Club Cricket 2024-25
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
I cant stop thinking about that altercation between Blessing and Raza. Blessing is a great guy and loves his cricket, he's part of the furniture here. Im guaranteeing there's more to this story.
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secretzimbo
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Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
Wow interesting.
This sort of thing is super common. Alex and OH get dogs abuse every week and they largely just ignore it, rightly or wrongly. The black guys will say it’s in jest and just a joke but the Asian guys really do get a lot of stick.
Raza deserves a lot more respect. Good on him for making a fuss I suppose.
Interesting to see what happens. What Raza wants, he usually gets. But Mafuwa is a long established guy. Not sure ZC will come down on him too hard.
As Googly says, probably a few too many beers consumed on this occasions
This sort of thing is super common. Alex and OH get dogs abuse every week and they largely just ignore it, rightly or wrongly. The black guys will say it’s in jest and just a joke but the Asian guys really do get a lot of stick.
Raza deserves a lot more respect. Good on him for making a fuss I suppose.
Interesting to see what happens. What Raza wants, he usually gets. But Mafuwa is a long established guy. Not sure ZC will come down on him too hard.
As Googly says, probably a few too many beers consumed on this occasions
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secretzimbo
- Posts: 9940
- Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:08 pm
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
Rainbow have a long history of being on the receiving end of some very harsh decisions though. HMCA (an extension of Takashinga) hate them.
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
Felt Frost be decent enough to give a go in atleast the 20/20 formats.
Jayden Schanedorf is one who seems to be injured or away again. He was such a big junior hitter of the ball.
Jayden Schanedorf is one who seems to be injured or away again. He was such a big junior hitter of the ball.
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
JT is our most exciting striker of the ball, certainly at club level. Never really had enuf of an opportunity to see what he can do at franchise level.
He's slowed down playing club because he needs to make a living.
He's slowed down playing club because he needs to make a living.
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
Very true
Always wondered how so many play these midweek games.
The rangers have very good depth. They could easily have a second side.
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
This whole club thing has gone a bit pear-shaped. Let me give a very brief history-
Takas has long been touted as the only club that kept cricket going. ZC dismantled club cricket but then belatedly recognized they needed club as a feeder into franchise. ZC just instructed guys to make up teams and clubs emerged and club cricket was vaguely resurrected. Many of these clubs had/have no grounds of their own, but it's slowly improving.
Until 2 years ago there weren't enuf white guys to make any sort of impact on club and the few that were in the franchise system didn't really bother with club too often because they were mostly in the national set up.
Takas has mostly dominated the club scene for years.
About 10-12 years ago Country club joined Vine Cup and made a serious impact. Hammy himself played for Country Club, but he's been brought back into the fold. He recognised you couldn't have one club being so dominant. Most games involving CC were acrimonious and nasty with very biased umpiring. They dropped out of the scene as some of the white guys gave up and the 3 gun youngsters left. Their 3 main seamers were Price, Taylor and Piet Rinke and they were excellent. Actually the comparison between those CC games back then and the Rangers games now are a great reflection of how far we've come regarding unity amongst the players.
Takas domination resumed. I think Rainbow CC became the alternative club and that acrimony between Rainbow (Blessing) and Takas exists to this day. You have to wonder why. Clearly Takas enjoyed no competition and pummeling guys weekly and claiming they were keeping flag flying with 90% of the good players in the country.
A few years ago the AC academy got funding for junior cricket from Bakers Inn and a couple of other corporates. It was a great initiative. Then SOGO fuel came on board and they decided to try and get into Vine Cup. It took a while because they were made to qualify via the division below. They managed after a couple of years, basically with a schoolboy side and a couple of older guys like Dirk Viljoen and Alex Smith.
That was basically because the division below was so weak, with respect to those guys.
Then a few white guys decided to give franchise a try and suddenly the number of whites in franchise went from about 4 to 8 and when it came time for club cricket they gravitated towards SOGO. Some of them were reluctant because they knew it would become a black white thing and it would prejudice them. But SOGO was enticing because it is conveniently located, is well organized and it is a good environment.
Then NPL was created as an extension of Vine and national and franchise players were told to play, and again SOGO recruited Williams, Burl and Ervine. Not hard to do since they all practice at The Hub, where SOGO is based and they're largely above being ordered around by ZC.
As much as the usual culprits want to make it a race thing there are some key black players at Rangers- Maru, Dion, Richie, Wallace, Macheka (when hes not injured) and Hlabangana. These lads are fine players. Hats off to those guys because it now makes it tough to put a racial slant on this. Not impossible though.
The huge problem is that when you add Campbellx2, Frostx2, Schadendorf, Burl, Williams, Ervine, Evans, Curran, Bennett, Basson, Banks etc you've got a formidable squad of about 20 players.
Well essentially you can pick a national team from that squad, minus Blessing. I wouldn't like to pick a side from that squad for any format, you'd be leaving out some seriously good players.
Hammy was on record as saying how can Maru (who was playing for Zim then) bat at 8 and clearly he was a token black player. When that happened Basson and Schadendorf had been playing for Rangers for a while and doing a match winning job most times up front. In fact I think they were instrumental in getting them promoted. What do you say to them? Sorry bye? Basson stepped out of the T20 stuff but he deserves his spot in 50 over, but the reality is he'd probably have to be omitted if they wanted to field their strongest team. They dont need to though, they've got that much depth and can rotate.
Takas took this further the other day and said Rangers had made them unwelcome at OG's. Hopefully that doesn't gain traction because its absolutely not true.
I think BT when he's eligible to play will probably go elsewhere. He was seen with Raza at OH so thats probably a likely outcome. The Blignaut boys have been invited to Takas. The Welch bros were at OH but they reluctantly left after many years, which was not well received. They actually approached Takas, but MW was turned away, after having played for them before, and they couldnt tell NW whether he would play for Takas 1 or Takas 2 which is ridiculous, so they both went to Rangers. I'll bet they'd like to walk that back because they would have had Welchx2, Knackers, and possibly Raza and BT. That's a serious batting line-up.
OH now seem to have good sponsorship and may actually "buy" some players, but they've had such a poor start to Vine they're going to struggle to make the NPL. Its really poor timing because NPL and Vine need another strong team and OH would have ticked this box. Gladiators are strong as well. Those young lads have stuck together and they're a good squad, but theyre essentially an extension of Takas and they may dip into them to strengthen their main side.
Anyway the point of this history lesson is to point out we now have a crisis because a full strength Rangers side is too strong. It could have been avoided by resurrecting club in a better way, but it is what it is. I don't know where Raza and BT will play in the NPL, but if they go as a pair that will make a big difference. If Knackers comes back for NPL he will also make a difference. He was at Takas so one would assume he will go back there.
In fact all 3 of them would probably have to go to one team to make them competitive with a full strength Rangers side.
That would make for some high level club cricket!!
Its a better problem to have than no club cricket, or most of the good players not playing, or scattered between half a dozen weaker sides, but its a problem nonetheless. Its likely to be exacerbated by ZC meddling in club cricket to try and skew it back towards Takas as well.
If they left it alone and let club cricket slowly morph into an independent, strong and vital entity it would be fantastic. Better still if they allowed those club committees to have a say in ZC AGM's to elect people that knew and cared about our future we'd be back to 1994, but it would surely be progress.
Takas has long been touted as the only club that kept cricket going. ZC dismantled club cricket but then belatedly recognized they needed club as a feeder into franchise. ZC just instructed guys to make up teams and clubs emerged and club cricket was vaguely resurrected. Many of these clubs had/have no grounds of their own, but it's slowly improving.
Until 2 years ago there weren't enuf white guys to make any sort of impact on club and the few that were in the franchise system didn't really bother with club too often because they were mostly in the national set up.
Takas has mostly dominated the club scene for years.
About 10-12 years ago Country club joined Vine Cup and made a serious impact. Hammy himself played for Country Club, but he's been brought back into the fold. He recognised you couldn't have one club being so dominant. Most games involving CC were acrimonious and nasty with very biased umpiring. They dropped out of the scene as some of the white guys gave up and the 3 gun youngsters left. Their 3 main seamers were Price, Taylor and Piet Rinke and they were excellent. Actually the comparison between those CC games back then and the Rangers games now are a great reflection of how far we've come regarding unity amongst the players.
Takas domination resumed. I think Rainbow CC became the alternative club and that acrimony between Rainbow (Blessing) and Takas exists to this day. You have to wonder why. Clearly Takas enjoyed no competition and pummeling guys weekly and claiming they were keeping flag flying with 90% of the good players in the country.
A few years ago the AC academy got funding for junior cricket from Bakers Inn and a couple of other corporates. It was a great initiative. Then SOGO fuel came on board and they decided to try and get into Vine Cup. It took a while because they were made to qualify via the division below. They managed after a couple of years, basically with a schoolboy side and a couple of older guys like Dirk Viljoen and Alex Smith.
That was basically because the division below was so weak, with respect to those guys.
Then a few white guys decided to give franchise a try and suddenly the number of whites in franchise went from about 4 to 8 and when it came time for club cricket they gravitated towards SOGO. Some of them were reluctant because they knew it would become a black white thing and it would prejudice them. But SOGO was enticing because it is conveniently located, is well organized and it is a good environment.
Then NPL was created as an extension of Vine and national and franchise players were told to play, and again SOGO recruited Williams, Burl and Ervine. Not hard to do since they all practice at The Hub, where SOGO is based and they're largely above being ordered around by ZC.
As much as the usual culprits want to make it a race thing there are some key black players at Rangers- Maru, Dion, Richie, Wallace, Macheka (when hes not injured) and Hlabangana. These lads are fine players. Hats off to those guys because it now makes it tough to put a racial slant on this. Not impossible though.
The huge problem is that when you add Campbellx2, Frostx2, Schadendorf, Burl, Williams, Ervine, Evans, Curran, Bennett, Basson, Banks etc you've got a formidable squad of about 20 players.
Well essentially you can pick a national team from that squad, minus Blessing. I wouldn't like to pick a side from that squad for any format, you'd be leaving out some seriously good players.
Hammy was on record as saying how can Maru (who was playing for Zim then) bat at 8 and clearly he was a token black player. When that happened Basson and Schadendorf had been playing for Rangers for a while and doing a match winning job most times up front. In fact I think they were instrumental in getting them promoted. What do you say to them? Sorry bye? Basson stepped out of the T20 stuff but he deserves his spot in 50 over, but the reality is he'd probably have to be omitted if they wanted to field their strongest team. They dont need to though, they've got that much depth and can rotate.
Takas took this further the other day and said Rangers had made them unwelcome at OG's. Hopefully that doesn't gain traction because its absolutely not true.
I think BT when he's eligible to play will probably go elsewhere. He was seen with Raza at OH so thats probably a likely outcome. The Blignaut boys have been invited to Takas. The Welch bros were at OH but they reluctantly left after many years, which was not well received. They actually approached Takas, but MW was turned away, after having played for them before, and they couldnt tell NW whether he would play for Takas 1 or Takas 2 which is ridiculous, so they both went to Rangers. I'll bet they'd like to walk that back because they would have had Welchx2, Knackers, and possibly Raza and BT. That's a serious batting line-up.
OH now seem to have good sponsorship and may actually "buy" some players, but they've had such a poor start to Vine they're going to struggle to make the NPL. Its really poor timing because NPL and Vine need another strong team and OH would have ticked this box. Gladiators are strong as well. Those young lads have stuck together and they're a good squad, but theyre essentially an extension of Takas and they may dip into them to strengthen their main side.
Anyway the point of this history lesson is to point out we now have a crisis because a full strength Rangers side is too strong. It could have been avoided by resurrecting club in a better way, but it is what it is. I don't know where Raza and BT will play in the NPL, but if they go as a pair that will make a big difference. If Knackers comes back for NPL he will also make a difference. He was at Takas so one would assume he will go back there.
In fact all 3 of them would probably have to go to one team to make them competitive with a full strength Rangers side.
That would make for some high level club cricket!!
Its a better problem to have than no club cricket, or most of the good players not playing, or scattered between half a dozen weaker sides, but its a problem nonetheless. Its likely to be exacerbated by ZC meddling in club cricket to try and skew it back towards Takas as well.
If they left it alone and let club cricket slowly morph into an independent, strong and vital entity it would be fantastic. Better still if they allowed those club committees to have a say in ZC AGM's to elect people that knew and cared about our future we'd be back to 1994, but it would surely be progress.
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secretzimbo
- Posts: 9940
- Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:08 pm
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
Just nearly choked on my lunch. Zimbabwe’s biggest simp is on twitter saying he can’t post what Blessing said yet because he needs to check he isn’t libelling anyone
Fuck me is this a wind up?
Can’t remember it bothering him before….
Fuck me is this a wind up?
Can’t remember it bothering him before….
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
So here's the summary-
Raza batted and made 70 odd, his OH team posted 400.
When it was OH time in the field Raza sat out. He then went and sat with some mates at the B field where Alex were playing. Then in the 38th over he apparently packed up and was leaving the ground altogether.
Apparently Blessing asked him why he was sitting out, Raza said his muscles were tight and needed a rest and a physio was coming. Clearly at this point there was a bit of a question mark as to why he was sitting out.
Then apparently when he got in his car prior to the game ending Blessing followed him and thats where it escalated and there was a whole bunch of he said, she said.
Not taking to the field and sitting at the other game clearly sparked all of this and I would think Blessing was the spokesman for a couple of folk that didn't like it. Right there means there's somewhat of an undercurrent. Blessing ain't acting unilaterally. Whether that was directed at Raza personally or OH playing a little loose with cricket rules/etiquette I dont know.
Unless there was a witness at the altercation in the car park its one guy's word against the other. If theyve got any sense it will be a stalemate and everyone will hug it out.
It gets a bit awkward if the hearing goes Raza's way because people can then make noise about Frank and his regular and distasteful Rhodesian cabal outbursts, amongst many other untoward things that have happened over the years.
Its going to be difficult to prove either way.
Whoever ran to the press with this has unnecessarily escalated this affair and I doubt it was Raza. I have a fair idea of who it was and I think it was probably a mistake.
Raza batted and made 70 odd, his OH team posted 400.
When it was OH time in the field Raza sat out. He then went and sat with some mates at the B field where Alex were playing. Then in the 38th over he apparently packed up and was leaving the ground altogether.
Apparently Blessing asked him why he was sitting out, Raza said his muscles were tight and needed a rest and a physio was coming. Clearly at this point there was a bit of a question mark as to why he was sitting out.
Then apparently when he got in his car prior to the game ending Blessing followed him and thats where it escalated and there was a whole bunch of he said, she said.
Not taking to the field and sitting at the other game clearly sparked all of this and I would think Blessing was the spokesman for a couple of folk that didn't like it. Right there means there's somewhat of an undercurrent. Blessing ain't acting unilaterally. Whether that was directed at Raza personally or OH playing a little loose with cricket rules/etiquette I dont know.
Unless there was a witness at the altercation in the car park its one guy's word against the other. If theyve got any sense it will be a stalemate and everyone will hug it out.
It gets a bit awkward if the hearing goes Raza's way because people can then make noise about Frank and his regular and distasteful Rhodesian cabal outbursts, amongst many other untoward things that have happened over the years.
Its going to be difficult to prove either way.
Whoever ran to the press with this has unnecessarily escalated this affair and I doubt it was Raza. I have a fair idea of who it was and I think it was probably a mistake.
Re: Club Cricket 2024-25
Old raza eh?