MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

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Googly
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by Googly »

No worries. I wish I had positive stuff to report, but we’re in the shithole region :lol: and it’s not too shiny.
It’s funny that foreign based folk write what they like but when a white local gives his 10c worth it makes people come out swinging. My area of interest is schoolboy cricket, I’ve watched it for 20 years now and am deeply traumatized by what’s happened to our cricketing nursery.

What happened in the past was that ZC always relied on the big cricketing schools to provide the nucleus of the age group teams and then would put in other players from outlying and lesser schools to tick their box of spreading cricket. Of course a few have been selected on merit, mostly bowlers, but some really good players have usually been prejudiced as a result. The trials are always inundated with kids who can’t really play and it’s tough on them and a charade. The organizers (I use that term loosely) get ZC money for lunches, umpires etc, most of which they steal so they drag it out as long as they can. There was a period when they didn’t bother with tours either until better-off parents started contributing. There was no pathway either for school leavers unless the odd exceptional black kid came along. Now they’ve woken up to the fact that our National side needed new blood in the wings and that our franchise system can’t unearth anyone good if the same old guys play half a season year in and year out and that they were really messing it up so they’ve created pathways and opportunities at u19 level, but it is completely neglected below that. It’s too late to create a top player at u19, the ship has already sailed. I really don’t understand why that is not firmly grasped, maybe it is and they don’t give a damn?
What they’ve not realized is that the nucleus of schoolboys they’ve relied upon is now in trouble. Of course they will spin that and claim that there are now more kids from lesser schools making sides because grass roots is working, but that’s not the case. The overall standard has plummeted. The reality is that we’re now in trouble at the very core of our cricket, and it’s all happened in the last few years. Much of it has been through economic circumstances and people leaving, but there has been no meaningful dialogue between ZC and the schools to stop school cricket from imploding.
We do have two very good T20 tournaments that falsely indicate that things are ok when school cricket is actually in its death throes. The boys play perhaps 8 games a year if they’re lucky, and it’s generally against very weak opposition. Water polo has taken its toll, the kids have ridiculously heavy extra curricular schedules that gives them limited time for practice, and perhaps most IMPORTANTLY, the third term schedule is shortened by exams and the first term by athletics. Schools spend weeks practicing athletics for one internal sports day!! It’s bloody ridiculous. If they played the full second term in the good weather this would sort this major problem out.

Here’s what needs to happen- It’s imperative that they organize more games. Scheduled games against poor schools are practically meaningless. The big schools need to play each other repeatedly.
Obviously 50 over games are the real deal but we need to see more T20 festivals that the kids enjoy. Each age group should get 3-4 of these a year.
There’s a new format that has merit, and that is back to back T20’s against the same school with a cumulative total and batting line up continues where they left off in the first innings. It’s not bad because everyone usually gets a bat and it’s intense and the lesser players are involved.
National age group squads need to be selected from the previous season and need to practice and play at least 4 times a year, twice against the age group above and twice against the group below. This way the quality players get some real practice with supposedly better quality coaches. I’m skeptical about the coaching here. Standing at the top of the net chatting and occasionally dispensing pearls of wisdom is not coaching. These ridiculous money making scam trials need to stop, we all know who the better cricketers are. It would be money well spent by MCC to pay these guys a fancy salary to stay away if ZC can’t fire them for whatever reason. If a good player miraculously materializes from nowhere the respective coach should be free to bring him in for assessment by the right people, not by some fool who once coached him and has an agenda to show he’s a decent coach.
They ideally need to make Cricket a second and third term sport and rugby a first term one. This is unlikely but would be absolutely first prize.
The real good kids need coaching from proper coaches at least twice a week for us to compete internationally down the line. This requires real organization and funding and again is very unlikely. Once again there are only half a dozen batters aged between 10 and 17 that I’ve seen that can hold their own at SA provincial level, which has also deteriorated significantly. This is a dismal state of affairs. People can say what they like about this but it’s fact. We actually have a couple of youngsters with real potential and time and money needs to be invested in them. It’s a ten year process to get a youngster batting well, and requires dedication from parents, kids and good coaches. This is basically the cricketing culture which has all but disappeared. I haven’t seen a playground game of cricket for a very long time. There are practically no dedicated capable dads that can help with their kids, at best a select few send their kids to a private coach once a week, it’s not good enough. This is the reason some folk with the means elect to send their kids elsewhere. In most instances it’s an error because they often think their kids are better than they really are, unless you’re extraordinary here you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell out there. Finally at 15-16 the good kids need to play club cricket, for me this is vital. The good ones take to it fairly comfortably and it’s one of the stepping stone we’re missing. If you can cope against half decent men and the mental aspect of that then you’re on the right path. I don’t think I’ve seen more than half a dozen kids in the last decade that have even expressed a vague interest in giving it a go, it’s disgraceful. They’d rather be drinking, socializing and messing around on social media or something else pitifully meaningless than taking the pain. I don’t think there’s a world class batsman out there that hasn’t completed the 10 year/10000 hour yardstick by the time they’re 18, but we’re hoping for miracle results from people that have done less than 10% of that- it’s never going to happen, the old days of casual hard drinking amateurs making a few runs are long gone.
Oh the Rising Stars, whilst I’m on this subject- again a good initiative, but we need to go with a top side every second year, we don’t have the players to do it annually. They don’t need to go the whole season either, that’s a waste.
Anyway more ramblings, hope someone takes something from it. Someone send it to the MCC.

sloandog
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by sloandog »

That's a brilliant insight.

strikerlube
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by strikerlube »

Yeah great stuff - watching the schoolboy stuff over the years and seeing the decline must be painful Googly. These trials seem pretty shitty, do the admin for the youngsters just have a much easier job routing the system?

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zimbos_05
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by zimbos_05 »

It could just be me, but i genuinely feel that a lot of people outside of Zim still believe in Zim cricket and it's potential, but feel that if ZC cannot be bothered, then why should they.

Googly
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by Googly »

There are supporters of Zim cricket outside of our borders that are very influential and of course much could conceivably happen if they were comfortable with the administration. Obviously with our economic and political situation there are a few million of us in the diaspora wishing nostalgically for a team that was more combative and that could deliver us more wins. A Zimbabwe side capable of causing upsets is good for cricket. Of course the other teams used to love touring here, but now less so. Past opposing players have fond memories of this place and a few are in influential positions so we’re definitely on the radar if we’re capable of staging even a minor revival.
Junior cricket has never been a priority for ZC and to date they’ve just gone through the motions. When there’s money they haphazardly organize tours, but as soon as money is tight age group is the first to suffer. Mangongo has given the u19 stuff a proper shake up thank goodness, but in reality it’s probably at the expense of the lower age groups because it’s eaten so much of the budget. He’s highly respected in the upper echelons because of his hand in Takashinga and opening the doors for the Takashinga players. What he wants he gets, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea but he’s a driven, passionate guy and gets things done. One of the problems with Zim is the emphasis placed on one’s revolutionary credentials (even in cricketing terms), it’s a neat trick to keep the Old Guard in the driving seat. The web they’ve created to keep them ensconced is well woven, if they paid as much attention to administrating we wouldn’t be in this mess. You couldn’t prise these guys out with a crow bar.
The skullduggery that happens at junior levels is well documented and they’ve turned a blind eye from day one.
One group of parents created a group called Zim Pups to try and get incoming and outgoing tours and it was fantastic, but only lasted a year and a bit. ZC insisted they remained in control and they basically saw it as an attempt at hijacking selections and resented not being allowed control of the finances, which was actually raised by the parents, who raised cash for at least 4 boys who justified selection but didn’t have the means. Zim Pups needed the blessing of ZC to make it happen because they wanted to go as a representative side and quite a few concessions were made in order to get the show on the road. The committee could only find 2 black parents that were willing to assist and that has always been the problem. They always sit back because they know the other parents will do the hard yards, if more black parents are prepared to put their hands up it would take the racial aspect right out of it, because it always ends up being the issue. I think that situation is changing though. Thereafter ZC miraculously found money to sponsor age group tours thereby negating the initiative. Unfortunately the next group of parents were not as passionate and the whole thing collapsed. We’re back to square one without much going on and Zim’s name muddied by the unacceptable behaviour of some ZC staff at a mid year independently run annual tournament in SA that could have been a fantastic annual tour, and they were more than prepared to come here every year as well. The reality is that could have meant three tournaments a year. In my view it was deliberately sabotaged- it’s all about absolute control, because without that there’s that annoying little thing called accountability.

If Zim cricket is to have a future there’s much to be done at junior levels. There’s absolutely no point in creating opportunities at u19 level and with the Rising Stars if the players are below par, it’s just a waste of money, on top of that it’s depressing because there’s this expectation which can’t realistically be met.

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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

googly, have you thought about applying or becoming part of the official setup of ZC juniors?
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Googly
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by Googly »

:lol: No
It’s a no win thankless task with too many people trying to sabotage the correct efforts. When there’s a new administration I will put my hand up.

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eugene
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by eugene »

Zero76 wrote:
Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:22 pm
German cricket has no future. Having your team entirely built around expats is simply not a sustainable long term strategy. Same goes with places like Hong Kong, without a strong local cricketing culture there is no real scope for talent development.
The USA is pretty much in the same boat. I don't think I know of any white, hispanic, or black Americans playing cricket here, it is all West Indians, sub-continent types, and a handful of Australian, South African, English, and New Zealand immigrants. I could have got involved in cricket when I moved to the USA, but given I didn't speak Urdu I would have been at quite a disadvantage.
Neil Johnson, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), Grant Flower, Dave Houghton, Guy Whittall, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Eddo Brandes

matland
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by matland »

Brilliantly stated Googly.
With two cricket mad sons in Bulawayo all I can say is you have hit every nail squarely on the head.
Sitting at Emakhendeni yesterday the talk amongst the older generation revolved around a lot of what you have said.
Bottom line is to get the bottom feeders out and get cricketers and cricket lovers back in charge.
But how do you drain a swamp?
Personally I pray ED moves in next to HSC and finds a love of the game!

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zimbos_05
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Re: MCC to focus on Zimbabwe, Germany and Nepal

Post by zimbos_05 »

I put myself forward to work with Googly on our own 'World Series Cricket' revolution

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