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By Tristan Holme

Dav Whatmore is not a happy man. More than seven weeks after he was fired as Zimbabwe's coach, his pulse still quickens in anger as he talks of never having been treated as poorly in his 21 years of coaching at international level as he was in his Zimbabwe stint.

According to Whatmore, there was nothing about the team's lack of performance under the termination clauses in his contract. He says that the end came suddenly, without warning, during a training camp in Bulawayo at the end of May, when managing director Wilfred Mukondiwa delivered the news while ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani stared at the floor.

Whatmore seems to have been treated quite badly by the Board and offered an exit package in which he had no choice but take. Take it or lose it, seemed to have been the message. Or else join Simmons on the list of those awaiting payment.

Regardless, I sense an effort by Tristan Holme to shore up an otherwise poor statistics by the team. In my opinion, Dave Whatmore reign was by all accounts poor. I don't know if a coach from the moon can ever succeed with Zimbabwe either.

Interesting also how Whatmore feels four franchise teams in the country is not adequate.

Also, you've got to have a structure that has a pathway through which players can perform and then get promoted and then play meaningful competition and get promoted again, and so on. It's non-existent in Zimbabwe. There is no clear pathway. Or no good pathway anyway. Four [franchise] teams? I mean bloody hell.

The complete article here.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/co ... 39849.html

Zimbabwe probably already are Kenya.

Good read. Nicely exposing a few things, not that it matters much.

With or without Taylor and Cremer we should not be losing to Afghanistan as frequently as we did. we are better than that and that's where I think Dav is missing the point. we have many problems as one can also argue that Afghanistan were beating us from u19 level all the way up but I honestly don't feel Dav changed much. I mean Mangongo beat Australia but that did not save him.

hopefully this crooked board can at least introduce some u19s. that's the only place we can turn to right now.the West Indies just called up that u19 bowler who was causing all sorts of problems at the world cup..we should start blending in the new generation as soon as possible.

TapsC wrote:With or without Taylor and Cremer we should not be losing to Afghanistan as frequently as we did. we are better than that and that's where I think Dav is missing the point. we have many problems as one can also argue that Afghanistan were beating us from u19 level all the way up but I honestly don't feel Dav changed much. I mean Mangongo beat Australia but that did not save him.

hopefully this crooked board can at least introduce some u19s. that's the only place we can turn to right now.the West Indies just called up that u19 bowler who was causing all sorts of problems at the world cup..we should start blending in the new generation as soon as possible.

It's all well and good saying 'get some new blood in', but they aren't even in the country. Most are away at University or plying their trade elsewhere through cricketing scholarships.

Cricket is just not a viable sport in Zimbabwe post 2004. Cricket is played a reasonably high level in many countries, but is not viable. Examples would be UAE, Canada, the Netherlands.

Cricket could become a viable sport in the US, given our sporting prowess and massive population. We only need 5-10% of Americans interested in the sport to have a player base bigger than many Test nations. So if half of those are SC or Carib expats, the job becomes even easier. I have plans to start grassroots popularisation of the game here in the US...

I will always argue that pre 2004 was not as amazing as we make it sound.we lost a lot more games than we won but I guess what people had then was hope.. you can still count the number of test matches we won excluding Bangladesh.

TapsC wrote:I will always argue that pre 2004 was not as amazing as we make it sound.we lost a lot more games than we won but I guess what people had then was hope.. you can still count the number of test matches we won excluding Bangladesh.

All things are relative. Compared to the present team, almost anything sounds impressive beyond imagination. Imagine having a batman in this team that averages 50+ with the bat like Andy Flower. Zimbabwe may not have won many Tests, but they drew a lot of matches. But yes, the next weakest sides NZ and SL still dominated ZIM in head to head matchups even in the pre 2004 era. So maybe cricket was never really viable in Zimbabwe at any time in the past.

Teams that are capable of winning a world cup or Test Championship: India, Australia, England, Pakistan. Just 4 teams and of those PAK instability means they are generously on this list. South Africa would be there, but they are going to go the Zimbabwe route with quotas. Already ranked 6th, can't see them challenge the top with token selections going forwards.

Teams that are capable of competing ie consistently creating upsets at World Cups, qualifying for quarterfinals/semi finals, but have little to no chance of ever actually winning it all: South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies. Of these teams, I see only Bangladesh as having the potential to reach the upper tier simply because they have all the intangibles that Pakistan have (similar player pool, population, size of economy, similar cultural backgrounds, etc). That being said, Pakistan probably belongs in this tier more so than the upper one...

Teams capable of getting into the 2nd tier: Ireland, Afghanistan, Nepal. The Nepalese are a stretch, but they have the same things going for them that Bangladesh do hence they get in over teams that are currently ranked above them like Scotland, Netherlands, etc. PNG might be another team that could possibly make it to this tier.

All other teams, at this point in time, are nonviable cricketing nations. In other words the very best they can realistically aim for is to win the odd shocking upset against an established side. They cannot really expect to get past the group stages of a world cup or to win a series against an established side.

These are the main points. Definitely an Australian coach who has lead a team in World Cup title won't talk all rubbish. There must be something to be read here.

"The other major point upon reflection is that the decisions made by the [Mukuhlani] cricket board were taken by the board themselves, rather than going through the proper committees. They're making arbitrary decisions, as people sitting around a table who know nothing about the game.

"Also, you've got to have a structure that has a pathway through which players can perform and then get promoted and then play meaningful competition and get promoted again, and so on. It's non-existent in Zimbabwe. There is no clear pathway. Or no good pathway anyway. Four [franchise] teams? I mean bloody hell. And they play each other twice, so that's six games a year, and that's it. Some players are just playing the odd game a year because there's no second team. Internationals come back into franchise teams and then your franchise guys are just carrying water. It is really a dereliction of duty for the game."

Quite a damning report on the state of things internally. Remember Whatmore worked with Bangladesh when they were a poor side, so as he says, he's used to that side of things. More concerning is the way the board is acting and the internal structures. From the outside it just seems symptomatic of the county as whole. Corrupt, inept leadership, blaming others when they should be looking at themselves. Cricket seems a mirror image of the country's decline....