What is Zimbabwe Crickets ceiling?

[TapsC2]

The Sri Lankan left armer is better than Ngarava. Which is why I was surprised that some of their top order batters weren’t playing him that well. Chameera is ok but not amazing. I don’t know if there were injuries but I don’t think he is the best they have to offer. What happened to their guy with the weird action?

Blessing needs to be more accurate. I’m sure Kirby is working on it with him. I hope he keeps his job. The improvement with Ngarava is obvious but Evans was getting better too before the injury. It came at a very bad time for him. He was picking up some momentum. He impressed me in the T10

There was also some noticeable improvement with Faraz. Kirby’s biggest assignment should be Chivanga. If he improves even a bit I will be impressed

[Googly]

There's a big incentive to bowl fast in SA, to play cricket actually, not just bowl fast. They do have a grass roots structure of sorts, but the difference is they have a lot of good schools they can channel these kids into. Ours is long gone. They have a university system that has facilities and dozens of good cricketers go thru them. Their club system has gone down the tubes a lot, but its still there as well.
Their system has degraded a lot, but its still a helluva lot better than ours.

How many schools play a high level of cricket in SA? 40? 50? Or more?

I don't know, but I'm guessing around the 40 mark.

[Googly]

The Sri Lankan left armer is better than Ngarava. Which is why I was surprised that some of their top order batters weren’t playing him that well. Chameera is ok but not amazing. I don’t know if there were injuries but I don’t think he is the best they have to offer. What happened to their guy with the weird action?

Blessing needs to be more accurate. I’m sure Kirby is working on it with him. I hope he keeps his job. The improvement with Ngarava is obvious but Evans was getting better too before the injury. It came at a very bad time for him. He was picking up some momentum. He impressed me in the T10

There was also some noticeable improvement with Faraz. Kirby’s biggest assignment should be Chivanga. If he improves even a bit I will be impressed

Faraz has always been tidy and gets it to swing in the right conditions. The difference with Richie is he doesn't get it to come back into the right hander as much. It's there, but most other successful left arm seamers have a bigger swing. Also lacks a bit of accuracy, especially when the pressure is really on. Don't get me wrong, I still think he's excellent. We are so incredibly lucky to have these two.

I've not seen much progress with Luke. He's blessed with a Golden Arm, which saves us now and then, but he can bowl some poor stuff. I've always said his potential, once he let the weight get the better of him, was as a batsman. Few realise how much ability he has.

[Googly]

Apparently ZC sprung a surprise drug test on a few franchise players yesterday
It's all in-house stuff and I doubt the results will be made public. Not sure why they don't test everybody, coaches and management included and see where we're really at.
I think the recreational use of Mary Jane is rife. Thats the one benefit of slave wages, its all they can afford.

[secretzimbo]

They are doing 8-week bans for in-house positive marijuana tests apparently

[Googly]

They'd better not test more than 2 guys per team or there will be no cricket

[Googly]

I believe they're urine tests. Clean urine is going to go for about 50 bucks a cup
I can see the tester having to actually have to have the guy in hand to ensure he's getting the right stuff
There has to be some danger money for that and a full Hazmat suit.

[Kriterion_BD]

What’s more important for you? World class batsmen or World Class bowlers?. I believe bowlers are the key. There was a time where we had BT, Williams, Raza, Ervine and Hami but we were still between 10-13.

Both of course. But in white ball cricket you can get by, because its still mostly a batsmen's game. But 2-3 consistent bowlers can do the trick, provided you have at least 4 class batters in the top order.

The statistical threshold for "class" batters has changed over the years. Back in 2004 when the rebels left and Taylor and Williams debuted, class would have required an average of 30+ at a strike rate of 70+. Today, you're looking at it being 40+ and 80+ respectively, with pitches getting flatter, and rules and batting skewing towards higher scoring games. And thats against the top sides, mind you. Against the Irelands, Scotlands, and Netherlands those numbers will need to be closer to 50-60 averages with a 85+ strike rate.

[Googly]

Thats an exaggeration.
Who in world cricket is averaging 50-60, and they all periodically play the sides you've mentioned.
Even in 50 over these days strike rate is almost as much of a factor as average. Plenty of really good batters with 35 averages

[Kriterion_BD]

Thats an exaggeration.
Who in world cricket is averaging 50-60, and they all periodically play the sides you've mentioned.
Even in 50 over these days strike rate is almost as much of a factor as average. Plenty of really good batters with 35 averages

This is mostly for ODI cricket here.

50-60 is against teams outside the top 10 like Ireland, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Netherlands. But thats elite level batting...which is why against the top sides, an average of 40 at a decent strike rate is enough to warrant genuine class and ability.

Even against the top 10 sides, there are a handful of guys averaging around 60.

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engin ... pe=batting

Kohli obv leading the way here averaging 64 against the top 10 sides. No need for stat padding against Associates. But Rohit, Babar, Williamson, Root, Warner, Ross Taylor all average above 50.