MTN Championship

[Train Driver]

I see on cricinfo that the first Zim fixture in this series has now been revised to the 10th and it will be a home game in Bulawayo against Warriors.

What sort of side will be used ?, I assume that the team will be the full senior squad with maybe a couple of players such as Ed Rainsford and Blessing Mahwire being given a try. I don't believe that Graeme Cremer will be selected or Terry Duffin who has blown his chances recently and needs a lot of runs from somewhere before he will be considered again. Maybe Regis Chakabva will be given a couple of games as a batsman so that Robin Brown can have a look at him.

Full fixture list is shown on cricinfo as,

Home - Warriors feb 10th, Cobras feb 17th, Titans feb 24th, Dolphins 27th, Lions mar 2nd, Eagles mar 9th

Away - Titans feb 12th, Eagles feb 13th, Lions feb 19th, Dolphins feb 20th, Warriors mar 4th, Cobras mar 5th

Semi finals are on 14th and 16th mar with the final on 19th, the odd thing is that one semi is shown as a day/night fixture the other as a normal day game which seems a bit unfair, the final is also day/night.

South Africa will be travelling to, and playing in, Bangladesh during the period of this series so the franchise sides will be slightly weaker than normal.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I agree, I think it will be a full strength side plus a couple of "development" players so they can get the experience.

I would go with the following squad (omitting Keith Dabengwa and Stuart Matsikenyeri)

Prosper Utseya (?????), Gary Brent, Chamu Chibhabha, Elton Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Blessing Mahwire, Timycen Maruma, Hamilton Masakadza, Tino Mawoyo, Keegan Meth, Christopher Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa (?????), Raymond Price, Ed Rainsford (?????), Vusimuzi Sibanda, Tatenda Taibu, Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams.

18 players to choose from, and a bit of bowling depth. Utseya, Mupariwa and Rainsford are under injury clouds. I think our strongest eleven of the above, assuming those three are injured is:

Taylor, Sibanda, Williams, Taibu, Masakadza, Chibhabha, Chigumbura, Cremer, Brent, Price, Mpofu

If Zimbabwe do what they normally do, and play the extra batsman, this is the next best option:'

Taylor, Sibanda, Williams, Taibu, Masakadza, Chibhabha, Mawoyo, Chigumbura, Brent, Price, Mpofu

Assuming everyone is available for selection, I'd go with:

Taylor, Sibanda, Williams, Taibu, Masakadza, Chibhabha, Chigumbura, Utseya, Price, Mupariwa, Rainsford

And finally, if everyone was available for selection and we wanted to focus on bowling strength (this is Zimbabwe, so it's unlikely ):

Taylor, Sibanda, Williams, Taibu, Masakadza, Chigumbura, Cremer/Mahwire/Mpofu, Utseya, Price, Mupariwa, Rainsford - Cremer if it is a spinning track, and a toss up between Mpofu and Mahwire who are of about equal ability probably.

[Train Driver]

Tino Mawoyo is a player who really needs to knuckle down and score runs regularly, as an opener he really must be the next in line if Vusi Sibanda can't perform on a consistent basis. Just think of it Sibanda, Taylor, Mawoyo and maybe Masakadza having to fight for a place rather than just being a shoe in selection

With Cremer, I feel that the selectors don't consider him to be a limited overs bowler and it wouldn't surprise me if they actually selected Tafadzwa Kamungozi ahead of him.

Charles Coventry would be a good selection for the limited overs stuff if he ever makes up his mind whether he wants to play or not, as would Greg Strydom as you can't have enough all rounders. Other possible outsiders for me are Admire Manyumwa, although he seems a far better performer in 1st class, and a man that I personally would be trying to push on, Prosper Tsvanhu. Left arm seamers have taken a lot of wickets in the last few seasons, if Zim have got one then I think that they should be investing heavily in him to see if he can make it to the top level, either that or track down Allan Mwayenga and get him back in the reckoning.

[aydee]

I know he gets a lot of flack on here, but I'd much rather have Keith Dabengwa than Tino Mawoyo... Mawoyo has scored very few runs for the Provinces side, and offers even less with the ball.

Also, there actually seem to be too many spinners, if that's possible... Utseya, Price, Maruma, Cremer & Kamungozi, all seem to be decent prospects. No one talks about Kamungozi, but I thought he bowled pretty well in the few internationals he has played. He also outbowled Cremer in the latestProvinces 45 over game. 3 spinners is almost always overkill, especially when there are likes of Williams, who can bowl part timers, around as well. It's going to be very tough for Maruma, Cremer & Kamungozi to get games ahead of the skipper and a man with the experiance and skill of Price.

[Utseyalitharan]

Zim shud experiment more in these games and win all of them convincingly, we want to see the likes of Musvauri, Chakabva, Coventry, Kasteni, Butterworth, Mahwire, Rainsford playing. They should mix it up in a clever way but it will be good to expose our back up players not what Pakistan was doing in the recently finished series cuz i felt they shielded players like the much hyped Sohail Khan more.

The only way we can be a good cricket playing nation is if we get a huge player base of quality cricketers to choose from.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I've seen some people listing Zimbabwe as favourites for the MTN series, down to win every game convincingly, while others see them as the wildcard, while others tipping Eagles to win the trophy and Zimbabwe to do very badly.

Obviously, this will be a true test of where Zimbabwe are at. I don't know how the series is structured, but short of making the semi-finals (if there are any) would be a failure I think.

I would like to see us play our best team in the first few matches, and if we are clearly a cut above the rest, then try our backup players (the Meth's, Mawoyo's, Mahwire's etc).

[aydee]

To be honest, the standard of domestic cricket in South Africa is pretty high. I think that if Zimbabwe do make the semi-finals, then that is a very decent effort. I personally can't see them winning it though. We should remember that only about 18 months ago, Zim were completely thrashed by the Eagles in a 20/20. I know the side has improved considerably since then, but at that stage, I think that all of the South African franchise sides would have beaten Zimbabwe. Also, the sides that were put out for the Supersport sheild (or whatever it was called) were not as strong as the franchise sides. They were mainly made up of players from the competition that Zim Provinces are playing in, not the premier tournaments. This will be a tough series for Zimbabwe, and if they win as many as they lose, I think that will be a very creditable effort, and show genuine improvement over the last 18 months or so...

[Train Driver]

The thing I find distinctly amusing is that everybody is in the queue to rubbish Zimbabwean cricket, no hopers, all the decent players are gone, etc etc, but then, whenever they do play in any competition, the same people put them up as hot favourites.

I read in a couple of places that Zim were odds on to win the SuperSport Challenge series before the SA squads were even announced, yes, we did win 3-0 but the SA sides were watered down from the 50/50 composition that they were supposed to originally be.

The playing squad is generally young and inexperienced, they cannot be expected to go into any senior competition as favourites. These are the sort of competetive games that the players need regularly to gain both experience and confidence, then, maybe the Zim team can seriously be classified as favourites.

I think it's grossly unfair of the media to keep printing this up and down garbage, but then I guess that some coverage is better than their normal 'let's pretend Zim don't exist' philosophy.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

The thing I find distinctly amusing is that everybody is in the queue to rubbish Zimbabwean cricket, no hopers, all the decent players are gone, etc etc, but then, whenever they do play in any competition, the same people put them up as hot favourites.

I read in a couple of places that Zim were odds on to win the SuperSport Challenge series before the SA squads were even announced, yes, we did win 3-0 but the SA sides were watered down from the 50/50 composition that they were supposed to originally be.

The playing squad is generally young and inexperienced, they cannot be expected to go into any senior competition as favourites. These are the sort of competetive games that the players need regularly to gain both experience and confidence, then, maybe the Zim team can seriously be classified as favourites.

I think it's grossly unfair of the media to keep printing this up and down garbage, but then I guess that some coverage is better than their normal 'let's pretend Zim don't exist' philosophy.

I think Zimbabwe have a slight advantage in the MTN series in that it is a limited overs format. If it was a FC tournament, I'd say Zimbabwe would be a bit out of their depth (I think it safe to say that SA domestic is second only to Aus?) - but Zimbabwe are a decent enough ODI team, so might do alright against the domestic teams.

The point earlier about losing to Eagles in a Twenty20 - that was their first Twenty20, I think the result will probably be different this time around. In fact, going into the Twenty20/Pro20 tournament, I think Zimbabwe might go in as favourites or close to. They performed very credibly against both Australia and England in the T20 World Cup.

[zulu]

Its going to be an interesting challenge for Zim I cant say how well they will do because they are so unpredictable! but its is going to be a high standard of cricket and personally I dont see Zimbabwe winning many games against qaulity southafrican sides its going to be tough, but hey i hope they surprise me