sam_ahm wrote: ↑Mon May 23, 2022 3:46 pm
Dav Whatmore had a significant improvement in team results, I do remember Zimbabwe playing good positive cricket when he was in charge, I couldn't believe my eyes whe Mazakadza was smashing Dale Steyn all over the park in the 2015 WC warm up game. Zimbabwe came very close to beating a full strength Pakistan and full strength India in that WC. Even against South Africa, it was Miller who rescued them from a tricky position. Zimbabwe produced far better results against Bangladesh and Afghanistan during his tenure, than what they are doing now.
Heath Streak was probably the best Zim coach in recent times, in WCQ Zimbabwe almost qualified for the 50 over WC, they could have done it with a game to spare had it not been for Marlon Samuels incredible knock and then that eventful game against the UAE which still comes back to haunt Zimbabwe cricket.
Streak also helped in bringing back Solomon Mire, Kyle Jarvis and most importantly Brendan Taylor. His work was mostly in the best interests of ZC and he genuinely wanted to take the team Forward.
I would LOVE to see Rajput do well, in fact I was very happy when he was first appointed as I thought he is a very good coach, I won't even mind the defeats as long as we can sense that he is trying. But all this IPL interviews. Openly Applying for jobs when already under contract with ZC, and missing out on national games as and when he likes, really put me off. It is just not professional. His treatment of dropping Raza and BT was highly questionable too.
You also have to see the quality individuals played for Zim under these coaches. Mire, Masakadza, Jarvis, Cremer, Vitori with his old magic, Moor, talented Musakanda . There was no place for failures like Chakabva, Tiripano under Streak & Whatmore. Even they were very much positive about neglecting proven failures average players like Maruma, Chibhabha, Mpofu. Utseya had to say lots of things to Campbell after getting dropped from WC Squad. Zim under these coaches were in the hands of quality players, therefore they had results under their tenures.
Whatmore is very much aggressive coach and one of the best in lifting weak teams. He had done great job with Sri Lanka and build new Bangladesh team by kicking out those underperformed seniors from Bangladesh side back in 2007 WC and included Shakib, Tamim & Mushfiq who played the under 19 WC just a year ago and these three appeared as great future talents for Bangladesh after 2007 WC