The John Ward column

[Jemisi]

Triangle is still in good shape. The sugar lands are one of the few industries working at anything like normal.

[Mueddie28]

What does John Ward think about Zimbabwe's spin bowlers right now...
Back in the day we always used 2 Paul Strang with Andy Whithall or Adam Huckle...
Why is Cremer the only true spin bowler in the squad all the time...
welly & Chisoro are options

[Detective RDS]

Questions for John Ward:

1. What are the reasons of M Waller & H Masakadza failure in recent home tests ?
2. What will be your 15 man squad of Zimbabwe for the ODI tri series ?

Thank you eugene.

[eugene]

1. What are the reasons of M Waller & H Masakadza failure in recent home tests ?
It looked to me as if Malcolm was a bit too impulsive and needs to work the ball around more, but he is certainly short of match practice in first-class cricket, as is Hamilton. I wonder if Hamilton is struggling under the responsibilities he feels.

2. What will be your 15 man squad of Zimbabwe for the ODI tri series ?
That I can’t answer in a hurry and will have to think over, but certainly I would include Malcolm in the ODI squad as he is always capable of a devastating innings, and Hamilton is just too good to drop.

[Kriterion_BD]

Senior 33 yo batters with 150 intl caps shouldnt use pressure as an excuse. Wickets were flat and minus Herath it was a 3rd string SL attack. Also had some A team exposure before every recent series if I am not mistaken.

Ervine, Moor, Chari, can claim that except all 3 scored runs at some point.

Raza, Musakanda, even brother Shingi would do much better.

[Detective RDS]

Questions for John Ward:

1. Is there any upcoming fixture of Zimbabwe on the pipeline you are aware of ? Which team it can be against ?
2. How do you evaluate the performance of Zimbabwe on the recently concluded test vs SL & tri series ? What are the areas of improvement ?

Thank you eugene.

[eugene]

1. Is there any upcoming fixture of Zimbabwe on the pipeline you are aware of ? Which team it can be against ?
I gather there are plans to tour Sri Lanka next June, but nothing before then yet.

2. How do you evaluate the performance of Zimbabwe on the recently concluded test vs SL & tri series ? What are the areas of improvement ?
I think on the whole there is some improvement in the team performance, but it is still inconsistent, and they were very lucky to make the tri-series final.

Tarisai Musakanda showed real promise when he was belatedly put in the team, and I would have said the return of Vitori was a great plus — except that his action is causing problems again! I hope Chatara and Panyangara can get fit before (if) we go to Sri Lanka!

There are more good spells of batting, bowling and fielding, but they still need to put it all together over long periods of time, not just in short-lived bursts.

It must also be remembered, as far as the Test matches are concerned, the Zimbabwe players are badly out of practice in the longer version of the game, most of them having played very little first-class cricket over the last two seasons due to zipping all over the world for one-day series and tournaments — and people wonder why they struggle so much in Test cricket!

[Mueddie28]

Cephas is considered a very destructive one-day specialist in Zimbabwe, and he is certainly a very talented hitter. He hasn't done much in first-class cricket even when selected, and I think he suffers from the negativity of so many Zimbabwean coaches who get hold of superb natural hitters like Cephas and Sikandar Raza, and try to turn them into solid batsmen who build long innings - fair enough for most batsmen,

Why is Cephas Zhuwoo not in squad while we have to watch the Chari's pathetic performance..

[Detective RDS]

Question for John Ward:

Do you know have Ryan Burl, Kyle Bowie, Deven Bell, Craig Dollar signed a franchise contract or not ? What do you think about their future in Zimbabwean cricket ?

Thank you eugene.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Cephas is considered a very destructive one-day specialist in Zimbabwe, and he is certainly a very talented hitter. He hasn't done much in first-class cricket even when selected, and I think he suffers from the negativity of so many Zimbabwean coaches who get hold of superb natural hitters like Cephas and Sikandar Raza, and try to turn them into solid batsmen who build long innings - fair enough for most batsmen,

Why is Cephas Zhuwoo not in squad while we have to watch the Chari's pathetic performance..

Cehpas Zhuwao in 2008 was more hopeless than Chari is now. He was never going to make it at international level.
I remember him swinging and missing throughout the whole tournament in the now famous Al Barakah T20. He couldn't even buy a run against Canada.