2nd Test | Zimbabwe V/s Pakistan | Harare

[Elcano]

Team selection is not good for tests

[CholeZimbo]

So 378 runs to make them bat again. Highly unlikely but if we reach that then it is a massive improvement and a big victory considering the position we are in now. A few lads playing for their Test career here - Kasuza & Musakanda especially.

I need you to inspire me for my upcoming exam

[CrimsonAvenger]

Yeah, if Kasuza fails again, looks like it would be curtains on his career. Musakanda might get more opportunities on the "potential" front.

It would be great if we can take this to the 4th day.

[secretzimbo]

Remove 7 injured players including the captain from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland, Sri Lanka or even the Windies and they'd all be getting spanked just the same if not more by this Pakistan side.

But this statement is what could have been said for the India side...soo....

We're not gonna agree on many points but thats okay and I can at least see where you are coming from on most points.

But this one?!?! If you are honestly comparing us even 1% to India then there is no hope for you matey. Madness.

Hamilton Masakadza is board's yes man, in his one year tenure haven't seen any good steps taken, neither we expect from him in nature future.

Unfortunately, like a lot of posters, I guess your entire knowledge of Zimbabwean cricket is based off a few cricinfo scorecards and you have almost 0 knowledge about the country or whats going on. Making sweeping generalisations and basically just guessing doesn't help anyone mate and just makes you look silly.

We've seen, literally, numerous good steps taken this season by the ZC board and particularly by Hammy. Yes, I can also think of 100 bad things as well. And just to confirm; I hate ZC as much as anyone. But you are just guessing; because its easy to guess 'ZC is bad' - because its normally true and has been for the past 20 years. But lots of positives have happened this year that you and other similar posters have no idea about.

- We got our 5th franchise back. This costs ZC a lot, but it was done specifically to ensure recent U19 players get more franchise opportunities. This was a good development.
- We persevered with domestic competitions in all three formats despite Covid and the fact that ICC gave them an exemption to skip the limited overs formats. But ZC went ahead with them anyway. That would never have happened in previous years.
- The board made a big effort to recruit overseas Zimbos for the franchises this season. A few came and many more were contacted. This is an excellent idea to strengthen the quality locally. The board apparently now has a full updated database of overseas based Zimbos.
- The NPL happened. It wasn't perfect by any means, but for a first season it was a good initiative. There are changes I would make for sure, and its questionable which clubs and players were involved. But nonetheless it was a good development idea and I hope it grows and improves next year. Club cricket has been decimated over 15 years - especially outside Harare - so any positive step to try and slowly build back is really good.
- School, Junior & Club cricket was persisted with to some extent despite the pandemic. In years gone by ZC would have just cancelled everything and pocketed the cash. Not this year.
- Facilities grants. A number of schools have had their very unloved facilities tidied up and improved by ZC grants this year. I know a top school headmaster and he speaks very positively about Hammy's personal involvement in school cricket this past year.
- Theres been an effort in the past year to reform regional cricket associations and ensure they have cricket people on the boards and not random looting businessmen.
- ZC have funded and organised coach education courses, umpiring courses and even scorers courses this season. I haven't heard of them consistently doing those things over the past ten years so it is nice to see them doing them recently again.
- The next crop of U19's aiming for next years world cup have a proper training plan, a proper strength and conditioning plan and some vague notion of a pathway. Hats off to Gavin Ewing for his work here.


Theres 1,000 things that are still bad, and yes it could all go tits up tomorrow because its ZC. Theres still a million things I would do more and change more. But small steps are better than none, right? People on here expecting us to be like India or Pakistan or England are insane. How many cliches do you want? Rome wasn't built in a day? Walk before you can run? I could go on.....


But then again, it's easy to make sweeping statements and guesses from behind a computer screen 5,000 miles away without having a clue about whats happening in the country right?

[Elcano]

Yes .. after ban .. Zimbabwe cricket has improved ..even in performances .. youngsters performing .. nd domestic season completed .. 4 days , pro50 , NPL .. .. nd we saw stability in coaching staff ( though we are not satisfied with them ) but for the time sake it's good to carry on with them till our youngsters settle properly into system ..

Just one problem I hate is ..team selection .. it's very confusing nd Hamilton Masakadza shouldn't influence it .. there should be meritocracy ..nd we need openers , wicketkeepers nd spinners ..wrist spinners .. selection should also be based upon what team needs ..what they are lacking ..

[zimbos_05]

We're not gonna agree on many points but thats okay and I can at least see where you are coming from on most points.

But this one?!?! If you are honestly comparing us even 1% to India then there is no hope for you matey. Madness.

Don't misconstrue my point or words.

I'm not comparing us to India. I'm trying to illustrate that the idea that a 2nd or 3rd strength side is easily expected to lose and one can be ok with that outcome is false.

It's not about comparing us to India. In saying that, how much longer are we going to sit at the bottom and be content with just scraping past Afghanistan or challenging Ireland? We are test nation and have been for some time. It's about time we start thinking big picture and start behaving like a test playing nation that was once a top 8 side. This small club mentality will get us nowhere, and our coaches and fitness coach are all evidence of that.

[secretzimbo]

We're not gonna agree on many points but thats okay and I can at least see where you are coming from on most points.

But this one?!?! If you are honestly comparing us even 1% to India then there is no hope for you matey. Madness.

Don't misconstrue my point or words.

I'm not comparing us to India. I'm trying to illustrate that the idea that a 2nd or 3rd strength side is easily expected to lose and one can be ok with that outcome is false.

It's not about comparing us to India. In saying that, how much longer are we going to sit at the bottom and be content with just scraping past Afghanistan or challenging Ireland? We are test nation and have been for some time. It's about time we start thinking big picture and start behaving like a test playing nation that was once a top 8 side. This small club mentality will get us nowhere, and our coaches and fitness coach are all evidence of that.

We're not going to agree on much but I agree on the coaches. I want all of them gone. I look at people like Kasuza & Musakanda, who have played almost all of their international careers under the current coaches and are approaching the peak age for their careers, and have improved zero.

Rajput & co have been in the job for three years now. Time for a change for sure.

We have the best crop of youngsters (that we have retained) for many many years coming through right now. I don't want them saddled with this bunch of inept senior team coaches. It's really important.

[Xlife]

We're not gonna agree on many points but thats okay and I can at least see where you are coming from on most points.

But this one?!?! If you are honestly comparing us even 1% to India then there is no hope for you matey. Madness.

Don't misconstrue my point or words.

I'm not comparing us to India. I'm trying to illustrate that the idea that a 2nd or 3rd strength side is easily expected to lose and one can be ok with that outcome is false.

It's not about comparing us to India. In saying that, how much longer are we going to sit at the bottom and be content with just scraping past Afghanistan or challenging Ireland? We are test nation and have been for some time. It's about time we start thinking big picture and start behaving like a test playing nation that was once a top 8 side. This small club mentality will get us nowhere, and our coaches and fitness coach are all evidence of that.

Zimbos_05 makes some excellent points... have realistic expectations of what Zimbabwe can achieve and you'll have a happier, less stressful life Comparing us to the likes of India is insane... even at our absolute peak in the late ninety's and early 2000's, we lost more games than we won but were competitive

[Mr Twig]

That should be the last we see of Musakanda in whites for a while.

[CholeZimbo]

it's like our batters hate being out there batting difficult to defend the boys sometimes