Zimbabwe’s ‘Emerging’ Squad Mirage: Experienced Players Eclipse Future Stars, Stalling Cricket’s Progress

[jontym87]

For some reason he didn't get any fc exposure for years, and for sure has not much experience but he's quality.

So if people/authorities had cricketing brains he should have been on this tour. The concept of 'emerging' is to sift through untapped talent and nurture it. Im sure if he was exposed during this tour we would have something to work with for the next 24 months with a view to get him ready for national duty when he turns 27 since he is 24.

[secretzimbo]

Thank the lord you are 8,000km away from the system nowadays

[Googly]

I know I sound like a stuck record but they have to get an Academy going. It needs a real quality head coach or its pointless.
We have such limited resources they have to get the better young guys and prep them for franchise. If you leave them to their own devices to try and make enough runs at club to get noticed they will mostly struggle. The good guys need expert coaching, volume and repetition

Why would the international players not benefit from this?
If you can't beat a team of youngsters then you're either not good enough or you're making mistakes that need to be rectified. Even if you're outgunned you can still make a game of it if you think smart.
A quality captain makes a massive difference, particularly at this level.

[secretzimbo]

Also, and this has been overlooked, people on here - all of us - go on about what should happen and what ZC should prioritise in this situation and what we want to get out of it etc etc. Jonty, do you not think CSA have their own priorities and wants from a series like this? Come on, they aren't playing this series out of charity or for the purposes of improving their neighbours.

Do you really think CSA would have agreed to this series if we were going to send our u19 side or whatever? Do you really think CA would be happy or EVER agree to play us ever again at any level if we sent a side that went and lost 5-0 and every match by circa 300 runs or more? Of course not. If we tried to send the sort of squad Nelson posted a few pages ago they would have just cancelled the series before it even started and laughed at us.

I'm certain CSA would have probably pre-vetted the proposed squad from ZC before even agreeing and confirming to host this series.

For such an esteemed 'professional' and 'academic' you are rather naive. But then you always have been really.

[secretzimbo]

Contrary to what I have been called here - some sort of apologist for the board or whatever - I'm hugely critical of our system and actually I am the one pointing out the massive flaws and shortcoming and how dire the situation is here.

Certain posters seem to think we have dozens of talented youngsters who could actually go and compete with this SA side. It's fantasy. Pure fantasy.

The squad we've sent is pretty strong and we are getting beat, but at least we've been competitive in 3 of the 4 matches and theres been a few good individual performances here and there. If we sent a lesser side we would get absolutely trounced, it would be hugely embarrassing and no doubt Jonty and co would revel in writing more 'articles' (I use that term lightly) about how awful everything is.

The blame for our lack of depth absolutely isn't on Jonty's old foe Mr Masakadza though. Rather it's his new BFF Mr Bvute and his cronies who trashed cricket in this country for the best part of two decades and now we are seeing the results.

Plenty of good stuff has happened over the past 18 months (Not that Jonathan would know - he's about as connected as a kibbutz these days) - probably far far better than we ever expected from this board - but quite clearly it's a monumental effort to rebuild what was destroyed, and you can't just magic up a load of amazing world class cricketers over night - especially batsmen. It's going to take quite a lot of time.

Thankfully Googly is here making good points, e.g. the high performance centre, which for me absolutely has to happen and is one of the big things we haven't seen any movement or progress on recently which is a shame. Hopefully it's next.

If only we had more posters speaking sense and being constructive rather than just 'MASAKADZA IZ SHIT LOL' or 'PICK YOUNG WHITE BOY ZIM WILL WIN LOL'.

[secretzimbo]

There are a couple of posters who I have literally never seen post on this forum after Zimbabwe win a match, or when something positive is announced etc. Only here when shit hits the fan or to cause division.

If you can't see their agendas and vendettas and think they are actually 'fans' then we are through the looking glass now folks.

[Pat_Bee]

CSA pre vetting the squad. Not considered that, but yes, course they will. Beating Zim’s pseudo emerging side of international capped players will be more of a measure of their own team than if they beat an actual Zim emerging side in 20 overs each game. CSA need to make it worth it to them.

What was that SA tour here last year? A? Select XI? That basically was our full strength side and I think we won one game and that was by DLS. A genuine emerging squad of youths would get murdered.

We do need an academy/performance centre, anything that can produce up and coming youngsters but also somewhere the seasoned pros can fine tune their skills and share their knowledge.

The board have turned a corner of late and realise what is at stake. Just hope they haven’t left it too late. We should be far better than Ireland and Afghanistan at least with all our alleged proud cricketing history compared to them.

[Googly]

They absolutely have left it too late. It's about damage control now.
As long as we are vaguely competitive at International level we will limp along but we are constantly losing ground.
It's almost a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted tragically.
They've made great strides with club and NPL and franchise the last double of years has been good, but we have mostly the same small player pool of journeymen cricketers (at best).
They have to make these guys better. Better pre-season prep is key. But if you only pay them pittance for 4 months of the year how do you expect them to give it their best shot?? Most can't even afford to hire an indoor net for an hour, let alone pay a guy to throw.

The years of prior mismanagement and dire economy has meant that the school cricket has imploded.
The white kids have always been the nucleus of our cricket which ZC spitefully ignored and abused for years and now as a group they've rightfully lost interest. I honestly have no idea how that gets resurrected. Getting to a couple of world cups and winning a couple of games would have been the catalyst we desperately need. Eeish is all I can say to that. Desperately close twice.

Government school cricket is dead and buried. Churchill, St George's and PE used to roll out some half decent sides and the reality was that it was a competitive thing against the perceived "white" schools, but now they've lost interest government school cricket has collapsed entirely. Do you recall the story of Churchill once fielding about 5 professional men players in the George's T20 and still getting well beaten They've got cheating thieving headmasters for fuck's sake. How are they going to do anything meaningful???? Not one member of the parent body will so much as donate a cake, fix a mower, donate diesel etc etc etc etc
Much of the interest was an end of year tour to SA and the kudos of playing Zim age group, especially Partridges!!
If you played Partridges you were somebody!!
ZC are going to have to try and resurrect this. If they make the same mistake of not picking deserving white kids it is highly unlikely to work, but repeating the same mistakes and hoping for a different outcome is what Zim is world class at.
ZC had the stance that they can't fund everything, which is true, but they need to think of something or we're down to about 4 high schools playing mediocre cricket.
Minister Coventry could of course do something if she went to work once a month. Happy to attend the T10 and make all the right noises in her American accent. Let's hope we at least see the back of her after these elections.

[TapsC2]

For some reason he didn't get any fc exposure for years, and for sure has not much experience but he's quality.

So if people/authorities had cricketing brains he should have been on this tour. The concept of 'emerging' is to sift through untapped talent and nurture it. Im sure if he was exposed during this tour we would have something to work with for the next 24 months with a view to get him ready for national duty when he turns 27 since he is 24.

Your cricketing brain told you that Gary Ballance had to prove himself in the Logan Cup right ? fuck outta her with that bullshit. You are 1 very bitter man. CSA would have never hosted whatever ever imaginary squad you have in your head.

[jontym87]

So people want us to praise the board? For what exactly? 90% of the members on that board have been on that board for over 10years they are part of the rot. The some of the new faces on that board were in the system and busy sexually abusing minor girls in Masvingo. And one at the executive helm is a rape apologist.

Almost every cricket playing nation has a 3-5 year blue print that is publicly available. Where is ZC one? Nothing in their annual reports about development.

Nothing ever works if the politics is not right.

Chakaora chinhu ichi! Those that think im 8000 miles away are dreaming in just 20m away from ZC. I wake up overlooking HSC