Status of National Team Players

[jimmylesaint]

Most of these guys are not good enough to go anywhere. Thats just the hard truth.

Correct the players are not up to international standards and would struggle/not to make other test playing teams or even some associates.

Which makes us look deeply at what ZC has done to cause this in their incompetence and innate ignorance of cricket and sport.
How can those young lads leave Zimbabwe and play for counties and countries? Why could we not keep them on home soil with offers?
Or is that the other countries have development structures in place that are far superior than ours(even though we could offer the same) and developed the athlete into the world class they will become?

ZC, like a government loves a stupid and apathetic electorate and that is what our cricketers are. 99% will get bulled and thank ZC and continue playing for free expecting the next bulling.

[Jemisi]

ZC have been incompetent but we only had two world class players post Rhodesia.

We just haven't got the manpower. The best we can hope for is disciplined stewardship of our limited resources and occassional great players popping up. That we don't have better depth is certainly the fault of ZC but that we aren't in the top 6 is no one's fault but a demographic reality.

[SpitfiresKent]

Apart from 2 innings vs a depleted Sri Lanka side, has Mire even hit a fifty in international cricket?

Pretty sure he scored a 50 against your lot in only his 2nd odi

[Googly]

Most of these guys are not good enough to go anywhere. Thats just the hard truth.

Correct the players are not up to international standards and would struggle/not to make other test playing teams or even some associates.

Which makes us look deeply at what ZC has done to cause this in their incompetence and innate ignorance of cricket and sport.
How can those young lads leave Zimbabwe and play for counties and countries? Why could we not keep them on home soil with offers?
Or is that the other countries have development structures in place that are far superior than ours(even though we could offer the same) and developed the athlete into the world class they will become?

ZC, like a government loves a stupid and apathetic electorate and that is what our cricketers are. 99% will get bulled and thank ZC and continue playing for free expecting the next bulling.

Burl is a good example for what I’m about to say-
I’ve watched him for many years and he’s a damned good player. The coaches/ can see he has the pedigree to be better than most of our other options, hence they stick with him and people start questioning why, but they can see his potential. The problem is we lack the environment to bring these guys on.
Ed Byrom is another, I can almost guarantee that had he stayed here he’d be averaging 20-30 something and he’d be having endless frustrating performances and the occasional gem that keeps him in the mix.
My point is that we get the odd really decent player and our system dooms them to mediocrity and they will never fulfill their potential.
That high level of FC we will never have, even with only three teams, so what they have to do (and sometimes have done) is pick a squad and try and keep them engaged in a higher level of cricket, but we’re currently not even managing that. It’s a problem also because if you see someone doing well domestically (like CZ) it doesn’t mean much. It’s been left too late to start making noise about ZC now because even with some gun administrators and money they’re limited as to what they can do becouse we have so few players and even less really good ones.
Even back in the day we needed to “import” Goodwin and Johnson to make us competitive.
That’s realistically our only hope to stop being whipping boys- to get some confidence back in the system so a few guys will come back. The problem is we need a Ballance and a DeGrandholme, but they’re taken. Anyway we live in hope.

[TapsC]

This is why I was saying if we do clear our debt we should use that money to keep the young players than the older veterans. Yes our FC system would be poor for a while but in the end I would rather we are using our money to keep kids who are the future interested.

A good example is that Blessing is going to be the UK yet he is supposed to be one of our main guys now. He probably made that decision because the money just isnt making sense when you are trying to crack the team and he honestly didnt know where he stood until Vitori disappeared again.

How do we convince a trenoworth if he plays well at the rising stars to try out a season in Zim if we are always in shambles and have no schedule until the whole world is watching? How do we convice Matigimu amd Murray to come back from SA?


As you guys have mentioned before most of the young talents play at elite schools which means if they are not on scholarships they have options outside of cricket. Not going to uni is actually a risk on their part. We need to pump money into a system that will show a clear pathway to the national side whilst also making financial sense.

What would I do? Its a tough one but a guy like Trenoworth would have never tried us if it wasnt for Taibu's rising stars which means its working.

Maybe the solution would be to talk to CSA to setup base in SA for the rising stars. A permanent base (at least 9 months a year) maybe in Joburg where we partner some universities as well to get some scholarships for these guys whilst they play and train in SA and maybe join a league which they will be able to compete in. This might cost us a million a year but the long term result would be amazing. A lot of these young sports stars just want a vision they can buy into. A million is a 2 test match series if you think about it.

But first these guys must go because it will never happen under them

[The Robot]

Zimbabwe's environment is not ideal for Cricket since 2003

[Kriterion_BD]

Maybe the solution would be to talk to CSA to setup base in SA for the rising stars. A permanent base (at least 9 months a year) maybe in Joburg where we partner some universities as well to get some scholarships for these guys whilst they play and train in SA and maybe join a league which they will be able to compete in. This might cost us a million a year but the long term result would be amazing. A lot of these young sports stars just want a vision they can buy into. A million is a 2 test match series if you think about it.

But first these guys must go because it will never happen under them

Good idea by Taps.

The money spent on Taylor was wise. He had a slow start but proved his batsmanship in the Qualifiers. Jarvis shouldn't be in the first XI of white ball cricket, but his red ball prowess and relatively young-ish age means that he's worth the money as well. There's the intangible benefit that if there is any way to get Welch and Byrom back, its the presence of Jarvis, Taylor, and Cremer.

Taylor and Raza are the two class players in the ZIM side. They can perform consistently against any of the top sides. What is preventing them from being world class is to be able to totally dictate terms to the absolute best sides. Actually Taylor did that vs India in the 2015 WC, so Taylor is world class. Raza hasn't done that yet, but I think he's just as capable. Ervine too. So that makes about 2 world class or potentially world class players between the 3. In order to be competitive you need at least 4-5. Teams like India, Australia, England basically have 7-8 world class players in any given XI, with 2 or 3 of those being legendary status level players.

Cremer, Jarvis, and Blessing are a notch below the above 3. Cremer has all the tools but just doesn't seem to get big enough hauls against good enough teams. I think if he gives up capaincy to either of Taylor or (ideally Raza), he can focus more on his bowling and get his batting to where he can average 20-23 in both formats. Or even leave his batting as it is (good enough to be a #9 for most sides) and just focus on becoming a truly dangerous wrist spinner. Jarvis in Tests has done splendidly on his return. White ball form has been pretty poor. Blessing has done very well so far. Just needs to sort his run up, get a little more consistent, and he can be a world class quick.

Beyond these 6, the cupboard is quite bare. The rest of the guys are simply only good enough to compete with the top Associates, but never dominate them. And on the bad days, its going to make for unpleasant viewing.

The critical key, given that asides from Blessing all the other top 6 players are 30+, is to get the young guys like Burl, Musakanda, Moor, Mavuta and others exposure and hope Murray sticks around. I think in Tests, Moor has shown the toughness to eventally become a world class or near world class batsman.

[Googly]

Ya they’ve cocked it up so royally that you’re absolutely right in that BT, Raza and a couple of others are the vital enticement to luring back a couple of outsiders if there’s ever a change. Nobody of consequence is coming back to a brand new team and we just can’t afford to start again as before. If these scoundrels get the red card and some proper administrators were given the reins it’s still an uphill battle to get it together. There wouldn’t suddenly be miraculous results and we’d have round 10 of people criticising selections, team composition etc etc.
Between when Taylor and a couple of the others retire they really desperately need some good players starting to make a bit of an impact.

[ljriley90]

is there no possibility ZC can turn around to the likes of Welch., Byrom, Balance and say hey guys keep your FC contracts in England but turn out for us in Tests etc?

What are the constraints? Are they from the board selection policy or ICC requirement to relinquish a FC contract whilst playing in a foreign country if you want to represent your country of birth?

I'm basically saying target all the Zimbabwean guys playing overseas and let them know they can keep their domestic contracts in whatever country they are in but give them the option to play for Zim if they fancy?

Guess the Currans, De Grandhoome and Cartwright might not have to look at Zim as an option as playing for Eng. AUs NZ already.

[jaybro]

Can we not turn another thread into a debate about who is more to blame about the shit state of Zimbabwe cricket !!!!

There's at least 2-3 other threads for that.