The John Ward column

[Detective RDS]

Is John Ward still available for answering fans queries regarding Zimbabwe cricket ?

John Ward was instrumental in Zimbabwe Cricket Online & the question answer there. Great insight which is rare nowadays regarding Zim cricket.

I stay in somewhat regular contact with John, always happy to pass along some questions.

Wow, that's wonderful to know.

[Detective RDS]

Couple of questions for John Ward if that's ok.

Question: Currently who are the 3 quickest pacers of Zimbabwe and approximately how quick are they ?

Question: What will be your test XI for the 1st test vs NZ ?

Thanks eugene.

[eugene]

John had some interesting thoughts.

Currently who are the 3 quickest pacers of Zimbabwe and approximately how quick are they ?
I would say our three quickest bowlers are Brian Vitori, Gerald Aliseni and Tendai Chatara. We have no way here of measuring just how fast they are, but certainly two years ago I saw Vitori bowl the fastest spell I have ever seen from a native Zimbabwean bowler, and others agreed with me that this was genuinely fast even by international standards. He and Aliseni are not very consistent, though, and I haven't seen Vitori bowl so fast again.


What will be your test XI for the 1st test vs NZ ?
The Test XI will be very difficult for me to pick, as it's so long since we last played, and also few of the team have played more than one or two f-c matches during the past year, due to all the concentration on international one-day cricket last year. My thoughts at the moment are below, and there is an obvious problem with the opening batsmen. An appalling omission by our national selectors is that of Nkosana Mpofu, who is also left-handed; he gets himself out too often in the 20s to 40s, but I twice saw him bat right through an innings to win a one-wicket victory for Matabeleland Tuskers, and it is obvious he has a fair technique and an outstanding temperament when a big innings is most needed. But he was ignored even for Zim A!

Masakadza
Moor/Masvaure
Ervine
Williams
Raza
Waller
Chakabva
Jongwe
Cremer
Chatara
Panyangara

Tiripano would be his reserve pace bowler if Panyangara or Chatara are unfit.

[Detective RDS]

Thank you eugene. Indeed very interesting thoughts of John Ward.

My next 2 questions if that's ok.

1. What's your view on the performance of Zimbabwe A on the recently concluded series against South Africa A ?

2. (a) What's your view on Prince Masvaure ?
(b) Where do you see him in his immediate future and where does he stand comparing with his counterparts Chari, Mawoyo, Sibanda, Raza etc ?
(c) Is he battling out for a place against Elton Chigumbura as an allrounder ?

[eugene]

1. What's your view on the performance of Zimbabwe A on the recently concluded series against South Africa A ?
Overall, disappointing, but not unexpected. In both matches a fairly small minority of players put their hands up, mostly batsmen, and they perhaps did better than I expected, especially Prince. But the others made little impact, and also losing the toss in both matches was quite a handicap.

2. (a) What's your view on Prince Masvaure?
I can’t make any really definitive comments on Prince yet after just two matches, and not knowing how he has spent his off-season. It certainly looks like he spent the winter doing intensive cricket training, especially with the bat, as he has never shown this sort of form before. In fact, his Logan Cup form last season was disastrous, which may have been the wake-up call he needed.

Certainly this form gives him a good chance of making a Test debut probably nobody thought would ever happen! Especially as we are struggling so much for opening batsmen. The Zimbabwe national team coaches would be better placed to compare him right now with those already in their squad, but I wouldn’t argue if they decided to strike while the iron is hot and throw him into the Test matches.

(b) Where do you see him in his immediate future and where does he stand comparing with his counterparts Chari, Mawoyo, Sibanda, Raza etc?
Chari is greatly talented, but since he has a career first-class batting average of barely 20, it is hardly reasonable to expect him to do better than that in Test cricket — he seems to have problems with his temperament and worries too much, which he may get over in time. Mawoyo looks better than he did last season, but against South Africa A Prince did much better overall. Sibanda still hasn’t got his act together consistently and not many ever do after so many opportunities. Raza I would certainly include to start with, and hope he has given himself a good kick up the backside and put in a mass of hard work during the winter; if so, I would expect him to recover his form.

(c) Is he battling out for a place against Elton Chigumbura as an allrounder ?
Chigumbura – an all-rounder? He hardly bowls these days and hasn’t even played a first-class match for almost two years, so I wouldn’t consider him for the Test team at all, UNLESS he has shown such brilliant form and application in training that the coaching team is ecstatic about him.

But as I said, it’s hard for me to make definitive judgments about these players because there is no recent match form to speak of apart from the South Africa A matches, and I have no inside information about how things have been going with the national squad in their training.

[ZIMFAN]

I love John (from back in the ZCO days when Dr Situ questioned him like a mad thing) and have a question for him!

I saw something Zhiel said about trying to reengage the diaspora - Lake, Bruce etc. Does he know if any efforts are being made to make this actually happen?

[Robbo]

Yeah used to love reading John Wards articles, and would love to hear more of them. He is almost Zimbabwe's equivalent to the late, great Tony Cozier. Not quite in his league, but excellent knowledge of Zim cricket and puts his arguments across very well...

[foreignfield]

Yeah used to love reading John Wards articles, and would love to hear more of them. He is almost Zimbabwe's equivalent to the late, great Tony Cozier. Not quite in his league, but excellent knowledge of Zim cricket and puts his arguments across very well...

Get him in the (commentary) team.

[eugene]

I love John (from back in the ZCO days when Dr Situ questioned him like a mad thing) and have a question for him!

I saw something Zhiel said about trying to reengage the diaspora - Lake, Bruce etc. Does he know if any efforts are being made to make this actually happen?

John does not know of any efforts so far.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

I love John (from back in the ZCO days when Dr Situ questioned him like a mad thing) and have a question for him!

I saw something Zhiel said about trying to reengage the diaspora - Lake, Bruce etc. Does he know if any efforts are being made to make this actually happen?

@Eugene, @Crimson Is there any picture of his available on net?