Zimbabwe vs New Zealand | Test Series | Second Test | 07 August 2025 - 11 August 2025

[secretzimbo]

Also, people with short memories, should remember that the last time we tried to properly overthrow the board it was a well managed coordinated campaign led by some very good individuals. That failed, so the chances of a few social media posters overturning the board now is basically less than zero.

Also as stated the SRC and its makeup now is a lot less inclined to get involved than it was five years ago. Look at the SRC members and who they are. Almost no chance they get involved.

If they do, and if we were to get suspended by the ICC again, then sorry but that’s the end of cricket here.

I don’t even know what the petition is asking for or what exactly these people want. The whole crux of the petition seems to be because they want - and I quote - Ernest Masuku, Wes Madhevere and Jonathan Campbell in the team? Is that it?

Nobody had an issue with the XI selected for that second NZ test really. It was more or less our strongest lineup available or at least what most people would have chosen at the time.

Again we are paying the price for twenty five years of poor administration.

Actually, ironically, the last few years have seen a marked improvement on that side of things. There’s no debt, there’s more clubs and players than there have been for a while, there’s more fixtures than there have been for a while, etc. Still a long way to go and there’s still at least 100 problems.

But make no mistake our players are shit now because of the history of poor administration. There are no quick fixes. We are suffering now because of the shit that happened 10, 15 years ago. These players mostly grew up in a terrible system or have declined because of the terrible system.

Again there’s no quick fix. Picking Masuku or Evans or Campbell or anyone isn’t solving the issue overnight.

Also stacking Frank Mawoza isn’t solving the issues overnight either. He’s the stupid rabid mouthpiece yes but he’s not the only one who holds such views. And sacking a racist pottymouth doesn’t suddenly make our entire national cricket team world beaters?

Although I’m very surprised that nobody in ZC has clipped his wings yet. He is Mukuhlani’s cousin btw. I’m surprised they haven’t just told him to stfu. It seems he single handedly has generated this entire situation. He fans the flames . Why don’t ZC tell the fucker to be quiet?!?!?! His behaviour is now literally threatening their downfall!


Anyway I’m just rambling now, I’ve forgotten what my point was.

Yeah an ICC suspension will kill us. Don’t push for it.

[secretzimbo]

The poorly written, ill thought out petition claims ZC should be investigated for Tribalism, Club favouritism and nepotism.

What does tribalism mean in this case?

Club favouritism suggests Takashinga bias, which obviously we have seen over the years in selection, but it is over stated and I’m not sure what some of these social media commentators even know about club cricket. I’ve seen people saying Madhevere getting selected is Takashinga bias. Despite the fact he has never played for Takashinga. Neither has Madande who is the other one they talk about. When Marumani was in bad form I saw people saying the same thing but again he isn’t Takashinga, never has been. Newman Nyamhuri also isn’t Takashinga.
I wish people did their research before posting because it really doesn’t help the cause when facts are wrong. It just discredits the well intentioned people.

Also nepotism, I can only assume this can only be about Wellington? He’s not a bad player at all. Anyway he’s been dropped for Masekesa so what’s the point here?




I really wish people would talk about the real issues that have caused our repeated poor performance.

Which are, including but not limited to;

Decades of destruction of school cricket
Poor quality coaches and coach education
Poor quality umpires
Limited and poor quality facilities
Non-existent age group cricket below u19
U19’s for the past decade having shit coaches and preparation
Unprofessional franchise sides
Extremely low pay for all but the top 10-15 players
No real, world class high performance plan
No genuine high performance centre or academy




But then it’s much easier to just say ‘LOL Takashinga bias. We want Johanathan Campbell in the team’

[secretzimbo]

If someone writes a petition that asks reasoned questions about the above critical issues that underpin the game then maybe I’d sign it!

[Googly]

Mawoza's posts are important. You get a direct idea of what and how they think and more or less what their next step is.
Whilst its utterly disheartening to see the level of venom they have and the death grip they have on all things cricket we can at least see whats coming next, we don't have to guess.

He's copping some heat, even had an open threat from some aggressive war vet dude and he's not slowing down. That tells us they have a firm grip on the situation. I honestly thought he'd be told to rein it in a little and it looks like he's been given the green light to go harder
Any SRC "enquiry" would be behind closed doors and ZC would emerge with another clean bill of health and actually stronger.

The only difference this time around, as lame as it is, is that a few black guys are riled up. Its not amounting to anything but its good to see my black brothers vaguely annoyed

As SZ pointed out what are they asking SRC to look into?
Biased selections? Of all the things they could have picked its the one thing that doesnt stack up after this last test
That SRC board is just a rubber stamp. Those people ask permission to stand up or sit down.

The real issue is that ZC constitution that locks them in forever. They can do whatever they want until cricket is dead and the coffers are dry and there's not a damned thing anybody can do about it. Cricket is all but dead, but there are millions in play. Something wrong here.

Hand picked provincial boards of friends and relatives and homeless people elect the main board of friends, relatives and more homeless people and they all vote for whom and what they're told to. We will never ever see a single person of consequence that has a cricketing brain and some business acumen ever query a single position they ever take again.
I mean it's a dictatorship that makes Zanu look like junior dorm. Zanu at least has some infighting
Mukhulani has achieved God status.

That Batonka stadium is a fine example. With proper people in place it never would have even brought up as an idea. Anybody that even suggested such a conniving money making scheme would have been sent out the room and he'd not last the next election cycle. The money thats going south there and the side deals etc etc are going to be eye-watering.

I mean they've just had an election where the 2M's were unanimously voted back in. Nobody knew about it and nobody seems to care. I mean out of 14 boards of however many dozens of people that dont know the difference between cricket and clay pigeon shooting it was unanimous.
Theyre so confident they didnt even bother pretending they had an MDC opposition candidate to prove it was democratic
There is not one single cricketer that has even tut tutted over this They have been declared too stupid to have a say in who drives the bus and their destiny. They dont care so why should we? Yet 80% of them are not happy

Im sure these board members earn more than most of our cricketers . Its not a high bar, its about 200 a month.
If there are 14 boards of 6 people each (just a guess)
and one main board of about 12 it means there are more board members than franchise cricketers
Bvute had 700 ghost workers, these guys have gone to the next level- more board members than cricketers

Back in the day the clubs voted for the ZC board. Independent clubs voted for cricketing, financial and legal and reputable people to take us forward. That was one of rhe reasons clubs were dismantled. Even Honourable Mliswa tried to hijack the one agm by getting hundreds of street kids to sign up for club memberships just prior to the club AGM's

If Advocate whoever he is wanted to do something useful this is what he should be querying. Another good one would be to get a look at who is on the payroll, what their qualifications are, if they arent cricketers, and what everyone is getting paid. When ball throwers earn more than our national players there's something very very wrong. When franchise players earn less than groundsmen (150) there's something wrong.

Anyway its just a vent. I dont think we can survive mukhulani screaming intervention to ICC again. Our diabolical cricket has made him stronger again, and not weaker. We just cant afford to rock the leaking canoe.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Everyone talks of Mukhulani as some unshakeable Bond villain who cannot be stopped.

Some lawsuits or arrests and his stronghold crumbles.
The country is watching and they don’t approve anymore

[Kriterion_BD]

Establishing a cricket powerhouse in the modern era is a next to impossible task. If it were so easy, Pakistan wouldn't be a mediocre side for the last 20 years. They used to be a powerhouse until the 1990s. West Indies were an even more potent force and they are generally bang average as well. The reality is that for countries outside the Big 3, success and failure have to be defined differently unless you don't mind perpetual disappointment. Obviously for a Pakistan success will look different than it would for a Bangladesh or a Zimbabwe - each team is going to have their own unique set of what comprises decency of performance.

My idea of what realistic metrics of success are for each team:

India/England/Australia - Their goal will be to win every ICC event, but that is not practical. Realistically success could be defined as winning 2 or more ICC championships in every 4 year cycle (WTC, ODI world cup, T20 world cup, CT)...there are about 7 flagship ICC trophies up for grabs every 4 years, so I think its reasonable for any of the Big 3 to target to win at least 2 of them.

South Africa/New Zealand - goal is to qualify for the semis of every tournament, and win as many as you can. Obviously they don't have the same amount of high profile fixtures, as massive a war chest as the Big 3, but they almost always punch well above their weight.

Pakistan/Sri Lanka/West Indies - PAK and WI have gone nowhere for 20 years and Sri Lanka for about 10. They are all former champions, and their realistic goal should be good governance, and then pushing for as many semi-final appearances as they can. They may still win the odd tournament once a decade (eg Pakistan in the 2017 CT), but generally speaking winning trophies is a step too far for them.

Bangladesh/Afghanistan - Their realistic target should be to achieve whatever PAK/SL/WI can achieve because they are so far off the calibre of SA or NZ, to say nothing of the Big 3. Developing a few world class players via individual achievement is also a reasonable aim. Not far behind the tier above them.

Zimbabwe/Ireland/Netherlands/Scotland/USA - Their goals should be to qualify for as many ICC events as they can. Easier task now with a 14 team ODI world cup and 20 team T20I world cup. The secondary goal should be to create and maintain daylight with the tier below them vs teams like Canada, Namibia, Nepal, UAE, etc.

[Googly]

Mr M is a very powerful influential and smart guy. He's on the ICC board of something or other, he's boss of Africa cricket, he's an MP and I know hes got many other things on the go. He is clever and extremely wealthy.
The fact is he has done some good things. Its a low bar, but we are way better off under him than Ozias.
We've played plenty of games, the national side has a good coaching team, the u19's have had better prep than ever before. Club cricket is on the rise, we've hosted plenty of qualifiers, that T10 thing is better than nothing and seriously lines the pockets, we've got a tiny bit more sponsorship than we once had, he put an end to the Bvute scam, we've had a couple of counties come for their pre-season prep etc

There have been some positives to his reign. When you have a reign you surround yourself with people that have your back, it matters not one jot whether they are good at their actual designated job, and in return you give them just enough to stop them stabbing you. Whites are excellent on boards and at running things because they turn on each other in an instant if things are not quite right. Black dudes lager and look after each other.

The problem is the horse has mostly bolted and the good ideas are not properly implemented and there's zero transparency or accountability. If you fail to deliver and then get unanimously "re-elected" the system is broken. Again that's most countries , we can no longer bemoan the fact that we are that bad. Superficially he's ticked a lot of boxes.

Bvute once barged into the change rooms after the UAE loss screaming abuse at players along the lines of- after everything I've done for you! That's what we have dealt with for 30 years and will continue to do so. Once that money gets handed over it's theirs, they are not custodians, they are owners!!!! Its worth repeating- they are not custodians of our game, they are the owners.

Cricket aside-
Nobody gets successfully prosecuted here unless they've annoyed someone higher up the food chain. Nobody gets rich here unless they've broken multiple laws I think that applies to most places actually. You get rich, cover your tracks and go mostly legit and have your people that you can call on when you're under scrutiny by someone looking to shake the tree for sweets and there's always a queue of them.

Whatever he may or may not have done along the way he's not going anywhere. If we got demoted, he's boss of Africa cricket and the brass band would still play and Castle Corner would still sing because we can have an all-black team playing for 100 bucks a month clubbing Zambia and Mozambique. Whatever happens to us he's going to be just fine. Elty will open academies throughout Africa, Hammy will run the Vic falls conference centre and B&B's, Givvie will be hosting games at Takaz. Life will go on. Its actually the comfort zone where they are big fish in a small pond and the expectation is zero to match the general ability. Diva goes back to John's unfortunately, just had to slow down on swearing at the white kids and he'll be fine.

What would the perfect board do different? I could make a list, we need an entirely new strategy but it wouldn't change one very important thing- so few schools play cricket and the few that do are a woeful standard, there are almost zero school-kids with any real interest or ability. We only have a handful of good senior cricketers so our domestic will never be up to scratch. They essentially made the whites lose interest, the bar had to be lowered and that will be tough to rekindle. With no buy-in from whites and Asians we will sink faster. Our economy is in tatters and thats beyond his control. It has contributed hugely to our demise.

I still believe we can be competitive against big teams. Its might be naive, but it's do-able. We just have to be able to fight, and cricket being the game that it is we can win here and there when the planets align. These international stars are only human. They go out if you keep bowling in the right places and create pressure. If Root keeps getting good length balls on 4th at 135 and the ball is moving he nicks off or gets LBW just like other mere mortals.

There's endless work to do to try and help schools cricket, thats another topic, but the first essential thing is to burn grass roots cricket to the ground. It doesnt work, never has, never will. You identify the talent at 10 years of age and they go to a good school, it's the only way. They go to a HPC twice a week where there is a good coach. End of story.

The damage control-
The pointy shoes guys must get no more than what a centrally contracted cricketer gets, the average.
Get Byrom, Evans and Higgins back here yesterday. Dangle a big carrot for Muyeye and leave it there, unfortunately he's doing well atm and they will cut their arms off for an English black batsman. I dont wish him that well there because he's lied his way in, he's no anti-Zanu guy by any stretch. Dad was and probably still is big Zanu supporter. I wonder if Peter House ever got that school bus money out of him?
He got a warning letter from Zanu when he was about 17 that he was no longer wanted in Zim Chinese guys shoot black dudes and try and cut whites' heads off, rape and pillage our resources 1000 times more than the colonizers ever did. Theyre yet to build a school or a clinic and theyre still welcome Come on home, son. Nobody judges here, the more of a bandit you are the better the fit.
There's Curran, Cartwright, Snater, Ballance. Naqvi.
Cartwright would be huge!! Hes a banger. Its all about the money. If Ballance doesnt want to play international believe me he will play franchise for 5k a month. I mean it must be around what Frank gets? Gary or Frank? A gifted world class cricketer vs a genital wart. What a choice. God forbid he's the catalyst for another suspension He's triggered a few people thst are not nobodies.

We dont want one or two we want them all, pay them well and let them fight for spots with the other players. Zim is a great place to live. Proceeds from the Batonka stadium, conference centre, hotel, golf course, massage parlour and B&B's would unfortunately have to be rerouted
Singo's Happy Ending Bar and Disco could fund a couple of guys.
Get our real $20m USD interest payments back from Ozzie that was funding a $Zim 20m loan. That pays for every cricketer in Zim top dollar for 20 years. 20 million payment for the equivalent of about a thousand dollar loan everyone is smiling, everyone is living proper lives and people are practicing their cock and tackle off to get into that team.
Nobody has to drop to the ground and grovel and clean the boss's long shoes and pray he doesnt unzip his fly.

The little band aids dont work, we need open gates. Its a few mill to do this for 5 years and by then most are retiring. Its a drop in the ocean and the upside is massive.
There's so many white guys we'd need two more franchises and two more clubs- or just chop the guys that arent really of a professional standard so when a franchise game gets played its proper cricket.
Guarantee them they never have to go to Masvingo
Put 10% of what Takaz manages to peel off into two more clubs.
The second you bring 20 white boys the black lads countrywide will practice and play!! It doesnt have to be a nasty chimurenga either. Those days are gone. The young guys mix to some degree and dont have issues, those belong to guys that need a smokescreen.
If they really want to fix it this is the only way. There is no other. You get what you pay for. They want to pay 6 players a living wage and fuck the rest and they've got millions.
They'll go for the Evans, Cremer, Taylor band aid. who'll get their retirement package from the WC payout.

[secretzimbo]

This post above is an all-timer.

[secretzimbo]

We just cant afford to rock the leaking canoe.

Unfortunately, sadly, this is absolutely correct. Sums up exactly where I am with it all too.

[CholeZimbo]

Establishing a cricket powerhouse in the modern era is a next to impossible task. If it were so easy, Pakistan wouldn't be a mediocre side for the last 20 years. They used to be a powerhouse until the 1990s. West Indies were an even more potent force and they are generally bang average as well. The reality is that for countries outside the Big 3, success and failure have to be defined differently unless you don't mind perpetual disappointment. Obviously for a Pakistan success will look different than it would for a Bangladesh or a Zimbabwe - each team is going to have their own unique set of what comprises decency of performance.

My idea of what realistic metrics of success are for each team:

India/England/Australia - Their goal will be to win every ICC event, but that is not practical. Realistically success could be defined as winning 2 or more ICC championships in every 4 year cycle (WTC, ODI world cup, T20 world cup, CT)...there are about 7 flagship ICC trophies up for grabs every 4 years, so I think its reasonable for any of the Big 3 to target to win at least 2 of them.

South Africa/New Zealand - goal is to qualify for the semis of every tournament, and win as many as you can. Obviously they don't have the same amount of high profile fixtures, as massive a war chest as the Big 3, but they almost always punch well above their weight.

Pakistan/Sri Lanka/West Indies - PAK and WI have gone nowhere for 20 years and Sri Lanka for about 10. They are all former champions, and their realistic goal should be good governance, and then pushing for as many semi-final appearances as they can. They may still win the odd tournament once a decade (eg Pakistan in the 2017 CT), but generally speaking winning trophies is a step too far for them.

Bangladesh/Afghanistan - Their realistic target should be to achieve whatever PAK/SL/WI can achieve because they are so far off the calibre of SA or NZ, to say nothing of the Big 3. Developing a few world class players via individual achievement is also a reasonable aim. Not far behind the tier above them.

Zimbabwe/Ireland/Netherlands/Scotland/USA - Their goals should be to qualify for as many ICC events as they can. Easier task now with a 14 team ODI world cup and 20 team T20I world cup. The secondary goal should be to create and maintain daylight with the tier below them vs teams like Canada, Namibia, Nepal, UAE, etc.

Yep. Points made here. It’s like in the English Premier League, at the start of the season all teams know their realistic goals for the season.

Our goals in the near future should be to be better than Bangladesh, Afg and WI and be competitive against Pak and SL. Whilst ensuring we dismiss Ireland and the associates.

The team that played in the 2nd test looks decent enough to have a go at these if you include Ngarava and Evans.