[Match Thread] Zimbabwe vs Ireland - 3rd T20I -- EVERYBODY READ THIS!!!!

[Googly]

A guy on that twitter feed calling Hammy Ma-Duck-adza
That might stick.
That’s pretty outspoken of Taibu. Don’t forget that recorded telephone conversation between him and Hamilton, that’s going to come back and bite Hammy.

[Googly]

That’s how Williams, Ervine and a couple of others would bat most of the time if they played international cricket more regularly. It gave me great comfort to see how at ease they were and how well they played.

[Googly]

Hammy’s disastrous form with bat and captaincy must be the longest in cricket history without being axed. Right there tells you about these ZC guys and their desperation to keep control. It also tells you that Hammy has been part of their inner circle for how long? Not that we didn’t know that. I like the dude, despite his double dealing, and he’s respected in world cricket, but he needs to call time, or he may find it gets done for him, and that’s an ignominious departure for someone with such a long career. He can go and get advice from Ray Price on how to bow out without a benefit year, what’s good for the goose....

[Googly]

And he really would have a role in Zim cricket going forward.

[Donald]

Recorded telephone conversation??????

[CrimsonAvenger]

Hamilton messed up if his intention was to prolong his career. Had he not been the captain, he would have been dropped a while ago, or at least midway through this series, and would have at least avoided the public ire against him. He could have gone back, piled on the runs domestically and could have come back again by the next important series as he always does. And a lot of us fans anyway felt that he was dropped more regularly and harshly over the years compared to a few others in the team. By choosing to accept captaincy, he made himself more visible and vulnerable to more intense scruitiny (which is well founded) and he had nowhere to hide.

An alternate explanation to his accepting captaincy last year knowing that the above could happen is if he did not mind getting into this situation at all, already knowing his time was already up and used the captaincy to prolong his career for almost another year now.

Either way, a death blow to his career, while he could have still been genuinely useful in tests if we ever played one in the near future. A drop now could be the end of the career, even if tests do come around. He also massively contributed to his own decline by not rolling his golden arm over more frequently than what he did in the last couple of years.

[ZIMDOGGY]

A couple of ramblers on Facebook are defending him in the basis that people didn’t have the knives out in the same way for other batsman like Ervine when out of form, but for any of those guys reading this, it’s not a valid comparison.

Being out of form at 30 or even 33 is much different from being an unfit 36 year old who hasn’t had a decent knock in two years. Being old in itself isn’t a killer to a career when out of form, although it would be in say, Oz, but the fact he’s old, not performing and unfit... there’s no justification for keeping him when we need to start blooding youth soon.

So two things have to happen from here.
Selectors put a bullet in him and put the dog down,
Or,
They strip the captaincy at the very least, and give him one more series to find his feet without the added pressure, completing the longest stretch of not getting dropped in cricket history.
This is a bare minimum to relinquish his captaincy. He isn’t the first Dunno to fail with that added pressure, but it’s make or break now.

One series to get back. If he is lucky.

[ZIMDOGGY]

What’s weird is although at the moment he’s been bulletproof and avoided the axe, in world record territory, it wasn’t always the case.
He used to have a reputation of being dropped unfailing and prematurely. Think he missed the 2011 World Cup even?

[foreignfield]

That’s how Williams, Ervine and a couple of others would bat most of the time if they played international cricket more regularly. It gave me great comfort to see how at ease they were and how well they played.

While I share the sentiment (re: comfort & ease), it's an illusion to think Ervine and Co. would be much improved and more consistent batsmen if they played more against good teams. Ervine is in one of his golden patches where he looks a million dollars, but as far as my memory serves me these stretches of good form mostly ended not through inactivity but when facing opposition with a good attack who did their homework and targeted his weaknesses. This of course applies to all our batsmen--if we are honest none of them would survive a full Test series against one of the top sides with their confidence intact.

[jaybro]

I firmly believe that the players would be better if they played better sides more often