CRICKET IS DEAD IN ZIMBABWE

[Donald]

When are the next board elections due? Is it next year?

June 2023

[afghankhan]

Can someone explain why Zim cricket gone to such bad level? They don't seem to even trouble Afghanistan anymore.

I know Blessing Muzarabani is a good talent. Is there anyone else?

Why has there been this decline is quality? If you go back 10-12 years Zim has consistently managed to get worse.

I am genuinely interested in how Zim cricket can be improved. Is there any hope?

[CholeZimbo]

I will tell you something, If you see the loyal Zim cricket fans on this forum, some who have followed this team closely for over 20 years, calling it quits, just know that it is not looking good at all. Our parameters for concluding that the game is in the country is finished are very accurate. The whole thing has imploded, and everyone is just stuck with each other with no end insight.

1) Poor, unprofessional management and leadership
2) Terrible coaching, selection and player preparation
3) Poor grass roots infrastructure
4) Lack of improvement from the previous game or series
5) Non existent accountability
6) Imminent exit of the last decent batsmen we have
7) Butchered international reputation from losing to all emerging teams in the last decade
8) Talent drain
9) A losing mentality which is now part of the whole system, right to the U19s
10) The failure of the Moor, Musakanda generation, who should be seniors now
11) The economy and a now backward minded society in general, cricket is a luxury good

Hard to come back from this, everything that could go wrong, has now gone wrong, and as we usually are, at 67-4 inside 18 overs, we are in all sorts of trouble.

[Googly]

It would be money well spent for ZC to see if Afghanistan would throw one ODI game and one T20 game.
If they had any sense they'd even pay out of their own pockets if they had to. It's not their money anyway.
If I was Afghanistan I'd demand 100k per player and a bar for the management. They'd pay gratefully.
A 6-0 shagging might actually be a problem for them whereas 4-2 would be palatable
There's a bit of noise out there.

[Googly]

I'll bet ZC can't wait to get on a plane to Australia and have a stress free beating. No pressure there.

[CholeZimbo]

I'll bet ZC can't wait to get on a plane to Australia and have a stress free beating. No pressure there.

[secretzimbo]

I am genuinely interested in how Zim cricket can be improved. Is there any hope?

I'm not feeling very hopeful at all right now.

But if we are clutching at straws then there's three positives;

- Money. We get a fortune from the ICC, significantly more than even the leading associate. I believe around 20x more than the Netherlands for example. With such a vast difference in funding, in theory we should at least be able to tread water and not decline too much further than where we already are now. Of course most of the money gets misappropriated/misspent/stolen anyway but oh well A competent board if ever elected (We can dream! ), would be able to do a lot with that kind of money in the future.

- Domestic cricket. The sudden effort over the past year to play a lot of domestic cricket I think is a positive. They didn't have to do it. In many previous years they haven't done it. It hasn't been perfect and theres way more to do, but it's been a good season. It' a positive that they've cared enough to organise so much cricket. The problem is, we won't see the effects of this filtering through to the national team for a long time.

- Fans. The anger is real and so many people are drifting away from the sport.... but ultimately a lot of people here still care. Thousands hate ZC but they still love cricket. A lot more people care about cricket in Zimbabwe than they do in for example Namibia or the Netherlands.

[sloandog]

I'm watching until the T20 qualifiers. That is it.

If Zim don't make it to a 16 team world Cup, then I'm out of here. I'm sure then most of us are out of here.

Been here since August 2009. If we don't get in, I'll be joining you.
I love the posters here who give insight from ground zero. Googly, zimfan1, secretzimbo etc, but the forum isn't the same.
I think Maehara may have potentially passed away maybe due to COVID? That's my only theory. Why would you not even respond to e-mails from your own website and clean it up for 2 minutes? Doesn't make sense and this is the only logical theory I can come up with.
The side is in free fall and when Sean Williams eventually retires (unless he already has) and Craig Ervine, we're bidding farewell to not just two excellent servants of Zimbabwe Cricket, but to a solid system that has long long been disbanded and cast aside.

[Donald]

I think Ngarava and williams coming back would make an impact.
Zimbabwe need to look to the diaspora. Solomon mire and myers were lured back and also taylor and jarvis.
We need a big overhaul

[lobsang]

It is such a sad situation, I have been following Zimbabwe for almost last 20 years. These players must deliver the goods to show the world what their worth is and get themselves sympathized by the cricket fraternity at large. Receiving such convincing thrashings at the hands of lesser known teams will not help their cause. Yes the board is nothing but a corrupted bunch of thugs and they not give a f*** as long as their pockets are frequently filled.