Ya i dont agree with some of those points at all.
There's such an abyss between our domestic and international cricket that other factors have to be considered.
We've seen that one can dominate local cricket and then not feature on the big stage. Its the norm and not the exception actually. We have to find the guys that have or potentially have the skills to compete at the highest level. Using the ZC leaderboards as the sole means of identifying those guys is incorrect and often downright disingenuous.
As a batter you have to have a technique that stands up to the intense scrutiny of international bowling. That cuts out most of our players immediately. Then you need a guy who has a game plan and has proper mental fortitude. That honestly cuts out most of the rest.
Wes is much maligned and discussed, but he's almost our best example of a guy with real skills, but has been mismanaged, has had too much expectation thrust upon him and he just hasn't coped mentally. Whether the expectation was the main contributary factor or not we will never know. It often just takes one or two good innings to break the mental shackles, but they can look a long way off when your head is blown. He will probably open in these T20's. I wonder how much he's looking forward to that?
Maru is another. What a player! But his head is not there.
The batters are not tested at domestic level. The right guys dont get enough A games. They seem incapable or unwilling to identify the "right" guys. They have to look at other ways of narrowing down the list other than looking at domestic leaderboards. Its clear they're a piece of the jigsaw, but only one piece.
They used Tanu M as an example of a guy with good domestic stats that has been overlooked. You have to dissect those stats. He had a couple of huge innings, which was great, but then a string of poor ones. He got opportunities against much better opposition, as you are supposed to, and failed to convert every time. That would relegate most players for a long time, but not so in this case. What's the right yardstick here- Logan Cup stats or how you fare against Durham, Scotland or Canada?
If he had an X factor I would be in agreement with risking shattering his confidence, but I dont see it. Of course you can pick him and hope he gets lucky early on and he does find a way of occupying the crease AND ticking off the runs. Its not going to happen against this level of opposition. There is absolutely nowhere to hide, they will find you! They should get it out of the way and pick him to open in the the remaining tests this year. I'd pay to hear Mawoyo and Rainsford singing for their supper as well. The one thing for certain is that he does not have the same mental pressures as other guys. Half his mind is already free to focus on his actual physical game so he already has a huge advantage. He's not batting for a meal or rent and he's never going to be out of the loop.
I've watched him bat a few times, he's a good player, has decent defence, has a couple of technical flaws, especially on the drive, but on the whole he's ok, but he's not an international, of that I'm certain.
You could stick him and a handful of other good guys into a HPC under seriously good coaches and he'd be a lot better and who knows, he may go to the next level. Without that though, he and 99% of the others are swimming upstream.
This is the big piece of the jigsaw. We need a world class HPC. Other countries have many, countries with seriously strong domestic cricket. Its a prerequisite. We especially need it to somehow try and reduce that gap between domestic and international. Until thats achieved they're not serious about our cricket. End of.
As much damage has been done to Maru and Wes, Madande and Musekiwa will take longer to unravel. You can hide a bit more down the order in a finisher role in the shortest format. It could be 2027 by the time they surrender and realize we've got a better line-up and there's going to be opportunities to stat pad against much lesser teams along the way to really stretch it out.
Again theyre decent players, but theyre not in the same league as Wes and Maru, who have struggled. There are many levels to this game. If I had to pick from these two I'd go with Musekiwa. He's a fantastic ball striker. I just don't think Clive has what it takes internationally. I hope he proves me wrong.
Munyonga I believe in. He's a good player with a high ceiling. He wouldn't make my starting 11, but he's absolutely thereabouts.
There's another article i read earlier. I''ll try and find it.
