Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

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Googly
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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by Googly »

For Taibu to be that long out of cricket and do anything useful at all shows he’s a damned good player.

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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by Jemisi »

jaybro wrote:
Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:13 am
Has a player ever held a position in the selection panel only to be selected years later in test cricket?

Seems absurd and shows what a mess Zimbabwe cricket is, Tibba should never have retired and I think you fellas are right he regrets it.

No point bringing him back IMO the side is already too old.
I think some early England tours may qualify here when things were more fluid.

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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by sloandog »

Everybody here is giving Taibu jip, calling him just a 'good batter'. I thought he was brilliant with the bat and really was a quality player. His wicket keeping was, and probably still is, better than Taylor, Moor and Chagabva for sure. Ian Healy really rated Taibu's glovework if i recall correctly. The fact he's come from the wilderness and put up these stats really does say a lot about his ability.

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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by Andybligzz »

sloandog wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 9:15 am
Everybody here is giving Taibu jip, calling him just a 'good batter'. I thought he was brilliant with the bat and really was a quality player. His wicket keeping was, and probably still is, better than Taylor, Moor and Chagabva for sure. Ian Healy really rated Taibu's glovework if i recall correctly. The fact he's come from the wilderness and put up these stats really does say a lot about his ability.
Fully agree with you , and you are 100 percent right about Ian Healy . He was a fine player and if he had played a full career without all the hurdles and politics his stats would be extremely impressive . He would still dominate zims first class system , those who don’t
Rate him simply are uneducated about cricket .
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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by brmtaylor.com admin »

Are we looking at different stats?
He's averaging 28 in a fairly weak FC league with no half centuries from 9 innings. As a former Test captain that's a little bit underwhelming.

With that all said, it is impressive that he returned after so many years and has settled in. And if you popped Chakabva (for example) in that same league I wouldn't bet on him bettering Taibu's average of 28.

Don't get me wrong, I think he is/was a good player. I just think we overrated him in the late 2000s because our batting was so weak at the time.

He's probably still in our top 7 batsman, but Ray Price is probably still in our top 5 bowlers - it's an indictment on the state of Zim cricket these days.

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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

My memory of Taibu was that of a quick, mobile gloveman who could do some flashy things but also make some basic mistakes. Still world class or close to it with ten gloves.

Batting, he was a 27/28 type batter. Probably the best equivalent to today would be a Hammy, although Hammy and Taibu have different styles. On batting alone he wouldn’t make the current test side I don’t think. Hammy beats him in a photo finish.

What he DID have, was plenty of fight. That’s sorely missed. He often stood up when others failed and that’s a quality we haven’t seen in a long time. The black players especially have been criticised for having their heads down giving up too early in Zim (although I’d argue the modern day whites aren’t much better) but this was no the case with Taibu. He saved his best for when he was needed.
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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by Andybligzz »

Averaging 28 in foreign conditions , having not played in years at the age of 35 is incredible to me , simply my opinion. He also was thrown in the deep end at a young age and thrown to the wolves by being captain after the white rebels left . He also showed when in a good team with experience around him he was more than capable of contributing solid runs with the bat . His glove work
Will always be better than what we currently have on offer, and like Zimdoggy said he made runs when it mattered . If he stuck around in the middle order with the likes of Taylor , Ervine , Williams and moor he would flourish . I rated him so highly and believe we were robbed of seeing how good of a player he could have been. One of my all time favourite players for any nation .
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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by TapsC »

In my opinion a batsman peaks from their late 20s to mid 30s where experience meets talent. So unfortunately I think Taibu actually lost the best cricketing years of his life when he retired. Just look at how confident BT is now at that peak age.

He had the determination to have been world class. People forget that he was the actual player of the tournament at the u19 world cup. Thats how good he was. I dont see any zim player achieving that any time soon.

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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by Andybligzz »

TapsC wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:37 pm
In my opinion a batsman peaks from their late 20s to mid 30s where experience meets talent. So unfortunately I think Taibu actually lost the best cricketing years of his life when he retired. Just look at how confident BT is now at that peak age.

He had the determination to have been world class. People forget that he was the actual player of the tournament at the u19 world cup. Thats how good he was. I dont see any zim player achieving that any time soon.
+1
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Re: Taibu bounces back to play in Sri Lanka

Post by jaybro »

TapsC wrote:
Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:37 pm
In my opinion a batsman peaks from their late 20s to mid 30s where experience meets talent. So unfortunately I think Taibu actually lost the best cricketing years of his life when he retired. Just look at how confident BT is now at that peak age.

He had the determination to have been world class. People forget that he was the actual player of the tournament at the u19 world cup. Thats how good he was. I dont see any zim player achieving that any time soon.
Yeah agree completely

Also Taibu started very much as a ‘keeper’ batting as low as 9 or maybe even 10, I remember watching him the VB Tri Series in 2003/04 his numbers were very low in the mid teens, so the fact he got his average up to nearly 30 shows he was a good bat.

If he hadn’t stopped playing in 2012 I see no reason why he wouldn’t still be the keeper batsman in all 3 formats.
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