We can talk all day about how good or bad Raza is but it won't serve any purpose, the team as a whole is going no where and Raza's greatness or the lack of it is the least important topic at the moment.
Whatever he is, he has been a great servant of Zimbabwe cricket, easily one of the best to have played for Zimbabwe.
I fear this could be the last time we are seeing Raza, Williams and Ervine play together. I have a feeling Willo and Ervine will call it a day very soon.
That would surprise me. They haven't made enuf money to retire from cricket, yet get reasonably well paid to play for Zim. They don't often play club, regularly don't play franchise and get good dosh every month. Why would you quit?
What would throw a spanner in the works is if BT reappeared and started playing well. That might put pressure on at least one of them.
Going back to 4 players approaching 40 would be a step in the wrong direction.
4x 40 year olds is pushing it tbf combined age higher than the runs on the board
They should throw the war chest at Tawanda. Tell him the past is all water under the bridge and shizz. Suits their selection policy more than luring Eddie Byrom or that Cartwright guy and scores us a promising bat.
Kid can’t even get in the Kent side and the ECB are only interested in the boxes he’d tick for them post Rafiq chatting nonsense.
He’s a good player don’t get me wrong, he’d be in my XI but he’s totally hyped up and overrated in these parts on the back of some big scores vs Zimdesh 2 years ago.
Not even. I think he got a hundred vs India C when they toured. But the rest was bashing teams like Tanzania, Singapore, and Malaysia in random qualifiers or African Games. The same kinda tournaments were Nepal plunders 314 runs in 20 overs vs Mongolia and ends up having the world record team total.
Ya he performed admirably vs India C. Could have sworn he got back to back tons vs you guys that winter too, marshalling Regis and Innocent to them too. Tony munyonga (?) finished one of the games off with a blistering knock. I might be misremembering that though to be fair, it was years ago
No, Raza did get back to back tons vs us. Was only a couple years ago. Not even actually I think just 18 months back. For some reason I only remembered Regis' knock and someon else (was it Kaitano???). For whatever reason, I just picturing Raza scoring runs against Burundi or Sweden.
4x 40 yr olds in the team isn’t really the problem I don’t think. Not for a team of limited talent like Zimbabwe.
What is the problem is they all retire pretty much at once after the next WC.
Succession planning will be a nightmare. Countries don’t like key people retiring at the same time. We would have 4. Maybe 5 if Chatara throws it in (no loss).
But it’s a big dramatic changing of the guard overnight unless they can convince them to do it over two years
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:
FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay
4x 40 yr olds in the team isn’t really the problem I don’t think. Not for a team of limited talent like Zimbabwe.
What is the problem is they all retire pretty much at once after the next WC.
Succession planning will be a nightmare. Countries don’t like key people retiring at the same time. We would have 4. Maybe 5 if Chatara throws it in (no loss).
But it’s a big dramatic changing of the guard overnight unless they can convince them to do it over two years
Ya that’s the problem I see, not their age as such. More the retirement factor. Common sense would say stagger it. Raza will keep going forever I’m sure he loves Zim and loves the game. A rejuvenated BT will have a few years in him. Ervine and Williams seem to be showing their ages a little more and need wrapping in cotton wool, they’ll be the first to go I’d expect. Been great servants but time catches up eventually. I hope they get to that test in England then the next World Cup.
They are all focusing on the next WC I’d say.
Maybe Ervine the England test so his bro can watch but I think he will kick on as he is fit enough and no one is really knocking at the door
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:
FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay
They should throw the war chest at Tawanda. Tell him the past is all water under the bridge and shizz. Suits their selection policy more than luring Eddie Byrom or that Cartwright guy and scores us a promising bat.
Kid can’t even get in the Kent side and the ECB are only interested in the boxes he’d tick for them post Rafiq chatting nonsense.
Ya munyonga has potential.
They have a much better chance of bringing both Byrom and Cartwright than Muyeye. It’s deeper than cricket unfortunately and making the England team is what’s going to expose his bogus asylum claim one day. The day he pulls out of a Zim tour or match in Zim because of his refugee status is the day the British press will really do some digging and discover the truth. They bent a lot of rules to accommodate him.
In fact if we are being fair if people don’t like Naqvi playing for Zim they should be equally unhappy about Muyeye getting the system to push for him to qualifying for England just so that they can tick certain boxes
Just following the series so far, even though the results have not gone our way.
I am going to take an optimistic view here but its been encouraging that even though the big three in the side have not fired, others have made runs. I feel for so long we have seen one of them make a big score and no one else contribute.
Ya Muyeye is not really setting it alight and he's had plenty opportunity. I'm not seeing his name of late and haven't seen him in the second team, so I'm thinking he's carrying an injury. He's a good player, but not making enough of a mark in County to even get close to the Lions or England side. I've watched a lot of him, he's a good player but currently far from being stand out. They fast tracked Riaan Ahmed ahead of about 20 more deserving guys so I guess it's possible they'll do the same for Tawanda. He's going to need at least one big score though. He's not done much in T20 and thats where I thought he'd shine. Maybe just needs to mature a bit more. They'd be taking a real gamble throwing cash at Tawanda. Pretty sure he's happy where he is. He's not better than Wes, Myers, Marumani, Bennett, welchx2 from what I've seen. It's a game of mm, that transition from being good to really good we don't have the codes for.
Eddie is not really a T20 player. Has his moments, but he's more a red ball and maybe a 50 over player. Dislocated his shoulder a few weeks back so only just back in the side and two mediocre scores. He looks a much better player than Carlson his mate and captain who's come out here, yet Carlson makes more runs. Its hard to understand this game.
Byrom is the one who might be more inclined to come back.
A lot of our cricket is T20. Where does he fit in. We've also seen a lot of him and he underperformed when he's here. It's weird because he's a lot better than that.
Kaitano was a player that I missed out of my last rant. There's a gifted batsman that consistently doesn't bat to his potential. He makes batting looking very easy, then goes out.
Dirk Viljoen's story was that he believes red ball is the basis of T20. That's way too simplistic. There's no reason in red ball in Zim not to wait for the bad ball and put it away.
You don't have to play a single low percentage shot, and if you do you're an idiot. We're seeing this in our T20 side.
Our guys are waiting for the bad ball and they don't get bowled. Our players literally don't know what to do with good deliveries and they're not too good at clearing, walking at the bowler or doing much to put guys off their lines and lengths.
combined age higher than the runs on the board