A good example is Ben Curran, the middle Curran brother. I promise you when he was at school here he was probably only slightly above average. He piggy backed off Sam’s natural ability and got given very similar opportunities at school and county age group and he’s become a damned fine cricketer as a result. If you put our best schoolboys we’ve had over the years into that same environment they would nearly all be professional cricketers now. There really isn’t any excuse for letting the good guys go. It’s people with no plan and no foresight. If they’d spent some money and had the right personnel in place we’d be spoilt for choice with young batters of the absolute highest caliber.
Look where Eddie Byrom is right now, he’s on the cusp of a great career, he plays any format with ease. He would never be anywhere near where he is now if he’d stayed here, he’d be an unknown. ZC’s actual business strategy is to hope that one of these guys comes back.
People complain that England are stealing our players but they aren’t, they’re developing players ZC don’t do anything with. If Privthi Shaw was born and raised in Zimbabwe he’d be playing club cricket for OH and one day hoping for a game for Eagles when one of their players died of old age. It’s the truth.
