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Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 8:56 am**

Its back to basics as ZC adopts franchise cricket model

THE Zimbabwe Cricket board on Thursday resolved to adopt the franchise system at the start of the 2009/10 season in August, a model which is similar to the United Cricket Board of South Africa in place since 2004.

The new system, to consist of five franchises based in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Kwekwe and Masvingo, decentralises the administration of first-class cricket and has worked very well in South Africa.

This is in line with recommendations made by an International Cricket Council task force which was in the country on a fact-finding mission, aimed at establishing the state of the game ahead of a return to Test cricket, in November last year.

The task team recommended that ZC should decentralise responsibilities and funding so that provincial associations are empowered to administer and grow the game at local level.

It was also recommended that ZC decentralise its approach to facilities management and empower local units to take responsibility for local facilities as it will not be possible for the mother body to directly maintain all of the country’s cricket facilities from central funds.

During an extraordinary meeting in Harare on Thursday, the ZC board unanimously voted to adopt a franchise model following weeks of consultations with the provincial boards and club representatives over the new structure.

Under the new system, ZC will grant five selected franchise management committees (franchises) the rights to administer first-class cricket on a professional basis, and as a commercially viable business.

The franchises will, among other things, contract players, employ technical staff and maintain a facility to use as a home ground.

ZC will provide the franchises with an annual grant, but it will be the responsibility of the individual franchise to raise any extra capital requirements through sponsorship and other fund-raising initiatives.

The franchises will select players from the current pool in the country and from those abroad. They can also approach players who had given up the game during the times when the socio-economic climate in the country was such that there were other more lucrative pursuits.[quote][/quote]

Each franchise will have a management committee to which the franchise chief executive officer will report.

"This change in structure is groundbreaking in that it will empower the wider community in Zimbabwe to become actively involved in the sport," said ZC chairman Peter Chingoka.

Under the new structure, the ZC board will remain the ultimate policymaking body, working hand in hand with the provincial boards to set and govern the implementation of the franchise policy. The provincial boards will, through the area offices, continue to administer the development of cricket in schools and provincial leagues, which is the foundation that will create a feeder system for first-class cricket.

Because of the supporting role of the provinces for the new system, each franchise will channel a portion of its funds to the province for development programmes run by the area office.

To form the five franchises, the existing provinces will be paired as follows:

(1) Harare Metropolitan and Mashonaland Central to use Harare Sports Club as home ground.

(2) Bulawayo Metropolitan and Matabeleland North to use Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo as home venue.

(3) Midlands and Mashonaland West to use Kwekwe Sports Club as base.

(4) Manicaland and Mashonaland East to play home matches at Mutare Sports Club.

(5) Masvingo and Matabeleland South to use Masvingo Sports Club as their home ground.

Every franchise will be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of their home ground.

Among the envisaged benefits of the franchise system are reduced dependency on Zimbabwe Cricket, a sense of ownership by players, staff and local community, increased spectatorship and support, more sources of income and financial stability

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 8:57 am**

The franchises will select players from the current pool in the country and from those abroad. They can also approach players who had given up the game during the times when the socio-economic climate in the country was such that there were other more lucrative pursuits.[quote][/quote]

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 11:11 am**

I think this is a fantastic idea. Unfortunately I don't think it will be done well. Obviously this is ZC's huge opportunity to professionalise domestic cricket. It's not ZC's fault, but I think this is destined to, not fail, but fall below expectations.

The South African franchise model I believe has been pretty successful. I think their domestic Twenty20 crowds have been fantastic. The Australian model has performed pretty well - every team has corporate sponsors and domestic cricket (with the exception of 4-day matches) are as good as - probably better - than anywhere else in the world.

Where Zimbabwe will fall is in the corporate backing. Sure, if Rio Tinto, Old Mutual, Bata, Castrol and Nandos got behind the 5 franchises it would be a tremendous success, because of the cash flow. But obviously domestic cricket will never attract those sort of sponsors - not even the national team can anymore. So I think lack of money will be a problem.

Anyway, I was doing some wishful thinking and I thought about how good it would be if a draft was introduced for domestic cricket. It would only be exciting for the first year (essentially) because that would be the only one with 15-20 rounds, although subsequent years could still be interesting for 3 or 4 rounds as guys like Peter Moor, Kyle Jarvis, Corey van Rensburg, etc come through the system.

What would you think if this sort of model was implement? I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts about this:

From [url=http://www.brmtaylor.com/news-144.html]brmtaylor.com[/url] wrote:
Theoretically: the domestic draft system

A draft system, with appropriate concessions, could be used to achieve this. Currently the teams are ranked (in order from best to worst, performance wise): Easterns, Northerns, Centrals, Westerns. This would relate to: Mutare, Harare, Kwekwe, Bulawayo, Masvingo (being the newest team, Masvingo would be given the most priority).

In the draft every season, the lowest ranked team can receive a "priority pick", in addition to their first regular draft pick. In essence, this allows the lowest ranked team to have 2 draft picks in the first round as follows:

Draft: Round 1

#1: Masvingo
#2: Masvingo
#3: Bulawayo
#4: Kwekwe
#5: Harare
#6: Mutare

Draft: Round 2

#7: Masvingo
#8: Bulawayo
#9: Kwekwe
#10: Harare
#11: Mutare

...

In order to ensure the make-up of each franchise reflects the local city, the major cities (Harare and Bulawayo) would have to field at least 6 local players. The smaller cities would have to field 3 local players. This could be guaranteed through the draft by forcing the franchises - for the first year only - to pick local players for the first 3 (and for Harare and Bulawayo, the must pick 3 more local players at some point during the draft - but not necessarily in rounds 4 to 6). A rookie system to promote uncontracted young players or successful (but domestically uncontracted) club cricketers during the season would ensure that these numbers would always be attainable.

However the draft system alone could punish successful teams unfairly, so certain concessions should be made.

A veterans list could be set up to ensure long-time players are not forced to leave their home team. These players would not have to participate in the draft, as they would automatically stay with their team. A "10 year commitment" - (ie. having played First Class cricket in or before the 1999-00 season, with the majority of cricket being played for that team) would be suitable, and would ensure that the following players would stay with their teams for the 2009-10 season.

Harare: Ray Price, Tatenda Taibu Mutare: Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri Bulawayo: Mark Vermeulen, Charles Coventry, Keith Dabengwa Kwekwe: - Masvingo: -

As in the IPL, a marquee player (not necessarily the captain, but potentially) could be selected by each team prior to the draft. This player would have to be someone that is playing for them now, or in the case of Masvingo - had played for Southerns. For instance, Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo, Kwekwe and Masvingo may choose to have Elton Chigumbura, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams, Malcolm Waller and Chamu Chibhabha as their marquee players in order to risk losing them to other franchises in the draft.

In summary:

- A draft system based on final end-of-year rankings
- Harare and Bulawayo need to field at least 6 local players per match
- Kwekwe, Mutare, Masvingo need to field at least 3 local players per match
- A veterans list for "10+ year players" would ensure long-time player are not forced to leave their team
- Each team can nominate one marquee player who played for them during the 2008-09 season (or for Southerns in 2007-08).

There could be other concessions, such as with regards to under-19 players and especially uncapped players, but overall this would be a good starting point as it would ensure the majority of current star players of each team "don't go anywhere" while allowing the emerging talent to move to other provinces to boost their respective new teams.

For instance, you might be thinking that a team like Harare would be in danger of losing some of their star players such as Graeme Cremer or Regis Chakabva. They would not, if they used their draft picks wisely. Potentially, their drafting process could look like this:

Veteran listed players: Ray Price, Tatenda Taibu
Marquee player: Elton Chigumbura
Draft pick #1: Graeme Cremer
Draft pick #2: Admire Manyumwa
Draft pick #3: Regis Chakabva

So already, Harare have retained the bulk of the talent of their current Northerns team. Because of the local player concession, none of the other teams would be able to touch Cremer, Manyumwa or Chakabva (or any other Northerns player) for those first 3 rounds. However, after 3 rounds (2 rounds for Masvingo due to the priority pick) of draft picks the other lower ranked teams (Masvingo, Bulawayo and Kwekwe) could poach Northerns players as they have higher picks than Harare. For instance, Masvingo, Bulawayo and Kwekwe could choose to take Cephas Zhuwawo, Prince Masvaure and Trevor Garwe - players which would all boost those respective squads significantly - all between Harare's 3rd and 4th draft pick.

Will this ever happen? Probably not. But there is no doubt this would be a very interesting new addition to the domestic structures and it would go some way towards making the competition more even.

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 11:20 am**

i'm afriad i am against your proposal brmtaylor.admin as i think that would take away the idea which zimbabwe cricket is trying implement

the whole idea here is to take cricket to five regions of the country to introduce city cricket where it will be easy to identify with one of the five teams. They are also trying to emphasie the importance of developing players in all five of these regions in order to play for the franschise, therfore if we had the draft system in place then what would a young player in Kwekwe be able to aim for if he sees players coming from Harare through the draft system and taking his place. I fear if the draft system was put in place then the smaller teams would be full of players from Harare and Bulawayo, and the likes of Matare and Kwekwe would have very few home grown players in it

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 11:35 am**

The draft covers that:

A rookie system to promote uncontracted young players or successful (but domestically uncontracted) club cricketers during the season would ensure that these numbers would always be attainable.

So if there was a young player from Masvingo or Kwekwe let's say and they were overlooked for the draft, there would be a system in place that would allow him to play for the team during the season. I would like to think of this as a rookie list - and this would only apply to home-grown talent, so Harare couldn't place someone from Kwekwe on their rookie list.

I would be inclined to make the rookie list open to 6 or 7 slots, and say that if a player is under 19 then the home club has the option of putting him on the rookie list automatically (due to his age). So for all 16-19 year olds trying to break into the team, they can do it through the rookie list if they want to. Of course, there is nothing to stop them from going into the draft if they want to (say van Rensburg wanted to play for Harare and not Bulawayo, he could take his chances in the draft [and risk being picked by any team!] and hope no team picks him before Harare does] or he could go straight on to Bulawayo's rookie list). After probably playing 5 First Class matches or 3 years on the rookie list (whichever comes first), the team has the option of promoting the player to their main squad list - or else he can nominate for the draft.

I actually think you would see more home-grown players with the draft system. For example, how many players are there from Masvingo playing in the Logan Cup this year? At least under the draft system, there would be at least 3 playing for the Masvingo franchise. The same goes for Kwekwe and Mutare.

I like the idea of people identifying with a local team - a team of local players. But it's not viable in Zimbabwe beyond the National League. No matter what happens, to be competitive teams like Mutare and Kwewkwe and Masvingo will always need players from Harare or Bulawayo to boost numbers. Otherwise Masvingo would be fielding a club team (Masvingo Sports Club probably!) that would get hammered week in week out which doesn't help morale, which won't help development and will limit investment opportunities from business (ie. nobody would want to sponsor them).

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 12:04 pm**

But in the long term is this a good system?

i can see the point of doing it in the first couple of years to make sure that it is competitive but in the long term i can honestly see if stifle the growth of the game in certain areas if the smaller teams are packed full of the Takashinga 1st, 2nd and third teams

Also there is no incentive for the smaller teams to produce young players if they may loose them in the draft

i think one of the biggest things about this whole announcement is that money is finally going to go to the grass roots clubs who will be able to spend money in ground maintenance.

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 1:37 pm**

zimfan1 wrote:But in the long term is this a good system?

i can see the point of doing it in the first couple of years to make sure that it is competitive but in the long term i can honestly see if stifle the growth of the game in certain areas if the smaller teams are packed full of the Takashinga 1st, 2nd and third teams

Also there is no incentive for the smaller teams to produce young players if they may loose them in the draft

I see where you are coming from. The rookie list would be good for getting home-grown talent into the team, but you think every year the draft would just be full of Takashinga players. I think that is a fair call.

Firstly I'll comment on the incentive for smaller teams to produce young players - they would only lose them if they didn't want to keep them on the list. I'm not sure what the remuneration for domestic players is at the moment, but under the draft system, all drafted players would get a base salary (plus match payments). The rationale being that if a player is drafted, there is a reasonable expectation that he will play. All rookies would also get a base salary, but quite a lot smaller than that of a drafted player. Because with rookies, they are younger - they are still developing. There is probably not a realistic expectation that they will walk straight into the team (although if they did, I guess their match payments should at least be equal to the drafted players?) or even play that many matches in the first year or two. So for the franchises, there are no huge financial implications in developing a player, but potentially quite a lot of upside (financially and from a performance point of view) if they unearth a fantastic player. If they show enough promise, then they can go on to the main squad list (with the drafted players) after a few years or X number of games. It may seem harsh to "de-list" players, but looking at the bigger picture, domestic cricket needs to be a platform for making the national team so you do only want the best playing.

The rookie list is all about moulding home-grown talent, getting your top local club players around the experienced hands (coaches, national team players, etc) and hoping it will rub off on them. If a rookie player is good enough, he will be selected for the domestic team. You wouldn't expect a rookie (except in exceptional circumstances) to fill one of the three "local player" positions. These positions are more about the regional teams holding on to their better players (Waller, Chibhabha, Mahwire etc, who while they don't actually come from the area, have played for the province long enough to qualify really), and the major cities having teams that actually reflect those cities (so Bulawayo and Harare will be at least 50% local, probably more).

Even if only 15% of the rookies gets promoted to the main squad list every year, after 10 years (barring another mass exodus) you'd see at least 30 players that were either born or living in Masvingo, Kwekwe or Mutare (or one of their feeder towns) in provincial cricket - which would be an improvement over the current situation. Specifically, what a rookie system would do is provide regional club players a level between club cricket and provincial cricket. They can make full use of the facilities available to provincial players, and grow as cricketers. On to the Takashinga question - if in the meantime a drafted Takashinga is in the first eleven, fine. As long as he is in better form than the local rookies. As I said earlier - you want the best cricketers playing. If one of the rookies is in good club form, or good form Kwekwe A or whatever, and his form is better than the Takashinga player, then the rookie can make the team - and the system works.

The rookie system would ensure there is always a set structure for local players.

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 1:54 pm**

ok you have cleared a few things up for me

i think you should email your idea to ZC be great to see what they think

i just cant wait to see how the whole thing plans out

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2009 2:16 pm**

It definitely has the potential to be exciting. Hopefully some of the other posters also find flaws with the draft/rookie system, I had fun trying to think of ways to best solve the scenarios you posted.

Posted: **Sat May 09, 2009 7:19 am**

Great to hear the current ludicrous domestic structure is being scrapped.

I would love to go back to the good old days of Mashonaland, Matabeleland, and Country Districts.

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