Nigeria u19

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secretzimbo
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by secretzimbo »

CrimsonAvenger wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:58 am
Marshmallow wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:47 am
They played practice match against chigumbara academy.
https://www.crichq.com/matches/954589/2nd_innings
When did Chigumbura start an academy? :lol:
He tried a few years ago when he was still playing but it went tits up and ended up bankrupt. Has set another one up after retiring and this time seems to have some financial backing; I hear he’s got his eyes on some land in Harare to build a training facility. Also running some programmes in Bindura and Mutare apparently.

Googly
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by Googly »

Unless you have access to an indoor how does an academy work exactly? You'd need a net facility with at least 8 strips and groundstaff to have at least one, if not two, in a state of constant preparedness. That means water, a mower, a roller etc. I guess some carpeted concrete pitches would do if you had 24 hour security on the carpets. :lol:

You need bowling machines, balls etc and at least one resident coach that's good enough to attract the attention of a couple of half decent cricketers.
Apart from private school kids there's nobody here shelling out $20-$30 for 45 minutes. I would guess the number of school kids that get decent private coaching has dropped from about 100 to less than 10 countrywide, no jokes!!!
Someone might risk selling a kidney for one slot every two weeks if they thought Eltie could get them into a 30 man franchise squad? This is a cold fact, you're better off getting some crap coaching from someone that can open a door for you than a year of one on one with Andy Flower who couldn't open a toilet door on your behalf.
If Campbell's master plan, with his resources and contacts, didn't really kick off with ZC then everyone else's half baked plans are doomed. It should have been a slam dunk but without being able to control and directly benefit financially it was perceived as a threat as opposed to directly benefitting cricket. They would win every comp and it would be a source of acute embarrassment, it's far better if everyone is shit so you can't tell the difference. :lol:

That's an interesting U19 line up, waaay too many whites there. :lol: :lol: Of course the spin will be that we're inclusive, but the reality is they can't find enough decent black kids.

secretzimbo
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by secretzimbo »

Definitely an interesting squad, and like mentioned, it's very white. Could probably come up with all sorts of theories why. There are a few black kids who are probably probably right to be aggrieved at missing out - Tashinga Makoni, Ngenyasha Zvinoera, Panashe Taruvinga, dylan Nzvenga deserve to be around the squad.

Interesting to see how the squad changes in the run up to the WC. The fact they've only invited 16 to the training camp makes me think they are pretty certain on who they want in the squad.

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CrimsonAvenger
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by CrimsonAvenger »

secretzimbo wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:21 pm
CrimsonAvenger wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:58 am
Marshmallow wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:47 am
They played practice match against chigumbara academy.
https://www.crichq.com/matches/954589/2nd_innings
When did Chigumbura start an academy? :lol:
He tried a few years ago when he was still playing but it went tits up and ended up bankrupt. Has set another one up after retiring and this time seems to have some financial backing; I hear he’s got his eyes on some land in Harare to build a training facility. Also running some programmes in Bindura and Mutare apparently.
Hmm, why does everyone in Zim want to start their own Academy? Campbell, Brent, Mawoyo, Streak, Chigs, and the list will grow, I'm sure. Can't there be something more collective? Or at least, if they want to, can't they fund and bring a Club team to a table instead? That way, club scene can self sustain with these guys bringing a team each in.

Googly
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by Googly »

Good points. An Academy is surely for youngsters trying to break into FC cricket, but if u19 was selected fairly that's pretty much all the players you need for our small system.
In the real world only two or three are good enough to make a fairly smooth transition and the rest need to mature at club level. Having 20-40 Academy players spread out between Bulawayo, Mutare and Harare is an exercise in futility in my opinion. Are they getting daily good coaching, are a percentage of them good enough to move into FC? It depends what you think is a successful conversion rate. I'd say 2 per Academy would be a benchmark and I have my doubts. There's already 30 man franchise squads, 50% of whom won't get close to an actual game.
Campbell/Brent had a proper plan- get some overseas youngsters paying proper cash and make a really strong young team that can be the 5th franchise and it would benefit the entire system. With Covid that fell by the wayside so they managed to get ZC to fund some of it and they put forward some decent players who benefitted greatly from the program. I stand to be corrected but that plan is over now.
Without players paying good money how are these Academies funded? Maybe Mawoyo and Chigumbura have some sponsorship and maybe ZC is also contributing, but we will never really know. The only thing we know is that the players can't afford the fees, and if they could they'd opt for the Campbell Academy. If you add Streak's to the mix then there's 4 Academies which would equate to a lot of youngsters, 95% of whom are not going to crack the FC set ups here.
If they could be persuaded to rather throw their weight behind a club premises it would be a much better idea. Again Campbell Academy are at OG's but ZC are vetoeing that idea for their own selfish nefarious agenda. They like the idea of dirt poor players belonging to dirt poor paper clubs because they have no voice. The likes of Tino and Elton know that independent well run clubs that independently run club cricket is the way forward yet they choose to remain silent because you can't bite the hand.
It's just a perpetual rolling mess and optimism that the next season will be different is a way of growing old frustratingly. We're waiting for Makoni and Mukhulani to disappear before we see any meaningful change. Maybe Hamilton does have some good ideas and he too is twiddling his thumbs for better days, or he's learnt some bad tricks and he's waiting for his turn...who knows.

secretzimbo
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by secretzimbo »

I'm not sure these academies really work in their current form, both financially and most importantly in terms of actually furthering talent in Zimbabwe. Chigumbura's does seem pretty ambitious though and he seems to have quite a large number of kids involved already. I can only presume he has some serious financial backing (from ZC, perhaps?) because I highly doubt all (or the vast majority) of these kids can afford to pay what would be a fair rate. In Harare I hear he has about 50 or so kids enrolled and playing at U14 and U16 level - boys and girls - and has about a dozen older fringe franchise guys in some sort of programme too. Then theres outreach going on in the provinces as well. He must have some serious money being put into this.


But yeah, tbh these academies seem to come from a position of relative selfishness - it's about putting your name up in lights and trying to cement a legacy for yourself, as well as trying to ringfence as much money as you can from ZC and try to have some sort of monopoly on kids cricket.

The single biggest change to our system I would make is trying to establish proper actual clubs. If you're just a group of XI guys that want to have a knock about and some beers, play in the Boozers league or set up your own comp. You're not a club. You never will be.

If you want to be termed a proper 'club' and therefore get whatever funding is available from ZC then you need to have;

- At least 1 senior team in the HMCA/Byo/wherever provincial club league
- A ground and a clubhouse that you use exclusively for your home games. It doesn't have to be HSC standard. But it needs to exist.
- A junior programme within the club. This means fielding U19, U16, U14 teams in competitions.

We need junior development to be tied in with the strong clubs. In the short term the above would probably lead to even more domination by Takashinga, but over time I presume other clubs would step up or spring up from scratch. We have to have kids growing up in club environments with dedicated coaches and facilities and we need kids to be growing up dreaming of playing for their club first team.

At the moment as a kid you play for your school (only if you are lucky enough to go to one of the few remaining schools that play cricket), a Bakers Inn team (only if you can afford it and live in Harare) and fuck all else. It's mad that the few clubs we have don't have any proper, good standard junior programmes both to supplement the stuff kids are playing at school and indeed to attract kids that don't go to a cricket playing school at all.

ZIMDOGGY
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Re: Nigeria u19

Post by ZIMDOGGY »

Good to see I am not the only one perplexed by the never ending academy talk.
I just assumed it was something I didn’t understand enough to comment on
To me an academy is like a centre of excellence where you live and breathe it. Live there (or attend multiple times), train there, get nutrition advice and receive top notch coaching or facilities.
Failing that it’s just a club or private coaching sessions.
Cricinfo profile of the 'James Bond' of cricket:

FULL NAME: Angus James Mackay
BORN: 13 June 1967, Harare
KNOWN AS: Gus Mackay

'The' Gus Mackay.

Hero.
Sportsman.
Artist.
Player.

**
Q. VUSI SIBANDA, WHERE DO YOU HOP?

A. UNDA DA ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE*

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