Grant Flower interview

[jaybro]

Does anyone here watch the TV series 'Shameless' ??

Hhm reminds me of Frank Gallagher although I doubt Hhm is a drunk, drug addict, homeless or is an allround shit bloke like Frank is.

Frank is quite well spoken and can spin any story, situation or action to suit himself or shift blame on to others.

Frank also loves playing the victim and has that feeling of entitlement, he's always quick to blame someone else for all his problems.

Frank can never do anything wrong.

Hhm does the exact same shit except he doesn't talk himself it's more about the black players or just the black man in general

[The Robot]

Flower is very much true.Since 2003 till now, 14 years past after the implementation of the " black empowerment policy " only two black cricketers from Zimbabwe shown some class and consistency facing top teams, they are Tatenda Taibu & Hamilton Masakadza, rest were average simply advantage takers of quota system.

[eugene]

Flower is very much true.Since 2003 till now, 14 years past after the implementation of the " black empowerment policy " only two black cricketers from Zimbabwe shown some class and consistency facing top teams, they are Tatenda Taibu & Hamilton Masakadza, rest were average simply advantage takers of quota system.

Time to ditch these under-performing quota players and put the Under-19s in!

[Black Mamba]

Cricket in Africa haven't grew up, because of politics & racial crisis, whereas in Asia cricket is growing too much fast. Afghanistan who flourished in 2013, has become full member by achieving test status, owing to some brillian performances within four years. Teams like Hong Kong, UAE, Nepal, Malaysia also have impressed ICC, whereas African Cricket has been only South Africa, Zimbabwe, few glimpse of Kenya and a bit of Namibia who might continue to play being Associates forever.
Nigeria, Uganda haven't improved their game despite getting opportunity.

But still political struggles continuing,as goons are putting "skin colour" before talent and skills as a result teams are struggling, talents are running to other countries for their livelihood. Cricket haven't rose in other nations of African continent, as the game has been polluted rather getting some fresh year.


Powerful Peoples like Peter Chingoka, Ozeas Bavuta, Robert Mugabe, Fikile Mbalula are like " enemy " of cricket as they give race a priority then talent.

Kenya Cricket is finished. South Africa are ready to get lowered now as many talented players has gone for a Kolpak Deal in UK and some of their stars are in line of doing the same. Zimbabwe Cricket being taken over by ICC and introduction of Streak - Taibu has shown some changes and hope of rising again, but its Zimbabwe, where brains like Utseya are waiting for a chance to give a racial taunt, and damage the rise again.

[TapsC]

Judging from Grant's interview and the other article HHM posted its clear there is a lot to the 2004 issue that we still dont know about. A lot of things could have been done better and the question will always remain. Should they have walked away? Judging by the way Grant is said to have used the word naive a lot, it makes it sound like many of them regretted that decision.

My biggest fear is this question of race creeping up again as we are seeing teams with only 4 black players being selected again. Taylor and Jarvis would only make it worse. The reality of it in the end is that you cant be a world class unit if you dont utilize the majority of your population. This is why teams like Bangladesh and Afghanistan are ahead now. The solution is not to force quota systems at national level but to spend a significant amount of money tapping into the black population and finding the talent. Its definiteily there, just untapped. We have about 20000 white people in Zim according to that article but over 11 million black people. You can see why the imbalance gets to people but quoatas are not the solution.

The other issue is that cricket is the second most popular sport but the edge it has in Zimbabwe is that pays relatively well. In an economy like ours that could lure a lot of the black population. Some will say we dont have money to waste but life is about compromises. Its better we spend that money than allow that talk of quoatas to come back once we are back on our feet again.

[TapsC]

Use money to create domestic structures in rural areas and I dont doubt you will find a Makhaya Ntini there. Its a long term play but it will pay off. SA has kind of learnt from our mistakes and are doing it better but trust me they feel the same.

I also found the club cricket issue raised by grant interesting.. are national players forced to play club cricket? And traditionally how have club teams financed themselves? The rising stars and the lads going to play club cricket in England has been the solution so far but these new rules make it unfavourable for fringe players like Diplock etc

[Black Mamba]

Use money to create domestic structures in rural areas and I dont doubt you will find a Makhaya Ntini there. Its a long term play but it will pay off. SA has kind of learnt from our mistakes and are doing it better but trust me they feel the same.

I also found the club cricket issue raised by grant interesting.. are national players forced to play club cricket? And traditionally how have club teams financed themselves? The rising stars and the lads going to play club cricket in England has been the solution so far but these new rules make it unfavourable for fringe players like Diplock etc

SA had a torrid time in UK becsuse of selection policies, even legend like Graeme Pollock burst out in anger seeing the political racial interference over skills.

[pariah]

Use money to create domestic structures in rural areas and I dont doubt you will find a Makhaya Ntini there. Its a long term play but it will pay off. SA has kind of learnt from our mistakes and are doing it better but trust me they feel the same.

I also found the club cricket issue raised by grant interesting.. are national players forced to play club cricket? And traditionally how have club teams financed themselves? The rising stars and the lads going to play club cricket in England has been the solution so far but these new rules make it unfavourable for fringe players like Diplock etc

SA had a torrid time in UK becsuse of selection policies, even legend like Graeme Pollock burst out in anger seeing the political racial interference over skills.

Oom Polly said Kuhn was crap and should never have been picked for the Proteas. He blamed the quota system for producing poor players like Kuhn(and Vilas, Ingram, Stiaan etc who can't cope in International cricket). What he forgot was that Kuhn was produced years ago, and had enough time to flop against even Zimbabwe A and other A sides.

Gibbs, Alviro and Prince were forced against their will to open, and they did well despite becing career middle order batsmen in domestic cricket Now that Proteas have no room accommodate top order failures in the middle (considering Amla & Duminy were there), with non-keeping & non-bowling seniors like Faf & AB refusing to bat higher than 4/5, Proteas will become a revolving door for most if not all top white batsmen. That's because the only vacaancy will be to open.

Theunis de Bruyn will often be on the bench if they pick an all rounder, plus with little momentum and match fitness, he'll often flop when he plays like has been happening, until he's eventually dropped for eg Rudi Second and we're back to square one.

Like it or not Reeza Hendricks will be Elgar's partner, and Ramela will bat at first drop, and unlike their competition, they won't fail because they are naturals there.

Unfortunately this is the sad situation. Not many good white batsmen opeing or batting at 3. They are paying for making "non-white" batsmen fodder in the past few years in Club, Provincial and Franchise leagues. What goes around comes around.

For ZIM, guys like Burl should not cheat themselves. In domestic cricket they must open because even if they get low scores and average in the teens initially, with time that average will trise to mid-thirties. It might seem poor on your profile when you get picked to play Tests, but it's actually worth more. Look at Mawoyo and Duffin. They never ever looked out of their depth when opening for Zimbabbwe despite 30avgs opening in domestic cricket.

The problem here is you see a guy like Chakabva or Bavuma with a good texhnique then you think he must bat top order. No! He has that technique because circumstances forced them to develop it. Charles Coventry used to have one of the best techiniques in Zim as a teenager. He was affected when he slid down the order. Look at him now. Even AB a former opener as junior, club and domestic plus international player, looks awkward when he opens in T20s.

Moral of the story: "Never hide!"

[jaybro]

So it's ok for Burl to open but it's criminal to make the black dudes open ?
[snip]

[sloandog]

Aiden Markhram will be in the side before Hendricks and Ramela. His stats are better, and he's overall a greater prospect/talent.