ESPNCRICINFO reports that Gary Ballance has retired from all cricket - does anybody know details, what happened ?

[Googly]

One of the main issues is that County cricketers practice and play year round, barring a couple of months between Oct and Nov.
Our franchise guys basically prepare a couple of days before a game. It doesn't appear as though many do much extra. Many would be a lot thinner if they practiced more.

There are a few extra guys in the mix now and that also makes it more competitive, a few are white, which is a good sign. Any rivalry will do, anything to get guys doing more.
The day they improve franchise salaries and make them year round the cricket will go up another notch.
Admin and coaches don't get paid for 5 months work so why should the cricketers???

Mazarabani was over bowled in IPL and that hasn't helped. He's now injury prone.
Kirby is a decent bowling coach, but I'm a bit surprised he hasn't got Evans bowling a bit quicker.
One of the big issues I think we face is that guys on decent central contracts take their foot off the pedal a bit. As long as folk are better off than those around them they seem happy with their lot in life.

[secretzimbo]

Watching hundred hours of Logan Cup cricket doesnt mean shit but the output counts. Let me take you back to when Zim made Test comeback the period between 2009-12 The Logan Cup was solid and very competitive results of that was seen when they competed in Test cricket. That period domestic cricket was at its best. After that things fell apart.

So basically, you agree with me? As I literally said it was great a decade ago. Then was very poor. And in the last two years has improved markedly.

Let me put it to you out of the 100 plus current first class players Zimbabwe currently has please name any 10 who can at this moment can claim a place in any county team.

What has this got to do with anything? I have not once compared our cricket to county cricket and certainly haven’t said it’s as good.

Look at Muzarabani, at Somerset he was becoming a very good bowler there was marked improvement. Ever since he got back he has never been the same. His development has stalled.

Somerset? Fuck me you are about as on-the-ball as a dead seal these days

[jontym87]

One of the main issues is that County cricketers practice and play year round, barring a couple of months between Oct and Nov.
Our franchise guys basically prepare a couple of days before a game. It doesn't appear as though many do much extra. Many would be a lot thinner if they practiced more.

There are a few extra guys in the mix now and that also makes it more competitive, a few are white, which is a good sign. Any rivalry will do, anything to get guys doing more.
The day they improve franchise salaries and make them year round the cricket will go up another notch.
Admin and coaches don't get paid for 5 months work so why should the cricketers???

Mazarabani was over bowled in IPL and that hasn't helped. He's now injury prone.
Kirby is a decent bowling coach, but I'm a bit surprised he hasn't got Evans bowling a bit quicker.
One of the big issues I think we face is that guys on decent central contracts take their foot off the pedal a bit. As long as folk are better off than those around them they seem happy with their lot in life.

On case of Kirby getting Evans bowling a bit quicker thats never going to happen. Fast bowlers are born not built. As someone with sport science knowledge, people need to understand what forces are involved in fast bowling (KINETIC), the effect they have (KINEMATIC), the limitations and capabilities of the human body based on its size and proportions [ANTHROPOMETRY] and the mechanism that controls the sequence (NEUROMUSCULAR).

With Evans i'ts never going to happen. Genuine pace [90mph+] is in a bowler's DNA and gives them the PACE FLOOR. Some bowlers start at a higher level than others and clearly will have the ability to go higher. So, the higher the floor is, the faster you can bowl. So, in fact one is born to bowl fast. However, everyone can bowl faster with the right coach intervention and growth mind-set that provides the PACE CEILING. Every bowler can push that ceiling higher! Genuine speedsters are born but a medium fast bowler can become fast medium with smart work off the field (the is the category Evans fall into).

With Zim Cricket not willing to do the right thing, investing in sport science and qualified personnel they are not doing themselves any favours. Right now we have a coach posing as analyst but in reality he is just a 'videographer' who sets up a camera and record video footage but got no knowledge of what to do with that footage or how to analyse it. You spoke about how Muzarabani has become injury prone yes the have a body builder as a fitness trainer with know knowledge on how to work with elite athletes.

Before anyone says i'm a grumpy ex-employee, no i am not. Was offered a chance to go back to ZC but turned it down because from the discussions we had i would have been wasting my time there.

[jontym87]

Watching hundred hours of Logan Cup cricket doesnt mean shit but the output counts. Let me take you back to when Zim made Test comeback the period between 2009-12 The Logan Cup was solid and very competitive results of that was seen when they competed in Test cricket. That period domestic cricket was at its best. After that things fell apart.

So basically, you agree with me? As I literally said it was great a decade ago. Then was very poor. And in the last two years has improved markedly.

Let me put it to you out of the 100 plus current first class players Zimbabwe currently has please name any 10 who can at this moment can claim a place in any county team.

What has this got to do with anything? I have not once compared our cricket to county cricket and certainly haven’t said it’s as good.

Look at Muzarabani, at Somerset he was becoming a very good bowler there was marked improvement. Ever since he got back he has never been the same. His development has stalled.

Somerset? Fuck me you are about as on-the-ball as a dead seal these days

The standard was good over a decade ago. Here are the periods when first class was strong 1996 - 2003 then 2009 - 2012. Tell me how it has improved markedly? Any results to back that up? Only this season teams have played a significant number of games (8). Previous season it think they played 4 and before that there was hardly any cricket because of covid. So what are you trying to say? If the standard has really gone up whats there to show it has gone up. If the standard is high surely our performances at test level should reflect that, but thats not the case

[secretzimbo]

The standard was good over a decade ago. Here are the periods when first class was strong 1996 - 2003 then 2009 - 2012. Tell me how it has improved markedly? Any results to back that up? Only this season teams have played a significant number of games (8). Previous season it think they played 4 and before that there was hardly any cricket because of covid. So what are you trying to say? If the standard has really gone up whats there to show it has gone up. If the standard is high surely our performances at test level should reflect that, but thats not the case

I'm not sure what you are trying to even get out of me here. They played 8 games per team in both of the past two seasons actually, which are the two seasons I am speaking about. They also played extra Northern/Southern first class games on top of that. Anyway, again, I never even mentioned quantity so once again you are off on a pointless tangent.

We've had the benefit of the matches being live streamed and I've physically attended a quite a bit. The quality has been better. In particular the competitive spirit, attitude and effort has been much better. I'm literally not at any point saying the quality is amazing or County-level or Test-level. I am the first to say the gap between domestic and international is vast (In which country is it not, btw?). But it has improved! I'm also fairly sure literally every single person involved in domestic cricket apart from yourself would agree with me too.

[secretzimbo]

I know for some people it is really really difficult to admit or recognise a single positive thing in Zim cricket, because we all wanted this board to fail - some of us actively fought it.

But some people blindly saying nothing has improved and things are as bad as ever are blind. That's not to say everything is perfect. There remains countless issues and there remains so much work to be done.

But you can't blindly go around pretending it's still 2019 either, no matter how bitter you may be.

[Kriterion_BD]

Yeah pretty Big blow to lose Ballance. And very strange circumstances.

Qualifying ahead of one of SL and WI was about a 50-50 proposition. I don’t really think those odds have changed. Ballance may be a good player but I don’t think his absence will leave that kind of hole that can’t be filled or at least papered over in ODIs. He’s not an impact player like Taylor, Williams, or Raza. He’s more like a Craig Ervine.

[Googly]

He's the best player we've had since Flower and Goodwin.
Stupids, and there are a lot of them, were expecting him to score a double hundred in every game in every format.

[TapsC2]

I know for some people it is really really difficult to admit or recognise a single positive thing in Zim cricket, because we all wanted this board to fail - some of us actively fought it.

But some people blindly saying nothing has improved and things are as bad as ever are blind. That's not to say everything is perfect. There remains countless issues and there remains so much work to be done.

But you can't blindly go around pretending it's still 2019 either, no matter how bitter you may be.

True. I liked how in Raza's interview he made it clear nobody is owed money by ZC. A lot has changed. People are not leaving because of money issues. It will take a long time to fix 15 years of abuse but we are on the right track and a lot has changed for the better. A lot but its only been for a few years. We will need maybe another 10 years of the right things being done for us to create a strong system all the way through. It finally clicked that if the right things are being done people can turn a blind eye to a lot of other things.

[TapsC2]

The majority of guys live from hand to mouth here, raise families and get on with their lives because there's simply no choice. He got some shit press and had a hard time from people he doesn't even know it and it has affected him badly. Cricket and life don't treat sensitive people kindly.

This is what doesn't make sense. This was the perfect opportunity to reinvent himself. I have no doubt he would have been our best player and probably captain within 12 months. Just doesn't make sense and why I find it hard to believe that his wife would have taken that opportunity from him. How can you make an assessment of a country and your love for the game after 7 matches and 3 months?