Ervine and Williams flee the coup.

[ZIMDOGGY]

according to zim crickets facebook page
'Sean Williams is still to sign. Craig Ervine has not
signed and will be going to play overseas.'

Looks credible, bye to one of my favourites (Craig).
And although its vague on Williams....i dont hold much hope. His manager has been actively seeking cricket contracts in Oz and to paraphrase "isnt getting paid on time, still hasnt received WC payments, is sick of the bullshit blatant bias and is sick of the system'.... therefore unless something drastic happens he is as good as gone. In my personal opinion, he doesnt want to leave but probably feels he has to. Dont really blame him. They all deserve better, even moreso if all those overinflated admin salary stories are true.

[ZIMDOGGY]

perhaps its BS about ervine, he tweeted this a week back:

'Fitness test out the way:-). Now lets start preparing for bangladesh#redemptionisneeded'

[bayhaus]

perhaps its BS about ervine, he tweeted this a week back:

Ervine refused to sign, that tweet was from a week ago before the stand off on friday.

[eugene]

Yet both of them are in the squad? I am confused as to whether they have defected or not?

[FlowerPower]

Really would be sad if true. The number of own goals we score is amazing! The rebel saga for me robbed us of continuity, but talentwise I think we lost AC, Grant and Streak, the rest would have retired by now and a look at their stats was not earth moving (I'm assuming Andy and Olonga were black band). So talentwise, other than those 3, not much else, but certainly continuity.

But the current "new gen" has been talent lost,Taibu, Ervine (srn), Ballance, and these two. All have undoubted talent Ballance being the stand out, Williams being huge potential, Ervine jrn being a good squad player, and Ervine srn at best better version of Chigs. Imagine a team of:

1. Ballance 2. Mawoyo 3. Vusi 4. Taylor 5. Hami 6.Williams 7. Taibu(wkt)for a batting lineup 8. Ervine Srn as an allrounder

Taylor, Vusi, Hami, Mawoyo and co should really have had a more coushioned entry and joined a competitive side gradually and not to have to become the bakbone overnight, literally. Look at Aus, Clarke, Watson, Hughes have been eased in, AB, Amla, Morkel and Dayle for Proteas, Cook, Morgan, Broad, Bresnan for the Poms, Kohli and the next gen for India, all have played with greats and learned from these guys and cushioned from expectation.

Alas, this is not to be, at best we hope like with the rebel saga there is a regeneration, which is disheartening, as you need continuity in 5 year cycles. We hope those left behind will grab the opportunity:

1. Mawoyo 2. Vusi 3.Taylor 4.Waller 5.Mutizwa 6.Waller 7. Mutambami (wkt) 8.

Obviously in his current form Mutizwa is miles away from a call up but discounting the last season, this would have been his opportunity, and Waller despite the last outing, he showed some grit and application in the comeback series in 2011. Both may not be the prettiest but I seem to think there is something there.

Mutambami if his Logan cup form is to go by has potential to be almost as good as Taibu, Chigs for me is not a Test player but in the absence of any better he has the time to work to what we would have hoped from Ervine (srn). Vusi is not a Ballance, but he isnt terrible.

However this is papering the cracks, we need to cure the root problem. Why are players leaving? Walking away from Test cricket? ZC needs to honestly ask these questions and having gotten the answers be bold enough to act honestly on these. We can hypothesise and use our best excuses, but I think its ultimately money. ZC needs to honestly address this before anything else. Related to money is weeding out the vultures who are in it for the money. We also need to understand that the better we play the better the chances of TV rights, and in and out bound tours.

[Edit]As an illustration:

Say we could offer Ballance a central contact of US$120K p.a. and a 50K franchise contract (Total of 170K), have a core group of say 15 on similar contracts, $2.55M p.a.You could have say 5 on the brink on B contracts of say 120K (60 National +60 Franchise)
giving $0.6M. The rest could be on franchise contracts (5 franchises x20 Players at 60K = 6M). Total of under US$10M per year. Then stick to paying the players!

Yes initially this will cost, but if we address the vultures and are strategic in our thinking, i.e. forward thinking with an investment mentality as opposed to the vulture culture of "kill the goose and quicken the golden egg" approach, we may get somewhere. Simplistic? Yes, but it is a start and a blue print we wont get anywhere with the current always starting approach. I'd say with such a set up we'd have a competitive squad in 3/4 years.

We may need a deep pocketed friend for those three years, Econet (come on Strive it change for you!), Supersport? Bill Gates foundation? Anyone...

[Kriterion_BD]

What is the top pay grade in current ZIM central contracts worth in US dollars?

Is 120k for a Ballance, feasible, since to my knowledge only the BCCI can afford to pay central contracts that big.

[FlowerPower]

What is the top pay grade in current ZIM central contracts worth in US dollars?

Is 120k for a Ballance, feasible, since to my knowledge only the BCCI can afford to pay central contracts that big.

I have no clue (asked the same question on the other thread), and 120k was a thumb suck, something worth Ballance and any talent we'd want to "tie" down. More importantly I just wanted to tease out a number (10M) that would be required anually to keep such talent. In light of that info, half that figure would be enough then, i.e. 5M per year...common there must be some millionaire out there with change to spare....

Aside, what travesty, considering 18 year old footballers in England earn 120k PER WEEK!

[Jemisi]

I think $35000pa paid on time with no dramas would be enough to keep all of our players.

[eugene]

What were finances like back in the ZCU days, i.e. 90s? I never remember hearing much back then about money problems.

[foreignfield]

What were finances like back in the ZCU days, i.e. 90s? I never remember hearing much back then about money problems.

According to Olonga they had coffers of money but were sitting very tight on it. That is of course a player's perspective, and does anyone know a professional sportsman who earns enough?

But it suggests that the ZCU's finances were sound -- even if player-board relations were strained at times.