Taibu to launch Zim Cricket Academy based in Merseyside!

[Googly]

http://www.bedscricket.co.uk/page/compl ... ket-12105/

[Flakeman]

That stuffs quite a few guys I'd imagine. They let in refugees by the thousand but not cricketers. its an utter joke.

[jaybro]

Could this be a positive thing for player retention in Zimbabwe ? If it's harder to go across to England maybe more will stick around ?

[Googly]

No. The youngsters haven't played FC so this doesn't affect them. The real issue, which will never be resolved, is that to entice good players they have to be able to make a decent living from cricket. If the economy was good that would also make a huge difference. That's not going to improve any time soon, in fact as we know it's going down faster than a two dollar hooker. I

[Flakeman]

Saw a few guys training at the nets yesterday, asked what was going on, and it was Taibus trials. Tried to get as close as possible without looking suspect and there were a couple of familiar faces there. Taibu seemed to be there overseeing the thing.

Dylan Hondo, Brandon Diplock and some Asian lad seemed to be doing well. Will be interesting to see who they pick.

[sloandog]

Saw a few guys training at the nets yesterday, asked what was going on, and it was Taibus trials. Tried to get as close as possible without looking suspect and there were a couple of familiar faces there. Taibu seemed to be there overseeing the thing.

Dylan Hondo, Brandon Diplock and some Asian lad seemed to be doing well. Will be interesting to see who they pick.

Any good young quick bowlers to speak of Flakedog?

[Googly]

If there were any quick guys we would have heard of them long ago. There are going to be guys scrambling to change their birth certificates and passports so they make the age group cut off
I'm still not understanding the motive for this, other than people making some money out of it, we need an academy here. Oh, we have one already. We had another that failed for the same old reasons. What's happened to Streak's academy in Bulawayo? If they send 15 of our best (I use that word in the loosest sense) youngsters to the UK that puts paid to the plan of integrating them into our domestic scene and we will just see the same old mediocre guys doing their thing here in the odd strike interrupted game we play. We're probably going to lose 20% of our decent players with this bold and cunning move.

[Googly]

We need academy type set ups with decent coaches here. It really is not that hard to do. The message is clear- we are completely incapable of organising anything. Taibu and his cronies are going to do nicely out of it as well. Anyone still wondering if he's the right guy for the job?

[Flakeman]

Apparently a squad of 21 have been selected by Taibu. Don't know names yet, but I know Burl is in. Some absolute randoms seem to have been picked too, kids who play 2nd league cricket. The standout players from the trials in Harare, Diplock and Hondo seem to be u n - selected. I feel for them.

[Googly]

Maybe they aren't prepared to tithe? This stinks. It would imply that there's not going to be much of a domestic season.