[MatchThread] - Logan Cup - Tuskers v Rhinos

[aydee]

Full Comedy is going on...Players who are having central contract taking part, while others are in strike...

Poor show from the central contracts, IMHO. At one point everyone has to down tools.

Yeah, that's a bit weird. It shows Zimbabwe cricket definitely has two classes - the haves and have nots.

How did Rhinos even field anyway if half the team refused to play? Was it just the 4 bowlers fielding plus Moor behind the stumps? Would love to know what happened there.

Rhinos fielded. So presumably their domestic players were not striking?...

[Train Driver]

What a total cock up

It seems to me that the only fair and reasonable way of settling this game is to forget days 3 and 4 and call it a draw based on the close of play score on day 2, this would at least recognise the performances of Cremer, Maruma, Chisoro and Madziva

I somehow doubt though, that this will be allowed to remain as a First Class fixture

[TapsC]

I don't think this was about solidarity. once you sign a contract you have obligations. if the national players were paid then I don't think they had a choice but to honour their domestic obligations. you cant just strike when you personally have no reason to. plus a lot of those guys are on the fringes..protest now and next year you might not have a national contract west indies style.its a tough choice.

I had heard ZC would run out of money after the NZ tests but somehow they pushed on but clearly that finished all the money they had left. I have a feeling that Total Sports Marketing deal collapsed ages ago.

for people saying we must be stripped of our test status you have to know we will NEVER get it back. this is not about white players playing club cricket for free or an admin working for free or any other dreams you guys might be thinking of. we will never come back and that will be the end of competitive cricket here as we know it.this is not just about ZC. the whole country is bleeding. other countries have tonnes of franchise sponsors who take care of some of these things like domestic contracts. we have nothing. I'm not excusing the obvious theft happening but some of the problems are much more complex than people make them sound and its clear that some people on this forum don't even live in Zimbabwe to fully get a grip of how bad it is economically.
the best chance we have right now is the ICC expanding and creating a test and ODI league.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Agree with most of it, and yes, all this is primarily driven by the struggling Zimbabwean economy. That basically means cricket won't improve unless the country's economy improves. But this:

I don't think this was about solidarity. once you sign a contract you have obligations. if the national players were paid then I don't think they had a choice but to honour their domestic obligations. you cant just strike when you personally have no reason to. plus a lot of those guys are on the fringes..protest now and next year you might not have a national contract west indies style.its a tough choice.

could have been handled differently. Yes, it need not be about solidarity NOW, but solidarity when they accepted national contracts without worrying about other folks in the domestic circuit months ago. They could have insisted on all contracts to be finalized when they accepted their national contracts. They submitted themselves naively to the divide and rule approach of the ZC.

[eugene]

Hard to take the players seriously, they always fold in the end. The senior players decide that $20 and a KFC voucher are enough to end the strike and tell the juniors to fall into line.

[Kriterion_BD]

To be honest probably nobody in the world outside this forum and the players involved knows this is happening.

In the cricinfo age, most cricket enthusiasts are aware. Sure the 16 yo IPL groupie girl may not, be she probably also does't know that bowlers can bowl more than 4 overs in a game. If people are aware Zim beat Pak in a Test recently, they will be aware of the series against Afghanistan and this player strike. At best, they'd assume there is always a strike and not know there was a new one.

Then there is always Firdose Moonda and Tristan Holme to write a front page report on this in 2 weeks time (when was the last time they wrote something positive?).

[CrimsonAvenger]

Then there is always Firdose Moonda and Tristan Holme to write a front page report on this in 2 weeks time (when was the last time they wrote something positive?).

Where are the positives even if they want to?

To be fair those two and Liam Brickhill try to portray Zimbabwe very positively at every available opportunity. Recently Firdose wrote about the NZ cricketers' getaway to Streak's farm in Bulawayo, Liam and Tristan wrote about the run up to 100th test in great romanticized detail. Even an article of cautious optimism as Streak and Taibu came on board. But they can't do much if ZC keeps dishing out negativity every step of the way.

The real negative writeups about Zim Cricket happened during the times of "freelance Zimbabwe Cricket reporter" Steven Price (2005/6 - 2008/9)

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I miss Steven Price. He was right on top of all the club level and domestic shenangians... I think somehow the whole deal Bvute letting AC and co. come on board in 2009-10 was somehow linked to an opening up of ZC to the media on the condition that the Steven Price articles would stop. I can't remember, does that ring a bell to anyone else?

In the cricinfo age, most cricket enthusiasts are aware. Sure the 16 yo IPL groupie girl may not, be she probably also does't know that bowlers can bowl more than 4 overs in a game. If people are aware Zim beat Pak in a Test recently, they will be aware of the series against Afghanistan and this player strike. At best, they'd assume there is always a strike and not know there was a new one.

Nah, guaranteed that nobody besides the serious cricket junkies would know about this strike. Next to nobody cares about Zimbabwe cricket, let alone Zim domestic cricket.

[eugene]

Steven Price doesn't exist, it was a pseudonym for multiple writers. I have found no one in the cricket media circles in Zimbabwe who know who Steven Price was/is.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Steven Price was very much a bugbear of Bbute from memory.

No one knows who it was. John Ward was the obvious candidate but they raided his computer at work and home and didn't find anything, doesn't quite write like him anyway.

My gut feel always told me it was Stuart Carlisle. Absolutely no evidence of this except that Stueys intelligent, articulate, was close to the action and a lot of Steve Prices words popped up in either an article or interview with Stuart Carlisle I saw in an Aussie paper around the same time.