Before u19 and RS

[Googly]

I watched a colts festival yesterday with all the top schools playing. It was absolutely diabolical, not one player to get excited about. The coaches are bizarrely happy to tell you that they’re shit as well, but it hasn’t occurred to one of them that their role is to actually coach them.
Mangongo and Taibu have big influence at ZC and get big allocations of money. What they’ve both done is good, although I have some reservations about the RS UK tour,
Unless you’re taking at least 3 or 4 quality players over there that stand a realistic chance of playing F.C. then it’s a big waste of money and is basically a big holiday for everyone. We don’t have the depth to field 4 guys a year. Maybe it should be every second year and the money for the non-traveling year be used towards promoting junior cricket? ZC need to urgently sit with the schools and do the following-
Make cricket a second and third term sport so the age groups can play at least 20 games a year
Identify the talent and pay someone like Gary Brent a retainer (I’m talking Harare where most of the kids are anyway) so those kids go twice a week, free of charge for better coaching. You cannot coach a batsman adequately in a school net environment. Anyone who says you can does not know what they are talking about. The U19’s and RS have received much publicity and funding, and kudos to Steve and Tatenda, money permitting, there’s now a pathway to get enthusiastic about. Let me tell you with certainty that this next intake is not going to be great, and thereafter it’s going to get even worse. ZC have gone from thinking of today to thinking of this year, maybe let’s plan for the future?

[pariah]

Mangongo and Taibu have big influence at ZC and get big allocations of money. What they’ve both done is good, although I have some reservations about the RS UK tour,
Unless you’re taking at least 3 or 4 quality players over there that stand a realistic chance of playing F.C. then it’s a big waste of money and is basically a big holiday for everyone. We don’t have the depth to field 4 guys a year. Maybe it should be every second year and the money for the non-traveling year be used towards promoting junior cricket?

I wholeheartedly agree there.

ZC need to urgently sit with the schools and do the following-
Make cricket a second and third term sport so the age groups can play at least 20 games a year
Identify the talent and pay someone like Gary Brent a retainer (I’m talking Harare where most of the kids are anyway) so those kids go twice a week, free of charge for better coaching. You cannot coach a batsman adequately in a school net environment. Anyone who says you can does not know what they are talking about. The U19’s and RS have received much publicity and funding, and kudos to Steve and Tatenda, money permitting, there’s now a pathway to get enthusiastic about.

Chingoka did that.

Let me tell you with certainty that this next intake is not going to be great, and thereafter it’s going to get even worse. ZC have gone from thinking of today to thinking of this year, maybe let’s plan for the future?

I think you've been off the mark with these predictions. You say it often but that has not been the case. Mangongo has consistently proven he can churn out some u19s of excellent quality of the years, probably more than any other coach internationally and historically. and there's no evidence to suggest that it will slow down. If your argument was about the u19 team's results then maybe you;d be onto something. But in terms of select individual players of great quality, ZIM continues to deliver, and will continue to do so. Strangely the guys that are talked up and routinely commented on as being of top quality, are the ones that flop, and their summer club stints too embarassing to report on.

[sloandog]

Googly is on the ground so he'll know as well as anyone what the standard is like and who is coming through.

However, over according to his predictions ZC shouldn't even exist right now since probably 2012 there's been cataclysmic events forecast for cricket in the country and yet, we still stand, and stand taller than we have done in a while.
The same news of no talent coming through has been mentioned over and over and yet lads like Muzarabani, Musakanda, Burl, Mavuta, Mashinge (spelling) have come through the system. We need 1 or 2 players a year max that ZC can look after and nurture into the domestic set up, that's all. 1 or 2 genuine talents (like a Mashinge) that can be identified as a potential allrounder, or a potential fast bowler (Muzarabani).

For me the RS tour of England has spotlighted enough new talents to keep the player pool fresh and that's the main thing.
Get some of these under 19's in there for next year and keep the FC players on their toes. Players like Jha shouldn't be there. The fact that Brandon Diplock can't get a FC gig and this bloke says it all.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm all for the Rising Stars to be in the FC system as long as the selection is correct. Right now, I reckon only 50% of those in there are good enough to survive FC cricket.

[Googly]

If Chingoka did that where’s the evidence?
My dire predictions have fortunately not come to pass becuse of this 90m and this two tier system.
There’s talent and then there’s talent, depends where you set your sights. I accept those guys you mentioned are decent. I’m busy, will respond in more detail tonight.

[ZIMDOGGY]

I generally take the view that googly is generally accurate in his diagnosis but slightly rosier and things more positive than he makes out, whereas things are slightly more gloomy than how most others make out here.
Not counting the small number of space cadets on the forum who literally can't hold a straight thought who I just disregard.

For the most part, most forecasts and summaries are generally just slight deviations left or right of the truth in my opinion.

As the widely acknowledged brains of the forum, I think my words hold weight ^

[pariah]

I generally take the view that googly is generally accurate in his diagnosis but slightly rosier and things more positive than he makes out, whereas things are slightly more gloomy than how most others make out here.
Not counting the small number of space cadets on the forum who literally can't hold a straight thought who I just disregard.

For the most part, most forecasts and summaries are generally just slight deviations left or right of the truth in my opinion.

As the widely acknowledged brains of the forum, I think my words hold weight ^

I think I have been by far more accurate about player, team and administration of cricket in SA than pretty much most if not all the journos here - Firdose included. Incidentally the likes of Tristan and Liam have also been disproven doomsayers of the Googly mould where ZIM is concerned. This is what happens when you're groomed by a poor Martin Williamson, and you underestimate the writings of a brilliant late Peter Roebuck.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/co ... 63261.html

Now the position is more complicated. Suddenly the image of Zimbabwean cricket has improved. Many observers are rushing to praise and gushing in their words, and never mind that the same men occupy the key positions.

Doubtless the appointment of reassuring figures as coach, chairman of selectors and media manager, has helped convince the community that the new national and cricketing rulers are to be trusted. In part, this view is itself racist. All of the cricketing appointees are white. Colour was not, or ought not to have been, the problem.

Still, the inclusion of Alistair Campbell, Heath Streak, Dave Houghton, Grant Flower, Neil Manthorp and company is significant. Individually, they may not convince. In some cases, they seemed to be part of the previous problem not the current solution. Zimbabwe Cricket was right to push black cricket and black cricketers. Its development programme has had much to commend it. Integrity, not strategy, is the issue. And it is in short supply.

Whatever their colour and merits, though, these new faces at Zimbabwe Cricket have two important attributes. They are outsiders and they are experienced. Admittedly two of them, Campbell and Manthorp, are hogtied by a conflict of interest that puts them in the lucrative but dubious position of working for both Zimbabwe Cricket and the media. In effect, they can write their own reviews. Alas, it's common practice to serve two masters these days, and helps explain the malpractices that continue to blight the game.

But this mutual scratching of backs does not mean nothing has been accomplished. Apparently, the franchise system recently introduced domestically has worked well, though dubious types were typically put in charge of some of the franchises.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/co ... 10733.html

Although transparency has improved considerably in the last year or so, Zimbabwe is also represented by some curious coves. As the last generation was rightly judged by the stance it took on apartheid, so the reputation of moderns depends on the position they take on the Zimbabwean tyranny. God knows we are all flawed but some things are beyond the pale. Even a game cannot put its head in the sand.

Speed's chapters on the Zimbabwe issue brook no argument. They remove the façade so diligently erected by the lickspittles. At first sight it does not seem unreasonable to expect that an audit confirming that Zimbabwe Cricket's financial accounts have been falsified might be referred to the ethics committee. But Peter Chingoka, ZC chairman, and the most powerful man in cricket, was able to persuade bitter and inadequate colleagues that no such action was needed. By all accounts Chingoka is a brilliant operator able to nurse along powerful allies at home and at the ICC. That is his job. The fault lies with supposedly responsible parties letting him get away with it.

Zimbabwe would never have been relegated with Chingoka and Bvute around. ICC did a typical "regime change" exercise in ZIM Cricket, and these guys probably didn't put up a fight knowing that somehow they will get their money much easier and this time consistently, on time without getting their hands dirty.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Googly]

Finally we’ve found someone more verbose than you. Two pages of drivel from Roebuck to say what can be summed up in a paragraph. When a man tries to explain the chaotic mayhem that is South Africa by describing it as the teething pangs of democracy has got his head up his arse. He meant to say the teething pangs of a fledgling dictatorship but is scared to lose his job.

[Googly]

Please you can’t say Steve M has churned out more quality international u19’s than any other coach in history? Where do you think most Test teams come from- surely a large portion of those brilliant players have played u19?

[Googly]

Can someone point out a hotshot batsman that’s played for U19’s this last time around or the RS’s for that matter?
They sent Burl to bolster a weak line up. Masakanda is ok, let’s see how he goes. At best he’s solid. If they’d found one he’d make runs in our weak FC and he’d definitely be getting a game for Zim A and he wouldn’t be batting at 11.

[Googly]

Which talked up guys have flopped in Club cricket in UK?