Zimbabwe Squad for Sri Lanka

[Pat_Bee]

Bowling machines, grass roots, schools cricket and clear pathways from there upwards is all good stuff, I can’t argue that. I just feel the board is an easy target when some stuff is not necessarily on them. Raza is one fine player, no doubting that at all. Seems like that gets him a free ride in some parts and it’s not always warranted.

Performance based contracts have their appeal. It’s getting it all worked out is where it gets tricky, there needs to be some stability. Guys always looking over their shoulder worrying one bad innings will see them sent back to the NPL doesn’t have the motivating effect we want. Some stability but not enough that guys can get comfortable feeling they’ve made it to the big leagues.

[Pat_Bee]

Ballance was brought back.

That was a disaster for all involved. Dave for sweet talking him, the board for okaying it and Gary himself for doing any of it. That’s the biggest thing that’s gone wrong recently.

Said it before and will say it again. The suits were absolutely bricking it after BT’s ban and spent the year courting Gary out of sheer panic. Someone should have done due diligence, no way a racist murungu with a drug problem that got kicked out the game in his adopted country was going to end well was it. I was never convinced by all the online hype about that guy, never.

It’s put the kibosh on any immediate imports too I’d say. ZC won’t be in a hurry to get stung again.

[secretzimbo]

100%. It's a low bar to give a standing ovation for doing some things right....after years of getting it completely wrong.

What do you think TM could have done differently for the 3 specific qualifiers that we lost? Let’s take it back to 2017 before BT and Jarvis had been brought back. How would you have made sure the national team won the 2018 qualifier and take it back to the end of 2022 before Ballance was brought back. What could have been done differently?

This is all very short-term.

The problems started two decades ago. We need to stop asking about quick fixes. The damage was done ages ago.

[Pat_Bee]

Tawanda is the man they want and should be throwing all the takings from the strip club at. Would be the biggest heist in the history of cricket, even bigger than when we got that point against SA at the last t20 WC when it rained.

All these murungu imports on sweet county gigs are pie in the sky.

[Pat_Bee]

Andy Flour - old
Brenda Tailor - banned
Keith strike - dead
Don best - English
PJ Noor - Irish
Bread even - injured
Jono bloody Campbell -
Stan William - injured
Mick Welsh - in the bad books

And you say I’m miles from the coal face Facebook bros on the actual coal face are even further away.

[Pat_Bee]

Flour and strike getting a mention is far out even by their standards.

[Kriterion_BD]

Its defintely a complicated issue. Both the board and the players have their faults. A real solution is probably impossible, so its all about treading water and trying to stay relevant at the international level by staying around the 12th rank across formats.

As for this particular squad...I had a look a Mufudzwa's stats and they certainly look good. He's a bit of a geriatric being 33, but a spin bowler can still play till 40 if he's fit and maintains his fitness. Zimbabwe haven't had a reliable finger spinner since the days of Utseya and Ray Price. Hopefully Mufudzwa can fill that role.

As for Madhevere and Mavuta...if the drug involved is limited to marijuana...hopefully they should be be back after this series. Its something stronger than weed, then there is a serious problem that will need professional help.

[Googly]

100%. It's a low bar to give a standing ovation for doing some things right....after years of getting it completely wrong.

What do you think TM could have done differently for the 3 specific qualifiers that we lost? Let’s take it back to 2017 before BT and Jarvis had been brought back. How would you have made sure the national team won the 2018 qualifier and take it back to the end of 2022 before Ballance was brought back. What could have been done differently?

My first question is why did they leave in the first place?
There's your answer. The system was extremely poorly run, good people left or were removed or were moved sideways or downwards and the general shenanigans have been extremely well documented, in particular the selections.
Nobody can deny the decline was primarily due to extremely poor management and no small degree of prejudice, and that's being kind.
On top of that if you leave for a more profitable county contract than a national one and then get lured back by an even more profitable counter offer, proving that the initial move wasn't necessary then you know you'd been nicely dry humped first time around.
Bringing people back by dangling a huge financial carrot is the actual admission that somebody has broken the system. Coming back of your own accord means either that it's not too bad or you're not spoilt for choice.
Ditto Ballance.
The system that they run has produced so few international calibre players that once again you have to look to people outside of the system of your making.
The attempt at last minute damage control is not rocket science, the shit was deep and it was time to think out of the box.
I'm also fairly sure those decisions were not made by the Board alone. TM pushed the button, I accept that, but I'll bet my bottom dollar he was persuaded to do that by being reluctantly convinced by someone outside of the inner circle that we needed outside help. How much credit are you wanting to give for what was a logical thing to do?

The fact that it didn't work out was the gamble. Hindsight is always 20:20 but almost anyone in his position would have done the same thing. The fact that he had to be persuaded is the only questionable part.
Those 3 guys as a fact let us and themselves down.
If I were in his shoes I would not be put off by it either, I'd still be shooting for guys like Cartwright, Muyeye and Byrom and anyone else vaguely eligible to get back here and shore up the sinking ship.

So to recap- it should have been run better so no panic measures were necessary in the first place.
And vitally they need to either stop interfering in team selections and/or pick more knowledgeable and less biased/prejudiced selectors. This will never ever change and will continue to cost us monumentally life changing games.

[Googly]

TM is being very proactive in a weird way. He's been doing some real good stuff of late. I think he's got some lazy people with issues that make questionable and often irregular decisions in key positions. The devil is in the detail. Also nothing worse than an ingratiating employee. You need energetic people that don't have boot-licking degrees.

[Donald]

We are not short of cricket january. With the under 19 world cup sri lanka tour and 3 x logan cup matches.

I hope some of the boys do well at the under 19 world cup and light a serious rocket up the arse of madhevere shumba marumani and company.