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Guys,

Maybe someone can help me.

I may be coming to Zim in the next year due to work. A large part of whether I will take the job is cricket dependant.

Im looking for advice on what the club cricket scene is like. I would be hoping to play at a good standard.

Im 32 years old and I have played at a very high standard in the UK and South Africa. I am white, of English origin, but I will be traveling and working on a US passport.

I would be looking for a club that plays at a high standard, has good facilities and has an enjoyable social scene (ie a beer or 2 after games and practice).

I will be in Harare.

Can people offer advice on clubs to look for and those to avoid?

Thanks

Goughy wrote:I would be looking for a club that plays at a high standard, has good facilities and has an enjoyable social scene (ie a beer or 2 after games and practice).

Haven't been back to Harare in a few years so can't speak too much for the current situation, but I suspect Harare Sports Club will be the only one to tick all those boxes...

Goughy wrote:Guys,

Maybe someone can help me.

I may be coming to Zim in the next year due to work. A large part of whether I will take the job is cricket dependant.

Im looking for advice on what the club cricket scene is like. I would be hoping to play at a good standard.

Im 32 years old and I have played at a very high standard in the UK and South Africa. I am white, of English origin, but I will be traveling and working on a US passport.

I would be looking for a club that plays at a high standard, has good facilities and has an enjoyable social scene (ie a beer or 2 after games and practice).

I will be in Harare.

Can people offer advice on clubs to look for and those to avoid?

Thanks

I reccoment Harare Sports Club or Old Hararians

Thanks for the replies.

Harare Sports Club sounds the best bet then.

A big part of potentially coming to Zim is the cricket (rather than a non-cricketing place). Will I be disappointed by the standard/politics/facilities? and how do people see it progressing over the next 3-5 years? Will it get beter or worse?

Thanks again

I can't comment first hand on this, but by all accounts the state of cricket grounds around Zimbabwe is not all that great. Here's a recent snippet of an interview I posted on brmtaylor.com with someone who is currently playing club cricket, which will hopefully answer some of your questions. (Keg & Maiden is the bar at HSC)

brmtaylor.com: Are the grounds in Zimbabwe well maintained? How do the club grounds like Old Hararians and Kadoma Sports Club compare to the international venues like Harare Sports Club and Queens?

Joseph Madyembwa: The grounds are now not well maintained. The turf of the grounds are in a poor state. One cannot believe that Alex (Alexandra Sports Club) was once an international ground but now it's in a sorry state. Even the turf at Harare Sports Club is no longer evergreen due to unrestricted use.

brmtaylor.com: What are the facilities at the grounds like and have these places, like the Keg and Maiden, been affected by the economic crisis in Zimbabwe?

Joseph Madyembwa: The facilities are just not up to standard. There are only bars, which only the club members are allowed to get service from. These places have also been affected by the economic crisis because very few people frequently visit these places.

By politics I'm guessing you mean cricket politics (as I'm sure you have been keeping an eye on the national political situation if you are thinking of moving to Zimbabwe...). For quite a while there was a widespread belief that the national team had an 8-3 quota, but that seemed to be relaxed earlier this year. And with the new power-sharing agreement (and I believe MDC will get the sports portfolio), there was a clause against discrimination of race, colour, etc, quotas will probably be frowned upon. I doubt they were/are enforced at club level anyway, as last year Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams, Gary Brent, Raymond Price, Graeme Cremer and Keegan Meth were all signed to HSC. Even Northerns had a 7-4 split at times, which is useful to know if you want to try and break into a provincial side.

As for whether Zimbabwean cricket will progress over the next few years, we all hope so. It's hard to know because the situation is so volatile... I don't think anyone expected Gary Brent to retire, and now there is uncertainty over Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams. Zimbabwe cricket will only get better providing that the current national squad stick together, and it wouldn't hurt if there were a few returning players either (but I think the political climate will be a deciding factor in this). Like all countries, the strength of the national team is a good barometer for the state of cricket in that country.