Grant Flower To Coach The Rhinos

[ZIMDOGGY]

It was never going to happen once riki threatened to leave last year be suss he wast getting paid - even said he won't return.

That said ... I do believe that he had hopes at one stage of playing test for us.. Before he realized he'd be doing it for free.

Sad reality is these players have Lmost certainly disappeared due to low pay - and sad fact is we will never get better when we don't pay our players much. We will lose all run of the mill Logan cup players -or they will drift in and out- and any serious talent we develop will get poached. Not exactly a hard sell when you choose between a third world country and a few meat pies as payment vs a comfortable country and good pay...

The thrill of representing your country fades off over a few years and reality of feeding yourself kicks in.
We have players who are out of the scene who could be playing tests (I,e Rogers) who by all accounts aren't doing anything much else. We have players who have it up to be a real estate agent and another to manage a sports shop...

It's going to be a sad day when cremer or someone leaves the game to become a plumber or something because it pays twice as much and on time. Or sibanda plays Sydney grade cricket full time for similar reasons.

[Jemisi]

[aydee]

So i guess Riki Wessels playing for Zimbabwe is a bit far-fetched at the moment then?

Always was...

[Train Driver]

Not too bad a start for Rhinos with two wins over Rocks, or should i say two wins over a weak and inexperienced Rocks, no complacency i hope as there will be much more difficult hurdles to overcome this season, starting with the home matches against Eagles and Mountaineers this weekend and next week

The team was pretty much as expected given this years squad with only Rainsford missing from the senior players, i've not much doubt that money is the problem, as we've heard, but there's not going to be much of it about so hopefully Ed will come to some sort of arrangement with management and be available sooner rather than later

Performance of the week doesn't take much working out with Vusi and his 50 over 190 well supported by Graeme Cremer with 63 and 2-25, Malcolm Waller a career best 4-29 and Simon Mugava 3-46 while Brendan Taylor 54, Steve Trenchard 27 and Mike Chinouya 3-23 did the business in the 20/20 stuff

Much harder competition coming up so hopefully Rainsford and overseas batsman Jaik Mickleburgh will be available, Mark Vermeulen and Malcolm Waller will remember their bats and Sir Vusi will get double hundreds in both competitions

Scorecards from the 50 over

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-do ... 80885.html

and the 20/20

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-do ... 80906.html

[Train Driver]

Slightly more of a mixed bag for Rhinos in their 2nd round of matches

Playing at home to Eagles there were three changes to the side with Ed Rainsford back and playing along with a debut for overseas batsman Jaik Mickleburgh and an appearance for Mluleki Nkala, who had been reported to have signed a pay as you play deal with Tuskers, taking the places of Mark Vermeulen, Remembrance Nyathi and Neville Madziva

After winning the toss in the 50 over game and bowling, Rhinos kept Eagles to 182 all out from 47.3 overs, the flashing bat of Ray Price taking them on from 136-7, Malcolm Waller 3-15 and Graeme Cremer 3-33 took the honours with the ball while Cremer took 2 catches off his own bowling and rounded his fielding performance off with 2 run outs as well

With the bat a 109 run 2nd wicket stand between Vusi Sibanda 55 and Mickleburgh 73 almost saw Rhinos home but a late flurry of wickets meant another task for Cremer, he kept his head and saw Rhinos home to a 4 wicket win with 4.1 overs to spare

In the 20/20 stuff Sibanda 66 from 50 balls and Brendan Taylor 59 from 44 gave Rhinos a perfectly good score of 183-3 but then Eagles swept home by 6 wickets with 5 balls left, Richard Muzhange was the tightest bowler with 1-26 from his 4 overs while Cremer returned 2-35 from his allotment

So that's 3 wins and 1 defeat from 4 matches, not a bad start to build on towards total Rhino dominantion of not only Zim domestic cricket but hopefully the world, well it's a thought ...............

Scorecard from the 50 over match


http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-do ... 80887.html


and the 20/20 rubbish


http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-do ... 80908.html