As an outsider to Zim reading in on this situation my suggestion about pitches and wickets in particular at these type of schools would be lay synthetic turf wickets down. The ground staff would literally only have to cut the grass round the wicket and outfield so even with limited prep you are able to offer a wicket that can be used to play cricket, and a safe one at that.Googly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:34 pmSure, but do they just play net cricket? What about grounds, equipment and coaching? I cannot get the agenda of doing this when there are endless government school structures that are abandoned and buggered. Actual schools with 1000 plus kids in them and playing fields etc. Revive those first. Their first dollar should be spent at Churchill. Get those big government schools playing proper cricket again. They need more than nets, they need grounds and pitches, they need the school body maintaining them through fees and a vaguely interested parent body. Churchill is the acid test- if they cannot revive their facilities and get some quality kids coming out of there then believe me Muzarabani and Colleen Bawn is a total complete and utter waste of time.
Cricket pitches need a water source and knowledgeable groundsmen and equipment.
If one Zim cricketer comes out of Colleen Bawn or Muzarabani in the next ten years it’s still a moneumental waste of time and money. In that time you’d get 10 coming out of Peter House, St Johns and St George’s, but they prejudice these schools and there’s a quota of 5 or 6 age group players picked them they scrounge around for the remaining players from development teams and only occasionally pick a good kid, but invariably they make the team uncompetitive.
The onus at school age for kids is to be playing as much as possible. Why leave the amount of game time available in the hands on having someone who can curate a ground. With a synthetic wicket you'd only need a council lead grass cutter maintaining outfield.
Ok the initial outlay on laying the wicket will be a bit of a hit but you've got cricket available for years to come with no need to rely on a groundsman who can prepare a wicket, just need a couple of hand son deck to maintain outfield.
A lot of schools here in UK and club have a synthetic wicket for games / practice.