Matthew Bentley plans a career with Ireland

[Googly]

Ironically the Franchise system is actually reducing the chances of youngsters getting a chance as there are more full time professional cricketers than there has ever been in Zim

Look at Jongwe he is immensley talented, but at his age (17) the likes of K.Davies, Olonga, Taibu, Masakadza, S.Ervine, Nkala, Coventry, Englebrecht were being fast tracked into First Class Cricket. Last season only 3 players under the age of 20 played first class cricket in Zim; Mayavo, Kasuza and Musoko.

That is a very interesting observation. Has cricket become more of a career option and less of a talented professional sporting discipline (importance being former instead of latter) and thus ensured over-institutionalization than scouting for real talent?

I know a couple of 15 and 16 year olds that are better than Kasuza that are not getting a look-in.

[Googly]

From reading this and other articles concerning young Zimbabwean cricketers leaving to play and qualify for European nations this must be a massive concern for the board and alarm bells must be ringing. Since Im not there can some one please explain to me why all these players would rather play for a non-Test playing nation like Ireland over their country of birth ??? Is it just about money ??? or are there other contributing factors ???

They don't give a damn, that's the entire problem. They used to claim it was the whites being unpatriotic and British and good riddance. Now that a growing number of black cricketers are leaving they are declaring that it's quite a good idea to solidify overseas and maybe come back later. You can't win with these ZC imbeciles. If they paid the guys well, had a strong league and franchise structure and the economy was half way decent nobody would be going anywhere and in a few short years we would have another Flower era.
Players are leaving coz of gross mismanagement. The whites make a noise about it and are stigmatized, the blacks just keep quiet and tolerate it, partly because they are afraid they will be labeled as Uncle Toms and partly because they are afraid of being victimized.
It's about the money at the end of the day as well. In a time of big money cricket that we watch daily all the youngsters have a dream of making good. Maybe the guys that stay here for a few hundred bucks a month are not hungry enough to be top flight players? If they claim they are being patriotic maybe they are hiding behind the fact that they aren't good enough to get picked overseas? Wait until Taylor gets married, tries to buy a house, a couple of cars, has 2 kids and tries to give them a private school education on $4000 a month, and he's our best paid player!!! It's simply not do-able. There's a dozen or more half baked thieving administrators that wouldn't recognize a bat from a tennis racket earning double or treble what he does.

It's all a disaster and don't see it being resolved.

[sloandog]

Just out of curiosity, who would have lawful authority to dismantle Chingoka from his position ?

[eugene]

Just out of curiosity, who would have lawful authority to dismantle Chingoka from his position ?

I guess the ICC could, but they won't. The governing body of cricket here in the USA is 10 times worse than ZC and has never really suffered many consequences. Gladstone Dainty is still in charge stealing money and consolidating power. No reason to think ZC would be treated any differently.

[maehara]

Just out of curiosity, who would have lawful authority to dismantle Chingoka from his position ?

I guess the ICC could, but they won't.

ICC can withhold development funding, but that's about it (that's the approach they've taken with USACA, twice now). They have no control over who's involved in the national boards, and I believe the Full Member funding is contractual, so that's always going to be there.

Even if the ICC funding dried up, does anyone believe it would lead to a clearout? Personally, I seriously doubt it. Only way to do that would be to follow Kenya's example - government wound up the then-exisiting governing body (KCA) and created a new one (CK). But even if the Sports & Recreation Commission had the power to do that (don't know), I don't think it would be politically possible for Coltart to use it. Look at the row the selector rules caused...

[eugene]

I guess I should hold-off campaigning for the top job at ZC then?

[Jemisi]

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step... or something like that. Go for it Eugene.

[Googly]

Just out of curiosity, who would have lawful authority to dismantle Chingoka from his position ?

I know the broad strokes of this process, I will get some detail and then post it as a topic. It will be towards the end of next week as I am busy with work commitments and need to talk to a couple of people first.

[eugene]

Just out of curiosity, who would have lawful authority to dismantle Chingoka from his position ?

I know the broad strokes of this process, I will get some detail and then post it as a topic. It will be towards the end of next week as I am busy with work commitments and need to talk to a couple of people first.

I imagine it is a widely researched topic in Zimbabwean cricket, particularly when ZC was expelling everyone who opposed to them.

[americanzimfan]

As a novice to cricket I really enjoy reading these threads of people who know much more about the sport and situation in Zimbabwe than I do.

Just curious if Zimbabwe could truly field their best squad, and I know even that is a fairly big debate point, which would include players like Ballance and Ervine, how good would the side really be compared to others in the test world?

It also seems to me that even if the political situation was improved there just isn't as much money to be made off of domestic cricket in Zim as compared to England and Australia.