dont have 6 too many kids they cant cater too,fight diseases, give them medicine, fresh water etc ...and much much more...WE ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE THEM INTERNATIONAL STARS.....NOR WILL WE ABLE T CONVINCE MANY TO BE ABLE TO WANT AND PRIORITISE THIS!

colds, hards , truth.

Rubbish.

Plenty of the current team had a poor upbringing. As did many of the major stars of the game throughout the world. Believe it or not, there are harder places to grow up than Zimbabwe...

[hhm]

Rubbish. Plenty of the current team had a poor upbringing. As did many of the major stars of the game throughout the world. Believe it or not, there are harder places to grow up than Zimbabwe...

Agreed!(actually, I also agreed with zimlover when he said it smacks of desperation, but then he watered down his tune).

why not if they white hhm?

For obvious reasons, they don't care about Africa. Everything they have is invested in the LSE. They are always looking to go to Aus-NZ-Can-US-Eng etc!

They all go elsewhere when the going is tough. County Cricket & New Zealand are overran with Saffers. Very soon series involving Eng-NZ-SA will be a Saffer reunion!

I can never trust a white from outside to come in and be loyal, while locally born&bred youngsters(let alone Pros like Sean Ervine) who are good enough to prop the game at all levels are being shipped off after raping the country's U19WC avenue!

[Boundary]

they are white? No.
If they are black? Yes.

Nonsense.

and brm, i seriously dont think its worth taking cricket to the ghetto. they cant afford equipment, and im sick of these malnourished ghetto types in the scene. they are no good. they are not fit... you arent going to get them to learn the subtle nuances of the game like the upper and middle class do.

Another nonsense.

Anyway, for me the concern is neither skin colour nor income bracket, it's about talent. The best pace bowlers we have are pathetic (in terms of speed, the basis of good fast bowling). So the question has to be asked, how do the Saffers do it? Heath Streak spent the 90s mixing with the likes of McGrath, Akram, Donald. He can one day set up a fast bowling academy but for today we need a few pips to take wickets. My heart bleeds when I watch the neighbours tearing apart Aussie, Kiwi, Pakistani batting (granted, one of the best bowling units in the history of the game) and yet we look like school kids in comparison. So to answer your question brm, yes we should try to convince some Zim qualified Saffers, preferably 19 year olds who can bowl really fast, to take an accelerated route into test cricket. Otherwise, we won't be playing that format much longer I'm afraid.

[aydee]

how do the Saffers do it?

This is pretty simple.

Think about the number of cricketers in SA. By that, I mean people grew up playing the game as youngsters, and took their game to at least a reasonable level of club cricket. If someone has never played regular competitive matches, they don't really count... 100:1 ratio, SA:Zim? Does that sound fair? Absolute bare minimum would be 25:1. Meaning, of course, that SA are roughly 25 (or 100...) times more likely to find cricketers of the requisite talent.

Obviously, this is a very crude yardstick, but it does show what Zim are up against.

For me though, if you "poach" people from other countries, it pretty much negates the whole point of international cricket, surely?

Finally, Raza would not count as being poached. His parents moved to Zim with his fam, when he would have been too young to have any say in the matter. He has been a Zim resident for ages, I believe now has a passport and has qualified through residency. Finding some Saffa, with a tenuous family link to Zim, who has grown up and learned his cricket in SA, and has not been involved in Zim cricket at all, is not really the way forward, in my opinion.

[sloandog]

It won't happen though, no matter how much we can speculate or hope, Zimbabwe Cricket is not a lucrative career choice for a young 19/18 year old. The only incentive is that test cricket is available to play. But look at the state of ZC right now; no sponsors, players are beginning to filter away and are lowering the quality of the FC competition, the administration and selection committee are a joke, and the coaches are no longer allowed on tour. I certainly wouldn't want to be part of the current set up.

Not until the board have been purged and the money begins to filter back in would a young Saffer, who's probably been brought up well, want to be part of ZC.

I can hear Hhm already grinding his teeth...

[eugene]

I think Zimbabwe can be competitive without importing foreigners. Zimbabwe has always been able to produce talented cricketers from a small playing pool over the years. The teams of the 80s and 90s drawn entirely from the white community were supremely talented and players like Taibu and Chigumbura show that the same potential exists within the black community.

The thing that is handicapping Zimbabwe more than anything at the moment is the precarious financial and political state of the country (the upcoming election is unlikely to improve things). Perhaps in 10 years Zimbabwe will be booming again and the black and white diasporas might partially return, thus adding to the player base. The country has lost millions of people over the last 15 years, think how many cricketers were potentially in that bunch.