ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Participate in discussion with your fellow Zimbabwe cricket fans!
pariah
Posts: 1490
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2017 2:27 pm
Supports: Matabeleland Tuskers

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by pariah »

sloandog wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:03 pm
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15

The first post/thread, appropriately by one of three ZCF legends
maehara and BRM in politics mode ... how long they had to wait ... :( viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21

Crimson and his Sean Williams love affair ... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=68

Unsurpisingly Bayhaus would not have overlooked quality in Panyangara (and Vusi :D ) viewtopic.php?f=3&t=132. A quality not lost on Conant too :D viewtopic.php?f=3&t=698

Plenty bizarre jimbo posts/threads :)

What can't be in doubt is that ZCF was born right in the middle of Mark Vermeulen's madness and Sean Williams fickleness and flip-flopping.

Brendan Taylor fitness issues have never left either. One can only wonder how much better he would have been had he been fitter. Consider this jem on Kohli to see just how much of a difference it can make ... http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/ ... irat-kohli

User avatar
eugene
Posts: 7653
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:31 pm
Supports: Matabeleland Tuskers

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by eugene »

I joined ZCF quite early on, and shortly after I had moved to the USA. Back in 2007 it was much harder to follow cricket in the USA than it is now so I very much appreciated having a serious forum where cricket, and Zimbabwean cricket at that, could be discussed. It certainly helped ease some of my home sickness for New Zealand.

So many great users over the years, some no longer around, and some still very active. BRMT, maehara, Dr Situ, Crimson, Jemisi, sloandog, zimfan1, Train Driver, aydee, and myself have certainly been the long serving and constant members of this forum.

I think one of my best memories is when some fools over on the Bangladeshi forum thought BRMT on ZCF was the real Brendan Taylor.

It would be great to one day have a ZCF get-together at a Zimbabwean cricket match, perhaps it will never happen but we can hope. Maybe if the CWC ever returns to Zim?
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes

User avatar
eugene
Posts: 7653
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:31 pm
Supports: Matabeleland Tuskers

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by eugene »

brmtaylor.com admin wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 12:04 pm
It was today, 10 years ago, that ZCF was born from the userbases of the only two sites that treated Zimbabwean cricket with respect; zimcricketnews.com :6: and brmtaylor.com :6:

Since then, this place has grown into the number one site on the internet for people who care about Zimbabwe cricket. Well done everyone who made this forum into the great place that it is!

As we celebrate a decade, what are your favourite ZCF memories?
How did you two guys find each other and decide to start a forum?
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes

User avatar
maehara
Administrator
Posts: 3986
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:27 pm
Supports: Mashonaland Eagles
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by maehara »

eugene wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:59 pm
How did you two guys find each other and decide to start a forum?
I got an unsolicited email from BRMT one day suggesting a forum. At that point zimcricketnews.com was very much active and pretty much the only Zim cricket news source on the 'net (it was quite entertaining at the time comparing Cricinfo articles with things BRMT or I had posted a day or two earlier - something we eventually raised with them...); I was aware of BRMT's site (narrower focus than mine, but still good stuff); and I already owned the zimcricketforums.com domain, I just hadn't done anything with it. We took it from there.

ZIMDOGGY
Posts: 6647
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:40 pm
Supports: MidWest Rhinos

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

I’m not happy that I didn’t get more praise in this thread.

Guess I’m just invisible to you all.
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:

FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay

'The' Gus Mackay.

Hero.
Sportsman.
Artist.
Player.

**
Q. VUSI SIBANDA, WHERE DO YOU HOP?

A. UNDA DA ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE*

ZIMDOGGY
Posts: 6647
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:40 pm
Supports: MidWest Rhinos

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

Also,
I mean this with every bit of respect and not an ounce of malice BRMT,

But why the F did you (an Aussie) make a complete website and forum dedicated to a random 21 year old Zimbabwean batsman back in the mid 00’s 😅😅😅

Stage 5 stalker worship right there! Haha

Although I’m glad you did.
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:

FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay

'The' Gus Mackay.

Hero.
Sportsman.
Artist.
Player.

**
Q. VUSI SIBANDA, WHERE DO YOU HOP?

A. UNDA DA ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE*

sloandog
Posts: 9843
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:28 am
Supports: MidWest Rhinos
Location: Manchester UK

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by sloandog »

It crossed my mind too BRMT, I won't lie :lol: :D

User avatar
CrimsonAvenger
Posts: 9838
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:57 am
Supports: Mountaineers
Location: India

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by CrimsonAvenger »

What keeps crossing my mind is, why have we not seen agcremer.com yet from BRMT? :D

User avatar
eugene
Posts: 7653
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:31 pm
Supports: Matabeleland Tuskers

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by eugene »

AGCremer.com - Pariah, Outkast, or Hero.
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes

User avatar
brmtaylor.com admin
Administrator
Posts: 7924
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:22 pm
Contact:

Re: ZCF Celebrates - 10 Year Anniversary

Post by brmtaylor.com admin »

Well as the story goes, I didn't really know too much about Zimbabwean cricket until they toured Australia in 2003. It struck me as unusual how many white players there were in a team from Africa (then and now, it's something of an anachronism), so I paid closer attention. Grant Flower was actually the first player I got behind, not Brendan Taylor.

The early to mid 2000s were obviously a pretty politically charged time in Zimbabwe, so by following the cricket it went without saying you were also following the political situation. It seemed every other week Steven Price would have some story about a ZANU-sympathiser digging up a pitch somewhere... so basically Zimbabwe cricket was an interesting thing to follow. His and Cricinfo's articles generally had too narrow of a focus for my liking though.

Long story short, I earmarked Taylor as a good player pretty early on (I've had a pretty good strike rate with my calls - I was on the Michael Clarke bandwagon from day 1 and never strayed, and I've been a Graeme Cremer fan for a long time).

I think I recognised Taylor's potential before that last-ball 6 game, but I can't say for sure. I was on the bandwagon long before the T20 win vs Australia, I know that. But it was that game that prompted me to get my act together and put up a website. The motivation was not so much to make a fan site dedicated to my favourite player (I just thought that would be a cool way to go about it), but rather the idea dated back to the Kenya series in 2006. Cricinfo were a "bunch of useless" back then as well, and the only website that had live scores (every 10 overs or so) for that shocker of a series was BBC. I thought that was ridiculous, and thought if I'm looking for live scores for Zim cricket there must be others. It's been a long time since I updated it obviously, but you can still see that original intention in the "live scores" column on the right. A slightly better Cricinfo and the advances in social media made that more or less redundant pretty quickly though.

The other thing I wanted to do was focus more on domestic stuff and things that couldn't be found elsewhere. I recall maehara's site was very good for news articles and the comments section, so I did more historical pieces and club details. For example the club player database I put a lot of work into at the time with the help of a few people on the ground who sent me scorecards or overviews. Again with the advent of a site like CricHQ something like that would be redundant now, but at the time I was proud of how it turned out and certainly there was a level of detail there that you would never get from ZC, Cricinfo or anyone else. Something like the profile of Khawulani Ntuli for example, some of it is just common sense from looking at the stats but bits like "considered to be one of the fastest bowlers in Zimbabwe" I could only include because a local batsman emailed me to tell me that. Basically, a much condensed version of the sort of thing John Ward did for Cricinfo in the late 90s - his stuff is unparalleled.

I was also fortunate to get a few exclusive interviews for the site. Again, I mainly cared about stuff that you just couldn't find elsewhere hence why I'd ask questions like "who is the fastest bowler on the club scene", "what are the crowds like at FC matches", etc. I was just looking through the list then (it's been a long time) and I think there were some genuinely insightful things to come out of it... I'd forgotten all about this interview for example. I doubt if Cricinfo or any of the major outlets would ever have bothered to talk to someone who left ZC.

The thought honestly did cross my mind to register agcremer.com a few years ago! But I figured I've already got one Zimbabwe cricket site I don't update (I'm not sure what brmtaylor.com as a website could offer in 2017 that other websites already don't), a second is probably superfluous.

Post Reply