Yeah it's hard to know but at the moment zimbabwe need a batsmen who can average 30 eg someone to replace ervine and compete with the lower teams. Probably 5 Ervine quality players
The guys they have tried like Shumba, Wes etc, most of the team in Sri Lanka have been given enough chances. They haven't made runs against Netherlands, Ireland etc in home conditions who is arguably who zim should be competing against. Playing in Sri Lanka will be always be a lot more difficult to be fair.
I think Wes etc need to go play club cricket in the UK, India etc. It would be hard to gain confidence, improve your game when failing at international level. They are still young too.
Players in other countries go back to shield, county etc and work on things. Preferably zim would have a good domestic where this could be possible too but unfortunately that's not the case or it needs to be supplemented with other leagues.
The idea of a zim team, especially for say T20 in the SA leagues was a good idea for the brief period it existed.
What is the point of going to England though?
We don’t play in English conditions. We never will in a big way.
They will just get mediocre club experience and decide to stay with the million other zimbos.
Sub continent is where it is at
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:
FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay
Yeah it's hard to know but at the moment zimbabwe need a batsmen who can average 30 eg someone to replace ervine and compete with the lower teams. Probably 5 Ervine quality players
The guys they have tried like Shumba, Wes etc, most of the team in Sri Lanka have been given enough chances. They haven't made runs against Netherlands, Ireland etc in home conditions who is arguably who zim should be competing against. Playing in Sri Lanka will be always be a lot more difficult to be fair.
I think Wes etc need to go play club cricket in the UK, India etc. It would be hard to gain confidence, improve your game when failing at international level. They are still young too.
Players in other countries go back to shield, county etc and work on things. Preferably zim would have a good domestic where this could be possible too but unfortunately that's not the case or it needs to be supplemented with other leagues.
The idea of a zim team, especially for say T20 in the SA leagues was a good idea for the brief period it existed.
What is the point of going to England though?
We don’t play in English conditions. We never will in a big way.
They will just get mediocre club experience and decide to stay with the million other zimbos.
Sub continent is where it is at
What irritates me is how Zimbabwe pitches have become more of a 'subcontinental' like as against the hard and bouncy ones we used to get back in 90s and 00s. Zimbabwean tracks were very similar to South African ones... Pace friendly and low scoring ones... They are still low scoring but more so because of being slow and sluggish.
They started early, no interruptions, finished late and only got in 94 overs or something like that?
The no 11 got hit on the arm and made the most of it and then the sun went behind a cloud bank. It looked like Marumani wanted to continue, but the likelihood of the no 11 lasting a few more overs would have been slim. Fantastic game and amazing innings by Marumani. That would have been a record run chase.
The number of hundreds thst have been scored is astonishing. Clearly mostly a reflection of poor bowling I'd think. The pitches have been flat, but in bursts. We've had damp days and it always offers something in the morning, but generally batter friendly.
Then let's give some kudos to the batters. I think there's been an improvement. You need a hundred to learn how to get the next one, so if rhe poor bowling and the flat decks continue it's a good thing in the short term.
In the Mountaineers game that ball suddenly started swinging in about the 30th out of nowhere.
Let's hope the Pakistanis are imparting the knowledge and that it's legit
Umpires need to watch that ball being passed around a lot more closely in future.
That raises an interesting point actually.
We need to play our games with better balls. These shite things offer nothing to the bowler unless it's vaseline assisted and they break bats.
