Zimbabwe Cricket scraps scholarship programme

[Donald]

I see our chairman is using the cov19 downtime to write spiteful pieces on tatenda taibu in relation to his George floyd comments.
In other news the highly impartial ( sarcasm) journalist sibanda is going after heath streak if you look at his Twitter account.
Seems to be a time for settling old scores. For shame guys

[Googly]

Yeah it’s been quiet and it seems the country is slowly awakening out of the covid slumber and the usual suspects are up to their old tricks. Tiba and Streak are definitely somehow perceived as a threat.
Much of this lockdown has been used to splinter and dismantle MDC, which they look to have achieved successfully. Not that it was hard, 99% of politicians are just greedy and after themselves. The talk is that they will try and get a GNU going with hand picked “MDC” politicians. It would obviously just be window dressing. They’re also trying to get ED to step down but he’s resisting. When the usual culprits start sniping away again you know they’re suddenly feeling more secure and things are about to get moving again. The hard and uncertain times continue. Zimbabwe is cursed.

[andrewn9]

David Houghton played a lot in the 80s when the Logan Cup was a non-first class competition. Also, TM talks about having to qualify for World Cups, which again would suggest he's referring to the 80s/early 90s. I can't say I'm a fan of TM but I don't think you can say he's got his facts wrong here.

We only achieved full member status in '92. Yes we played in the '87 World Cup, but that is only one event. So which, 'each and every World Cup' would he be talking about. What you are then suggesting is that he is ignoring everything from '92-'04 or claiming it never existed.

Houghton did not cease to exist in '92 as well. He played for Mashonaland until '98. What he is arguing is specifics. It was technically not classed as First-Class competition because of a piece of paper, but in reality we can definitely argue that it was.

Zim qualified for the '83, '87 and '92 World Cups (via the icc trophy) and did so without a First-Class system so I think it's fair to say we qualified for each and every one over a certain period. You may like to argue that the Logan Cup was First-Class back then in reality but the history books will state otherwise. I know Houghton played long into the nineties but I do believe TM was referring to this particular 80s/early 90s period as a time of success without having a First-Class structure. It's definitely fair to say he could have made it clearer! Personally, I would add that in the ICC trophy back then, there was not much competition for Zim. They were clearly the strongest non-Test playing nation. A pretty big fish in a small pond and, of course, the cricketing world is vastly different now.

[zimbos_05]

Zim qualified for the '83, '87 and '92 World Cups (via the icc trophy) and did so without a First-Class system so I think it's fair to say we qualified for each and every one over a certain period. You may like to argue that the Logan Cup was First-Class back then in reality but the history books will state otherwise. I know Houghton played long into the nineties but I do believe TM was referring to this particular 80s/early 90s period as a time of success without having a First-Class structure. It's definitely fair to say he could have made it clearer! Personally, I would add that in the ICC trophy back then, there was not much competition for Zim. They were clearly the strongest non-Test playing nation. A pretty big fish in a small pond and, of course, the cricketing world is vastly different now.

My bad, I missed the '83 WC. I did not include '92 because it is the year we became full members and the status of First Class is merely a piece of paper. It's a specific that TM is using to his advantage when in essence it could be very much argued that our system was First Class at that point, hence our admittance as a Full Member.

I definitely agree with your point regarding the quality of the opposition we played. I remember at one point that Bangladesh were our whipping boys. This is my concern with what TM has said though. He is arguing on technicalities and it is very dangerous because he is trying to wash himself of any wrong doings that were done by him and his cronies from '04 onwards. We can't let him forget what they did and we can't let the cricket world forget too.

He is selling the system, the players, and the fans short with his wording and his views and it will lead to no benefit.

[andrewn9]

As I said before, I'm by no means a fan of TM. I just focus on the facts of Zimbabwean cricket. Regarding Zimbabwe's participation at the '92 World Cup, Zim qualified by virtue of winning the 1990 ICC trophy (the qualification event). Back then only the winners of the ICC trophy qualified for the World Cup. Zim were given Full member status AFTER winning the ICC trophy in 1990. Would they have been given Full member status (and accordingly a domestic First-Class system) in 1992 if they hadn't won the ICC trophy in 1990 and thus qualified for the World Cup? I highly doubt it. Back then the ICC was loathe to grant Full member status to new applicants. The fact remains that Zimbabwe won the ICC trophy 3 times in succession, thus qualifying for the World Cup, with Houghton front and centre, and this was done without a domestic First-Class system. However, It does seem that TM forget to mention that all the other teams in the qualifying tournaments didn't have First-Class systems either!


Whether this is sound reasoning for abandoning the scholarship programme is another question altogether! And, am I wary of what TM will actually do with the money? Yes!

[zimbos_05]

I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from, my point is that he is getting lost in specifics and really he can't use the "no first-class" argument because like you say, no side in any of those tournaments before 92 had a first class system and what he is arguing is merely a case of paperwork.

He is using specifics to make excuses for work he has not even made a mistake on yet.

[Skip]

Please feel free to take a look....

www.Facebook.com/staidanscricketteam

Rockingham CCC (Yorkshire, England) have been doing a bit of work with St Aidan’s primary school in Chitungwiza.

I have a request of the UK based, boys.... I gauge several of you in the North West? Wrong side of the hills, but not to worry!!
If you know of anyone travelling back home at any point soon, then please let me know. I have some cricket equipment to send and would happily pay excess baggage, rather than shipping cost!!

Cheers lads,
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