Glamorgan and Durham to tour Zimbabwe

[Donald]

Is there any reason why Ervine didnt play today. I believe he was named in notherns squad. He could have made a slight difference

[Donald]

I notice that sikander raza isnt in the LQ side today.
Would be nice to have him back for the last run of county matches on tuesday

[Donald]

Matt welch back for old hararians today

[mnelson68]

Is there any more of these one day matches?

I would play bennet next match. Jongwe has been bloody awful

Bennet should bat at 3 instead of Mpofu

[Googly]

I actually rate Byrom higher nowadays. Welch’s very long quest to get into the English system wasted a heck of a lot of time and to me Byrom looks better certainly in red ball cricket. Welch probably edges it in white ball though.

Either way we can’t keep relying on this approach. Unless we start developing a whole group of batsmen in our own system we will permanently struggle.

There is almost zero chance of top quality batters emerging from our school system. From there they may, if very lucky and persistent, get into our domestic system which is also below par. The below par part is less of an issue than the complete lack of specialised batting coaching in the franchise system. They get some decent nets before the games, is all. Basically this system would turn a young Tendulkar into an average cricketer.
Without years of one on one coaching marrying a talented kid to a good coach and then integrating them into a strong system the odds are slim.
Those county guys get one month off a year and the top guys arrange extra for themselves.
One way to stem the bleeding is a High performance academy, but you need the best prospects in there with someone sharp. Basically they have to try and play catch-up. If I'm not mistaken only one non international made more than 30 in a game! Its time to panic. Something is amiss when Madhevere, the guy widely considered to be a more than adequate replacement for someone like Williams when he retires, just can't get going. If they can't get him firing then who else is there? The truth is he's starting to look like a slow learner in the batting dept.

Are these county games the wake-up that ZC needs to get something going? Even if they miraculously did something we'd see them picking guys that haven't got the goods.
Maybe they weren't alarmed by the results? That's also possible. They'd need someone like DH to say- time to sound the alarm, assuming he was alarmed? Maybe he thinks with a tweak here and a tweak there we'll be good.
That would make him very optimistic! Franchise season is about to end. Some guys head off to UK, others play poor club standard here, a few rest and do diddly. Surely it's time to get our best prospects into a winter academy? The pickings are slim to decide on just 8 batters that could potentially go up a level.

A goal has to be to get two county sides here next year and do better. Baby steps. At this rate they'll be wanting to play each other to get the quality opposition they need. One year to improve enough so that our better batters are not out of their depth. Im not suggesting winning, but at least a good fight. ZC must stop trying to fool the stupid with these fictitious Academies. Once again we need quality not quantity, how many years do they need to figure out its not going to give us the results. Many of the selections are just nonsense as well. Just hand selections over to unbiased guys who know what they're talking about, it's late in the day to keep playing games and having favorites. We don't have enuf depth to pick sides and have at least 2 players that have to be carried.

[Donald]

I actually rate Byrom higher nowadays. Welch’s very long quest to get into the English system wasted a heck of a lot of time and to me Byrom looks better certainly in red ball cricket. Welch probably edges it in white ball though.

Either way we can’t keep relying on this approach. Unless we start developing a whole group of batsmen in our own system we will permanently struggle.

There is almost zero chance of top quality batters emerging from our school system. From there they may, if very lucky and persistent, get into our domestic system which is also below par. The below par part is less of an issue than the complete lack of specialised batting coaching in the franchise system. They get some decent nets before the games, is all. Basically this system would turn a young Tendulkar into an average cricketer.
Without years of one on one coaching marrying a talented kid to a good coach and then integrating them into a strong system the odds are slim.
Those county guys get one month off a year and the top guys arrange extra for themselves.
One way to stem the bleeding is a High performance academy, but you need the best prospects in there with someone sharp. Basically they have to try and play catch-up. If I'm not mistaken only one non international made more than 30 in a game! Its time to panic. Something is amiss when Madhevere, the guy widely considered to be a more than adequate replacement for someone like Williams when he retires, just can't get going. If they can't get him firing then who else is there? The truth is he's starting to look like a slow learner in the batting dept.

Are these county games the wake-up that ZC needs to get something going? Even if they miraculously did something we'd see them picking guys that haven't got the goods.
Maybe they weren't alarmed by the results? That's also possible. They'd need someone like DH to say- time to sound the alarm, assuming he was alarmed? Maybe he thinks with a tweak here and a tweak there we'll be good.
That would make him very optimistic! Franchise season is about to end. Some guys head off to UK, others play poor club standard here, a few rest and do diddly. Surely it's time to get our best prospects into a winter academy? The pickings are slim to decide on just 8 batters that could potentially go up a level.

A goal has to be to get two county sides here next year and do better. Baby steps. At this rate they'll be wanting to play each other to get the quality opposition they need. One year to improve enough so that our better batters are not out of their depth. Im not suggesting winning, but at least a good fight. ZC must stop trying to fool the stupid with these fictitious Academies. Once again we need quality not quantity, how many years do they need to figure out its not going to give us the results. Many of the selections are just nonsense as well. Just hand selections over to unbiased guys who know what they're talking about, it's late in the day to keep playing games and having favorites. We don't have enuf depth to pick sides and have at least 2 players that have to be carried.

If you discount gumbie and akrams 140 and 75 in the 3 day game against Glamorgan then yes only one non international in campbell has scored over 30 in the shorter versions.
I think Houghton is a smart guy and will be having discussions with the suit brigade.
Chibhaba actually did well today. Im all for the youth brigade and seeing the next generation prosper but marumani shumba and madhevere in particular havent been pulling up trees lately

[Googly]

Chamu undoubtedly is one of the best players we've got. If it wasn't for spin being his Achilles heel he'd be very decent. It's no coincidence that he learnt his game from a prior stronger era.
These games against the County sides are revealing what ZC have been attemptimg to hide for years. If only accountability factored into it
A fine punishment would be to hack off 6 inches of one pointy shoe.
Our national side will be beaten by any County side nine out of ten times. It's not a complete disgrace, there are some absolutely top drawer cricketers in every county side.
Some may argue that our franchise sides are County Two's level. I have my doubts. If you pit a County Two's side against their own first team they'll put up a much better fight than what we've witnessed.

I'm not sure I'd be the one delivering that news, but someone needs to, maybe they can read it on here?
It's not all dire news, the situation can be improved, but it needs competent people to be pro-active.

Don't forget franchise is over. The pitiful monthly payments come to an end, yet players will be expected to report for duty next November, fitter, more compliant, stronger and somehow miraculously better and hopefully they managed to steal some new kit from somewhere.

[secretzimbo]

Mutendera (is he still a selector?) said in an interview about 12 months ago that ZC were about to reopen a national high performance academy Centre. Unsurprisingly nothing ever happened.

Googly is spot on as he often is

[Googly]

I still want to know how money got channeled thru Dominus Sports to build the indoor at Country Club and its now Bvute's private wedding venue One of those warehouses with a good floor is well north of 150k now. Some beautuful grass nets alongside as well. Where's the broadcasting trailer?

It's more about who gets picked for the HPA and who coaches them, less about the venue. They can hire AC's set up for a couple of hours a day for very little money, everyone wants our cricket to move forward.
We need another 2 batting coaches of DH's ability. Guys who really understand how to make runs at international level. Guys with energy and enthusiasm. We're in pink unicorn territory. I know a guy.
Next season needs to be played with Dukes or Kookaburras, not those Ishants or Chikumbas. That's half the problem.

[secretzimbo]

I still want to know how money got channeled thru Dominus Sports to build the indoor at Country Club and its now Bvute's private wedding venue One of those warehouses with a good floor is well north of 150k now. Some beautuful grass nets alongside as well. Where's the broadcasting trailer?

The most bizarre thing is that they still maintain the
square. Despite no one playing on it for at least three years? Bizarre. I hear it looks like it’s in very good nic still. What a waste.

It's more about who gets picked for the HPA and who coaches them, less about the venue. They can hire AC's set up for a couple of hours a day for very little money, everyone wants our cricket to move forward.
We need another 2 batting coaches of DH's ability. Guys who really understand how to make runs at international level. Guys with energy and enthusiasm. We're in pink unicorn territory. I know a guy.
Next season needs to be played with Dukes or Kookaburras, not those Ishants or Chikumbas. That's half the problem.

Do we still use Kookaburras for our home internationals? Makes no sense that we don’t use them (there is a cheaper version that most countries use for domestics) for our franchise cricket. The Ihsaan balls are very low quality. Must be very cheap.