The John Ward column

[Detective RDS]

Questions for John Ward if that's OK.

1. What's your view on the selected squad of Zimbabwe for the 1st test against New Zealand ?

2. Who are the players you think are unlucky to miss out on test selection and why ?

Thanks eugene.

[CrimsonAvenger]

@Eugene, @Crimson Is there any picture of his available on net?

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6300&start=20

[sloandog]

@Eugene, @Crimson Is there any picture of his available on net?

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6300&start=20

Any actual photo's...

[eugene]

What's your view on the selected squad of Zimbabwe for the 1st test against New Zealand?
I think the squad was about the best available to us after all the injuries, apart from the absence of Waller.

Who are the players you think are unlucky to miss out on test selection and why?
I think Moor and Waller (or even Sibanda) would have been better choices than Chari and Chibhabha.

Chari’s first-class career average, mostly in our weak domestic competition, is 20, so what chance does he have of bettering that in Test cricket? He has tremendous talent but is not yet using it consistently at all. I would call him a Russian Roulette batsman – about five blanks for every time he fires.

Chibhabha has always been thought of as a one-day specialist. His first-class career average is 27, still hardly international standard, and he has played just ONE first-class match since 2014! (Scoring 0 and 14.) Again, great talent largely wasted in the first-class game.

Moor and Waller have much better records at first-class level and I think should have been preferred. Somebody did a survey last season among bowlers about the Zimbabwean batsmen they most feared to bowl to, and most said Waller.

[Detective RDS]

Very good insights & logic by John Ward. Great read.

Thanks once again eugene.

[foreignfield]

Somebody did a survey last season among bowlers about the Zimbabwean batsmen they most feared to bowl to, and most said Waller.

Interesting. Could be down to the fact that he's unorthodox (at least by Zim standards) and can really take bowlers apart (as witnessed by his T20 exploits). I have my doubts that he would have fared much better against Wagner yesterday, but of course a much better option than Chari.

[jaybro]

Can we ask John why he thinks Muzarabani keeps getting picked ?? Is there something we can't see ??

Why Mumba is being ignored ??

Why Ncube and Chinouya were picked out of obscurity over better performing bowlers in last years domestic season like Mumba, Shingi, Nyauchi etc .....

[eugene]

John Ward wanted it made very clear that he is not in a similar mould to Richie Kaschula.

[eugene]

John's replies below:

Can we ask John why he thinks Muzarabani keeps getting picked ?? Is there something we can't see ??

Why Mumba is being ignored ??

Why Ncube and Chinouya were picked out of obscurity over better performing bowlers in last years domestic season like Mumba, Shingi, Nyauchi etc .....

Some of these are questions I have been pondering myself, but I am unfortunately not privy to the thoughts or the whims of the selectors!

Muzarabani is a useful bowler at franchise level, but unless something suddenly clicks where it hasn’t done before, I can’t see him making an impact at international level.

I have been recommending Mumba for two years, but in vain. Maybe the thought is that he is still a bit young and inexperienced, but I don’t see much effort made to give him extra experience.

Ncube I have not seen since his return from exile, so I cannot comment. Chinouya is a real workhorse and I love his attitude as he really puts everything into his bowling, so much so that his body tends to give up on him due to the tremendous physical strain towards the end of each season, but he still lacks just a little something that perhaps some coach somewhere could discover that will give him that little extra pace or zip to move him into genuine international class.

The fact is that we have quite a number of pace bowlers right now all much of a muchness, and all close to real international standard, but not quite there yet. I don’t know why certain ones are preferred to others, but things do go on in training camps that none of us usually get to hear about, so some of the decisions may be correct about why one is preferred to another. But there will always be questions if the one chosen perhaps for good but unknown reasons fails to make an impact.

Shingi should have an advantage over the others in that he is a better batsman, but that seems to be ignored. Maybe the thinking is that he is a bit older than the others and he has had more opportunities before without really making an impact. But that’s just guessing. Nyauchi is improving rapidly and could well get his opportunity soon, though he is still very inexperienced. We need more Zimbabwe A matches, particularly first-class ones, for players like these.

[Googly]

Does John know how Taboo Taibu is managing the selection from wherever he is?