Zimbabwe Vs Namibia | ICC T20 Qualifier | 22 November 2023

[Kriterion_BD]

Because he fucked up against Scotland and I still can’t let it go

Ervine and Williams also fucked up vs SCO. And Taylor fucked up vs UAE before that...

[Mr Twig]

Losing to Scotland and Namibia is one thing but surely there’s no suggestion that Zim is in any danger against Tanzania, Rwanda etc.

Namibia will win all their games and Zim will win their remaining games. The rest will be way behind on points with 1 or 2 wins each so even a couple of washouts won’t be a issue.

[zimbos_05]

This loss is not a surprise. Our batting has been shit for some time, yet somehow Matsi remains as the batting coach. That is an absolutely atrocious batting card. We will never improve in this unless things change. Constantly doing the same thing over and over and we expect different results. Kidding ourselves.

Anyone who thinks we've progressed the last couple of years is kidding themselves. We've had Raza play a lot of one man innings, that we've been able to ignore all the other shit around.

None of the youngsters are progressing or improving, so what exactly do we expect.

Namibia would probably be the number 2 side in Africa right now. They are quickly and easily getting ahead of us and as long as the ICC continue to turn a blind eye to Afghanistan and their continual failure to uphold all the requirements of an ICC member, then we will fall even further and further behind them too.

We've always kind of gone with, "Ah, it's only Afghanistan, we'll be fine. Ah, it's only Ireland, it was a one off. Ah, it's only Singapore, we're still bigger than them. Ah, it's only Nepal, Ah, it's only Netherlands". No other test playing nation would accept this or have this kind of attitude and mentality. So when we lose to these teams, we don't actually think about making proper changes. We just think, "We are a full member, we'll be fine". Yet all these other countries actually make an effort to change and improve their systems and teams. We just give jobs to mates and let TM enjoy his role so he can go jet setting every so often and claim plaudits when we host a shit T10.

[zimbos_05]

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The losing "culture" is simply because we don't have the depth of players and the system is largely broken.

That's a lame excuse. Professional sportsmen have a winning culture regardless of the environment. I'm not saying the board and environment are faultless, but professional sportsmen still have an innate individual desire to want to win and do well. When they lose, they hate it and they do everything they can to be better.

We desperately need a sports psych as part of the team.

[Googly]

I dont think so. A winning mentality develops through winning. If you're not winning its hard to figure out how to do it on a more regular basis.
Nobody likes losing, least of all our boys who have this non qualification curse hanging over their heads.
If there's anyone in that side who doesn't feel the pain of losing and thinks "oh well next time, at least I'm getting my daily allowance" I'd be surprised.
We got professionally outdone and out-thought by a better side.
When JJ Smit is bowling ahead of Wiese you know they've assessed the conditions, well they've actually prepared for the conditions they've created. Once again that was our mistake, we should have known what to expect and prepared better.

An element will say that the Board has done much for the national side, and it is partly true if you take an 18 month snap shot, but this situation is 30 years in the making and that's what they should be owning and what they should be accountable for. When you have meetings in Vic Falls and start building multi million dollar stadiums in Batonka territory you know they don't give a damn. They can have meetings and recriminations and start pointing fingers and shouting and making wholesale changes, but all they need is a mirror, a stainless steel one so they don't break that as well. The wholesale change thing is just someone saying don't look at me I've done MY job, let me carry on with my other money making plans and political ambitions. If anyone up there was really interested in our future they'd immediately step aside. Is that ever going to happen?
The players are just going to have to play out of their socks for the remainder of the qualifier.

Our bowlers didn't have much of a total to defend, but we actually had a sniff at the beginning. They saw back of a length heavy balls at the batters kept them quiet and yet Richie and Blessing let them off by changing what was working. Three deliveries that got punished in those first three overs. Then Raza brought on Mumba in the 4th when he shouldn't have. That was a mistake. He really doesn't have enough control. We could have been 4 overs 12 yesterday and then the game would have had a slightly different complexion. We don't have any seamers apart from Richie, Blessing or Evans that can bowl either accurately enough or fast enough. Fast off cutters on that pitch would have made scoring difficult. But we knew that from last month! Apart from Blessing and Richie who are a handful we need a third seamer to bowl accurate off cutters.
The one mistake Raza is going to keep making is bowling himself too much. Quite why their slower bowlers are that much more accurate than ours I can't answer. We miss our lengths. We don't seem to have one bowler who can put 6 good deliveries down. They'll bowl 4 then try something different, it's just weird. WHY?? I'm praying these next teams don't capitalise on poor bowling as well as the Namibians.

Our batting was woeful. Welch looks like he's good right up to the point where he makes an early mistake. He's had a woeful start to international cricket for someone of his ability. I'm not sure Maru should be opening. Either Inno or Wes should open. Madhevere should bowl. He gets a lot of turn for an offie and he's worth a shot on these decks. People are figuring out Raza doesn't do much with the ball and he keeps dragging them down, he needs to bowl more offies I reckon, they're easier to control.
I was worried about Craig at 3 slowing things down but we have to stick with that if we lose an early wicket which seems likely.
In hindsight Raza shouldn't have played that shot, but when he comes off it's great. There's too much pressure on the guy because nobody is helping him, so when he fucks up it sticks out like a dog's ball.

[Googly]

One moron on Twitter reckons our players are overpaid. Typical response. No mention of the genuinely overpaid administrators of our game.

[TapsC2]

Let's see what happens. I'm still hopeful. As long as rain doesn't fuck us over. If we don't make it there will be abl lot of changes so let's hope they prevail

What possible changes? There are no other options.
Coaching change and we're back to square 1.
Player changes and we're definitely losing.
Board and admin changes?
I suspect a drop in player salaries that will go the the board for the trauma and embarrassment the players caused them.

It honestly wouldn't make sense to continue playing 37 year olds when there is nothing to look forward to until the 2027 world cup. We have to be honest here Raza probably the only one with a chance of being around by then.

You are better off throwing everything at Byrom, Cartwright and the passport office and move on. Money talks in the end

Then also get a world class batting coach. The players like Matsi but he isn't good enough. You see that's another problem. Over the last maybe 18 months they have done everything to keep the senior players very happy and ultimately they are not returning the favour.

People don't want an Andy Flower around them because they want to protect those very same guys who aren't delivering from getting their feelings hurt. Yet you see Andy Flower consulting for the World Cup winning team. They know he is a mentality monster. That's why they hired him

[mnelson68]

Embarrassing loss , it was comprehensive and seriously if they lose to any of these other nations then put the cue in the rack and pack it up.

[secretzimbo]

Check out the Houghton interview on the ZC Twitter page.

Well out of character for him - the pressure is showing. One more defeat this week and he’s out of a job and he knows it, whether we like it or agree with that or not.

[Googly]

There would be absolutely no harm in seeing if Flower would be available for a short consultancy stint. Maybe he'd ruffle some feathers, but does that matter?

There's no way Dave's job should be on the line. It would be a typical knee jerk reaction to divert attention from the real problems which are top heavy incompetent administrators that don't know how to improve domestic cricket.
I've heard good things about Matsi. We've had plenty of batting coaches over the years and nobody has made a noticeable difference. Why should he be the sacrificial lamb?

The immediate "fix" and there are absolutely no guarantees, none whatsoever, are a couple of imports.
Theyre not going to be better than Williams or Ervine, I'll put my cock on a block about that. They're good players.
Maybe they have taken their foot off the pedal a bit, I don't know, but I do know they're not being replaced by anyone from within. There are a couple of other players that would be under pressure soon enough from guys like Bennett and Welch Jr (if he ever gets a clean run at a domestic season- another year down and we'll have to see how he goes next year, that's gross mismanagement right there!)

We need those "imports" in our system at whatever level. Having 14 decent players and the rest of our domestic system as mere window dressing is the very reason we're having this conversation. It's been the modus operandi for years to have some spare cash for houses, cars, trips, etc etc. We need better players and administrators throughout.