ZC stumped up for the Campbell Academy recruits. I’m sure they will do no such thing for Taibu’s academy.
These academies worldwide are prohibitively expensive. The good ones have damned good coaches and programs.
Anyone with money to enroll is more likely to go to an Australian, South African or English one. It’s unfair because I’ve heard GB is doing an outstanding job.
The one upside to joining the Campbell Academy is that it’s a direct entry into the FC system here, which is unheard of anywhere else, it’s an anomaly which only our broken system could offer. I’m not sure whether that will ever convince anyone with means to stay here though.
The first thing anyone with money for their kids is going to do is send them to Uni. You would need a healthy system and then the AC academy would be a real option, but with a healthy system academy boys wouldn’t be good enough for FC, a catch 22.
What Campbell probably should have tried to do is to make a deal with a couple of northern hemisphere sides like Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland to get a couple of their really good youngsters over here for a winter academy for free as a form of advertising. I have no doubt that Brent would make them a lot better and within a couple of years these countries would pay to send players. The problem is you’re competing with Kirsten Academy and a couple of the Aussie ones. The carrot would be some FC games though.
If I’m not mistaken I believe there were one or two English kids from the first intake? The name Sam Perry rings a bell
I think you’re right about the direct entry into first class cricket will be a massive carrot for AC to attract overseas talent
While I have you on the subject Googly, have you seen or heard much about this intake? Are any of these guys improving? Can we expect any internationals from this group?
Someone posted their results on the forum. I haven’t had a really good look. I’d heard they had a seamer with some promise and a batter. Anyone with real promise would stick out like a dog’s ball here and would be spoken about. The fact is you need to be a superstar here in Zim to even have half a chance of being a decent international. I guess that applies to any system, but more so here. If you’re not plundering runs or wickets here then you’ve got f%#* all chance of doing it in a competitive environment.
I just don’t see how a top batsman can materialize from relative obscurity. By the time they’re in their 20’s how are you going to have a really top batter if he hasn’t been plundering for years at schoolboy level? Maybe you can, I just don’t know if any.
People talk about Myers here, and I’ve seen him play. He’s a really good player, but we’re comparing him to others here and some fairly ordinary bowling most of the time. How would he fare against top opposition? We’ll see in the u19 WC soon enough. If he’s like 99% of the other good guys we’ve produced over the last 10 years or so, he’ll be a bit inconsistent and will struggle initially to make the step up. It’s that last step that seems to elude most
So you have the best bat in the country around the youngsters and now you have the best bowler . Awesome stuff , both have international and county experience and know what it takes to succeed . I’m very happy with this