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

[TapsC2]

Is Naviq even qualified to play for Zimbabwe

It’s Zim. Anything is possible

With the way things are going it wouldn't be a bad idea to get him in the team

[Googly]

How someone who has lived most of his life in Zim can say he is homesick for a foreign land after 3 months is shocking to me. Don't his parents and brothers live here? For his wife to make him go back to a place where he always be viewed as a racist after just 3 months.

It doesn't add up, you would think his one goal would have been to qualify for the World Cup and pull the middle finger to England by a scoring a century against them in India. Whatever the case is he has proven all his haters and doubters right.

He has also closed the doors for some people who might not do the same. For me personally this is the exact reason why they should never ever bring back Muyeye specifically. No matter what happens. Welch and Byrom are different cases. Welch especially. Muyeye will give us problems

The fact doesn't change that he's 33 and doesn't have enough money to retire so either he has a Plan B or he's actually in poor shape mentally.
It may be that he will return to County cricket? It would be his only obvious option.
I think ZC's initial reaction will be- f#% these guys! But with the looming retirements of Williams and Ervine we are poorly placed once again down the line.
NW is definitely keen on returning, he's not getting a fair crack of the whip there and his family are here and his roots are deep, but this latest set back will likely mean he will have to do some time in domestic if he does come back.

This Naviq guy is a mercenary, but he may well settle down here and make a life for himself.
Muyeye is young and I think likes it there, as does Byrom who also has his family there, his connection here is now tenuous at best.

[Donald]

Nick welch seems like the logical choice and he also has domestic runs to back up his claims.
Bennet may be thrown in and a myers comeback circa late 2023

[secretzimbo]

Welch is no Ballance though. Naqvi even less so!

People are underappreciating the quality of Ballance

[Donald]

Welch is no Ballance though. Naqvi even less so!

People are underappreciating the quality of Ballance

There is no under appreciation from my end. If Ballance has jacked it in logical step is to look for players with quality. Maybe not same quality but players of Ballance calibre do not grow on trees two a penny

[ZIMDOGGY]

Well, Jonty has (very clumsily) said twice in this thread that it is drug related.

Jonty does have connections being an ex ZC employee.

So it looks like Garry has failed a drug test, or is about too get into a drug related scandal.

Didnt he have an Ice problem at Yorkshire? Or did I imagine that? It popped up during the Rafiq shit.

[tej_27]

Welch is no Ballance though. Naqvi even less so!

People are underappreciating the quality of Ballance

Exactly . It's a massive massive loss . Ballance had two half centuries in 5 odis, 1 century in his only test and 30 in his only T20 for zimbabwe. That's decent consistency even by world standards let alone zimbawean standards

[CrimsonAvenger]

Yeah, with the injury prone end to Jarvis's career, and the dubious early ends to the careers of BT and Ballance, one can't really fault ZC if they become extra conservative about luring the diaspora.

[secretzimbo]

I hear there are efforts by ZC to get Regis to come back already.

I love the guy, but I don’t see much value at this point.

[TapsC2]

I hear there are efforts by ZC to get Regis to come back already.

I love the guy, but I don’t see much value at this point.

It's a panic response but I can't blame them. We are in deep shit without Ballance if we are honest with ourselves. Regis has his weaknesses but let's be real, he is better than 90% of the options we have right now if we exclude Raza, Williams and Craig. At least for the qualifiers.

1 of the big 3 batsmen gets injured and we are in crisis territory in June. Craig has also kind of lost a little bit of that consistency. We are in serious trouble. The fans will skin them alive if they aren't careful. This man screwed us over, given them 6 weeks to find a replacement