End of an era
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 3:54 pm
I've been really excited about todays match since the retirement announcement. While it's definitely sad Brendan Taylor is leaving Zimbabwe cricket, I really felt this game and the lead up to it was a celebration of Taylor's career rather than a time for disappointment about his decision to leave. Plenty of articles about him, lots of talk and due acknowledgment of his standing in the game. And watching his innings was a real treat. What a way to go out - it was classic Taylor. Plenty of reverse sweeps, lofted cover drives, mighty heaves down the ground and who will ever forget the upper cut for six to bring up his century. Today's 138 was like watching a highlights reel of his career in fast forward. Again, it felt like a celebration of his career and it was simply awesome to watch.
It got me thinking about his place in the history of Zimbabwe cricket. I think there's been a few eras of Zimbabwe cricket... 1983-1992 was the Houghton era, 1993-2003 was the Flower era.
So 2004-2015 must surely be the Taylor era.
He's been ever-present in the side over the last decade, through all the dark times up until today. In 2006 he established himself as the premier batsman in the team, Zimbabwe's Mr Reliable capable of batting anywhere from 1 to 7, and we saw him go from strength to strength thereafter as a bonafide match winner. Appropriately he became Zimbabwe's captain, and I think it was a fitting bookend that he captained, kept wicket and blasted a century for Zimbabwe in his final match.
Unfortunately (besides Taylor's reassuring presence) the defining characteristic of this era has been turmoil on and off the field. Inconsistent performances, questionable administration, a revolving door of coaching staff. But for every tie or loss against an associate, for every Zimbabwe Collapse™, for every 20 run over conceded and for every heartbreaking loss - I think the incredible highs have made up for it. Winning Tests over Bangladesh and Pakistan, watching guys like Jarvis, Vitori, Chatara and Nyumbu literally burst on to the scene in Test cricket, beating Australia last year, clinching games from the jaws of defeat in Caribbean, watching guys like Taylor dominate quality attacks... I guess when the losses are so regular it makes the personal and team achievements more special.
So I think we can all agree that this will not be remembered as a great era (a challenging era for sure), but it will be remembered for some great moments. Particularly our return to Test matches which I think we have generally acquitted ourselves quite well in. It's worth noting that Taylor's 23% winning record as captain is the best of any Zimbabwean captain too.
It will be interesting to see what the next era of Zimbabwean cricket holds. Will one of the current batsmen (or bowlers) step up? I'd like to think that a Masakadza or a Sibanda or even a Williams will become a reassuring presence and dominate opposition attacks the way Taylor has done but I don't believe it's likely (although I do think if he stays, Williams will be our go-to batsman from now on). Will Whatmore stick around for a reasonable amount of time and leave a positive stamp on the squad? I hope so.
The core of our team now is 29/30/31 years of age - the prime of their careers. Collectively and unfortunately I don't think we'll see them getting much better than what they currently are. So the medium to long term success of the Zimbabwe team will firstly depend on more improvement coming from guys like Chatara and Vitori, and I think importantly, the unearthing of real teenage batting talent. We just can't afford to keep losing top teenage batsmen to England and other countries; AC's biggest challenge is getting (at least) someone to stay, develop their game on the international stage and become the new batting lynchpin while we still have experienced batsmen left. I think the next era of Zimbabwe cricket will be built around someone like this being the cornerstone of our batting, just as Taylor has been for the last decade. Now we just need to find him.
It got me thinking about his place in the history of Zimbabwe cricket. I think there's been a few eras of Zimbabwe cricket... 1983-1992 was the Houghton era, 1993-2003 was the Flower era.
So 2004-2015 must surely be the Taylor era.
He's been ever-present in the side over the last decade, through all the dark times up until today. In 2006 he established himself as the premier batsman in the team, Zimbabwe's Mr Reliable capable of batting anywhere from 1 to 7, and we saw him go from strength to strength thereafter as a bonafide match winner. Appropriately he became Zimbabwe's captain, and I think it was a fitting bookend that he captained, kept wicket and blasted a century for Zimbabwe in his final match.
Unfortunately (besides Taylor's reassuring presence) the defining characteristic of this era has been turmoil on and off the field. Inconsistent performances, questionable administration, a revolving door of coaching staff. But for every tie or loss against an associate, for every Zimbabwe Collapse™, for every 20 run over conceded and for every heartbreaking loss - I think the incredible highs have made up for it. Winning Tests over Bangladesh and Pakistan, watching guys like Jarvis, Vitori, Chatara and Nyumbu literally burst on to the scene in Test cricket, beating Australia last year, clinching games from the jaws of defeat in Caribbean, watching guys like Taylor dominate quality attacks... I guess when the losses are so regular it makes the personal and team achievements more special.
So I think we can all agree that this will not be remembered as a great era (a challenging era for sure), but it will be remembered for some great moments. Particularly our return to Test matches which I think we have generally acquitted ourselves quite well in. It's worth noting that Taylor's 23% winning record as captain is the best of any Zimbabwean captain too.
It will be interesting to see what the next era of Zimbabwean cricket holds. Will one of the current batsmen (or bowlers) step up? I'd like to think that a Masakadza or a Sibanda or even a Williams will become a reassuring presence and dominate opposition attacks the way Taylor has done but I don't believe it's likely (although I do think if he stays, Williams will be our go-to batsman from now on). Will Whatmore stick around for a reasonable amount of time and leave a positive stamp on the squad? I hope so.
The core of our team now is 29/30/31 years of age - the prime of their careers. Collectively and unfortunately I don't think we'll see them getting much better than what they currently are. So the medium to long term success of the Zimbabwe team will firstly depend on more improvement coming from guys like Chatara and Vitori, and I think importantly, the unearthing of real teenage batting talent. We just can't afford to keep losing top teenage batsmen to England and other countries; AC's biggest challenge is getting (at least) someone to stay, develop their game on the international stage and become the new batting lynchpin while we still have experienced batsmen left. I think the next era of Zimbabwe cricket will be built around someone like this being the cornerstone of our batting, just as Taylor has been for the last decade. Now we just need to find him.