Franchise teams

[Irwin Goodman]

When I started following Zimbabwean franchise leagues around 2015, there was only 4 clubs. Later on when Taibu became staff at ZCB they've added Rising Star team but it was unfortunately stopped, though ZCB has been more active on these kinds projects. Atleast now there's still total of 5 teams, with Rhinos being the recent ones if I remember correctly.
ZCB gets around 15-17 million USD from ICC, more than some other top 10 full members. Obviously there's sponsors/more funds and tickets, merch etc.
With that money maybe they could add atleast one more franchise team. New Zealand is good example they get less than ZCB and but has more Franchise team. Even if I don't know what's the cricket scene and the board is like in NZ.
Since its clear for now that Club cricket/NPL itself won't get you anywhere, but we have pool of players with potentials. And the teams growing in NPL was it 14? Anyways the ratio between franchise the clubs way too low 5/14? Last season NPL was quite competetive in a sense that many players stood out, even we leave Takashinga 1&2 + Sogo Rangers players out. So with only Franchise you might be considered but the spot is just way too small.
I've seen some members stating that Sogo Rangers should be the 6th team in the franchise. What is the actual criteria in Zimbabwe to became 6th (or even 7th if not more) franchise team? Apart from having good finance and sponsors.

[Googly]

The problem is the quality of the playing pool. There's also legit calls to have less franchise teams to improve quality of play.

The call for SOGO is to give some guys opportunites that should be playing and aren't. They would raise the bar in coaching and management which ZC emphatically dont want because they wont match it in the other franchises. They wont get half way.

It's a toss up between quality and volume as well. That's been helped by Club, NPL and then Franchise. Almost too much cricket for a franchise player if he were to play all the games.

UK is interesting. Club cricket is NOT a pathway to County except in very exceptional circumstances. The counties pick their players from when theyre 9 years old. They slowly weed them out until theyre left with their best guys in their academies which is a melting pot of 3 age groups. From the academies maybe one third make it into county.
MCC YP mops up the good academy players they feel Counties have overlooked. Their talent spotting is outrageously good. They dont miss a good player.

The main stumbling block is that ZC dont want semi-autonomy. The second they dont control every aspect with an iron fist the paranoia kicks in.

[ZIMDOGGY]

When I started following Zimbabwean franchise leagues around 2015, there was only 4 clubs. Later on when Taibu became staff at ZCB they've added Rising Star team but it was unfortunately stopped, though ZCB has been more active on these kinds projects. Atleast now there's still total of 5 teams, with Rhinos being the recent ones if I remember correctly.
ZCB gets around 15-17 million USD from ICC, more than some other top 10 full members. Obviously there's sponsors/more funds and tickets, merch etc.
With that money maybe they could add atleast one more franchise team. New Zealand is good example they get less than ZCB and but has more Franchise team. Even if I don't know what's the cricket scene and the board is like in NZ.
Since its clear for now that Club cricket/NPL itself won't get you anywhere, but we have pool of players with potentials. And the teams growing in NPL was it 14? Anyways the ratio between franchise the clubs way too low 5/14? Last season NPL was quite competetive in a sense that many players stood out, even we leave Takashinga 1&2 + Sogo Rangers players out. So with only Franchise you might be considered but the spot is just way too small.
I've seen some members stating that Sogo Rangers should be the 6th team in the franchise. What is the actual criteria in Zimbabwe to became 6th (or even 7th if not more) franchise team? Apart from having good finance and sponsors.

The problem here is you have approached this as if adding another team is a good thing, and as Googly said, that is contentious.
The domestic scene is inadequate in terms of preparation to the next step and is not a huge step above the NPL. It needs to be competitive.All too often we have seen players dominate the scene, but not be able to make the leap. Think Marumani, Maruma etc. This happens everywhere, but especially so in Zimbabwe. We also have a slew of imports who have come through on holidays who are nothing but club cricketers in their home countries but dominate, like this nigga here [url]https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers ... 295397/url].

Alot of people have wanted to actually reduce the teams or even copy the model they did one year and have Mashona and matabeleland join the SA league, but that doesnt satisfy ICC domestic requirements. Some people here, like our Italian tapeball mate, believe that by expanding you give players exposure, but I woUld strongly argue that is the role of the NPL.
If it were me I would have 3x Logan Cup teams and have a stronger NPL base.
What underpins our cricket scene is the low player pool in general. There are only about 500 adult cricketers playing in the country. Finland probably has close to that. Think about that. Maybe my numbers are off but we worked it out here a few years back.

As for the Rising stars, that initiative was controversial and it was plagued by rumours that Taibu had an alternative agenda to pimp players to clubs for a referral fee. Even if that is false, a 3 month tour to England just put our kids in the shop window to the UK. Blessing even got a B pregnant. Not an astounding success.

Also what good is a rising stars squad when they are all kids? who are they learning off? They need to rub shoulders with our best to become better. In our case Williams etc.
The 2nd reiteration of the stars was Campbells academy side who fortunately recognised this and got Jarvis and BT playing. Then the squad was too strong and they dominated. An academy side in the premier domestic comp is a little weird, but even weirder when they dominate.

[Andy31]

Don’t forget the rising stars actually won the pro 50 in there year

[ZIMDOGGY]

Don’t forget the rising stars actually won the pro 50 in there year

I referred to it.

[Googly]

The problem with 3 franchise teams (for example) is twofold.
Firstly those selections will just be ridiculous. It ends there.
Secondly is the volume. Do the teams play each other 4 times? The format that really suffers is T20. Our T20 season would be done in two days. ZC saves a bunch of cash and the players get nothing out of it.

More teams is the better option because someone who they'd likely have overlooked is capable of having a great season and at least getting a sniff.
A lot of problems disappear with astute selections but that's never ever going to happen at any level of our cricket. Out of myriad problems we have this is our biggest challenge and its never going away. More is the only solution.

[ZIMDOGGY]

The problem with 3 franchise teams (for example) is twofold.
Firstly those selections will just be ridiculous. It ends there.
Secondly is the volume. Do the teams play each other 4 times? The format that really suffers is T20. Our T20 season would be done in two days. ZC saves a bunch of cash and the players get nothing out of it.

More teams is the better option because someone who they'd likely have overlooked is capable of having a great season and at least getting a sniff.
A lot of problems disappear with astute selections but that's never ever going to happen at any level of our cricket. Out of myriad problems we have this is our biggest challenge and its never going away. More is the only solution.

The selections would have to be done properly, that goes for any team really, shouldnt be hard to get right, but ZC are ZC.

If it were really me in charge, I would strongly lobby for 3x of our teams to join the SA domestic league. We may need to compromise and only send two though. You are right that with the same old tired faces every year in our comp, its the cricketing version of inbreeding. So many mid players show up and bamboozle our guys solely on the basis that our guys aren't used to them yet. The SA league will provide the variety and competitiveness to get better. Your posts on the SA domestic scene tell me it isnt that strong due to quota work (I dont watch it myself so your comments are all I know about it) but it no doubt is better than ours and would have alot of class sprinkled throughout. Get a Namibian franchise in there and you can have a Southern African super comp. This would be a great stepping stone to the international scene and elevate the NPL as the strongest domestic comp.

[Pat_Bee]

A Sogo Rhodesians franchise is the solution.

Five franchises for the black guys to play silly buggers with questionable selections and a franchise for the white guys who will boss everything.

Can’t see that flying though

Three franchises would be whack, play two games and that’s the season done

[Andy31]

I like the idea of a team in the South Africa comp.

Even on a smaller scale. It be great if Zim could have a connection to a club to send maybe a player or two down each year.

Like a Myers would learn more a season in their comp then playing in ours.

[Googly]

Of course a team in their comp would be fantastic.
Again there are problems-
SA has fuck all interest in helping us for a variety of complicated reasons, the main one being is we are not likely to be competitive, nor would we be reliable. Being half way thru a comp and having a no show would be disastrous.

One extra team in their comp is a huge ask. It would never happen.

Would we host games or would be based there? Either way it would be prohibitively expensive and rough on players being away for an entire season.

Again the selections..u just can't get away from it.

Getting a Namibia side here for our season would be interesting. Problem is their best players i think play in the SA system.