ICC funding

[TapsC2]

I'm terms of what to do with it, I think the very first thing would be the competitive 12 month contracts. They surely have to double that 600/month at the very least. I'm sure they will also have decent senior franchise contracts and maybe even tiers to the domestic contracts.

Maybe not everybody in the franchise needs to be on a 12 month contract but if the best 6 guys in every franchise(non national contract players) are on maybe 1500/month then you can entice some guys out there to come back home and give it a real try without extreme financial pressure. They might opt against 12 month contracts because a lot of the guys do actually benefit from playing in the UK.

Secondly there has to be an academy with a high performance contract set up. The likes of Shumba and Marumani need to be constantly practicing and touring. They should have to worry about any finances without a national contract. That needs to be set up. My biggest fear as mentioned before is that we might suddenly get a few bogus academies popping out of nowhere.

Then finally they have to throw a lot of money at Welch and Byrom. This needs to be their last season out there. My biggest fear is that Ireland have the same amount of money so Byrom could go there. We need to act fast.

Overall I think if this money is used properly this could do a lot for us. Its a big IF. Don't be surprised to see the Vic Falls stadium suddenly getting half the budget or another fancy high budget T20 league

[TapsC2]

The logic behind India getting all that makes sense to me. They apparently bring in 80% of the money. They are only getting half of what they bring in. How is this model not fair?

[secretzimbo]

https://twitter.com/idlesummers/status/ ... 6444441601

This thread is well worth a read, as is the linked one from Bertus

[Donald]

You need good players in the logan cup not average ones churning clogging up the sides.
So this money is adventageous. Maybe allocate 800.000 extra on the logan cup players wages over the 6 months. 12 months is too long and not cost effective.
Can play a few more tests now zimbabwe .
Also entice back good players. Ben Curran is a poor mans sean williams but think he will have a role in this side. Ditto Nick welch

[secretzimbo]

Let’s assume there are about 20 players per franchise on contracts? That gives you 100 players. But then around 15 are on national contracts.

So if we say 75 are on approx $600/month for 6 months? That’s only $270k a year on player wages. There’s no reason that total pot can’t be doubled to give everyone either a 12-month income, or a doubled income during the cricket season at least.


Of course the trend that we probably al forget about is women’s professionalisation. Every country is doing this including some associates even. The franchise womens players don’t get paid monthly at all - I believe they just get a match fee (and they play extremely few matches). The ICC will probably pushing for us to spend a higher % of our allocation on women’s cricket again.

[secretzimbo]

In terms of an academy, I’m not sure we will see some purposely dedicated facility somewhere and a full time ‘academy’ as such.

I think more realistic is just bolster existing structures - including continuing to improve the franchise setup. The domestic season needs to continue the recent trajectory of improvement in standard and frequency. Ideally franchises would be training full-time between matches and with well educated high quality coaches and facilities. The fact some franchises train just once per week, in half-broken nets with very questionable coaches is a big part of the problem.

We’ve had a fair chunk of ‘A’ or Zim Select/Zim XI cricket recebtly and we need more of the funding to go towards this to ensure we keep playing lots more at this level. It can only be good experience, especially if the selections are right. I think there’s huge value in this level. Get an A side to this academy in India twice per year, plus a couple of proper A series home and away each year, coupled with the longer and better franchise system and fringe guys going to the U.K. for club cricket and overall then you’ve got plenty of varied opportunities through the year.

We also need to as Googly says bring back a pathway below U19 level. We need to reformalise U13 and U16 national sides and get these touring regularly to SA and support players towards U19 cricket rather than just throwing them in at the age of 18 against 30-year old Afghans and hoping for the best

[Googly]

The Vic Falls stadium and a T20 league with fancy salaries for overseas players would kill us stone dead. Just the mention of it makes me sweat.

[Googly]

You don't need 20 players per franchise. That works on the premise of giving lots of players a little. As tough as that decision is, you have to give fewer players more.
They should be mostly reviewed annually and have a robust club scene that allows players doing well to go up and those that had a shit season to go down.

[Googly]

Imagine what an extra 10 mill would have achieved.
There should be a proviso that the board has to attract a certain level of corporate sponsorship. Unfortunately with that comes a level of accountability.

[Googly]

The issue of Women's cricket in Zim is confusing.
I'm not aware of any school cricket that is played, so at what point does anyone decide they're going to give cricket a shot?
Do they play any club cricket?
They don't seem to get much money, if any, so the first prerequisite must surely be to not have a job and to probably not be married with kids.
I'm not suggesting that we don't pursue it, I'm just saying they're on a hiding to nothing.
The big nations start cricket at schools and clubs have programs for girls.
If ZC diverts a chunk of money towards anything like this is it a good thing?