Talented young players need a bit of time to get their groove most of the time. Even Tendulkar didn't average 50 plus when he first debuted. He averaged around 30 in both formats if I recall correctly.
Tari, Madhevere, and Myers are [relatively] talented. They have the natural talent to be as good as Taylor, Williams, or Ervine/Raza. And given how young they are, they need about 20 innings (across all 3 formats) at a single stretch. That's only about 1 year with the amount of cricket Zimbabwe plays. So it's not excessive.
But a guy like Marumani who has crossed 15 only once in like 10 innings is clearly out of his depth. It's also how he looks at the crease. Myers may not have a lot of runs under his belt but he looks capable. Marumani looks like he needs lessons from Chris Martin on how to at least look semi competent. He has been beaten more times than he's actually made contact with the bat in his career I shit you not.
Tari has gotten a fair number of chances, and is no longer all that young. I'd give him one more stretch to see if he has it before cutting him loose.
Throwing away talents prematurely is just as bad as playing them when not totally ready.
Granted, but 25-30 games?
You give them a shot, and if it is clear they are not making the step up, you pull them back and work on them. You don't just keep throwing them to the wolves.
A year of cricket is a long time. Remember, these are not just pointless games. They are international games. You want to give them experience and develop them, then thats what the A side and coaching clinics are for. If you are stepping up to the national side, you need to be contributing.
We can't afford to have 4-5 players in every match playing purely for the experience.
I'm not advocating for throwing them away. I'm advocating for a better structure to develop them. The current structure of throw them into the side and hope that gaining experience will develop them is terrible.
Certainly not 20-30 Test matches. But 20 innings across formats isn't unwarranted IMO.
For example, Bangladesh are missing a trick by excluding Shanto from any white ball squad. He's got 2 Test hundreds, both of them away from home, so he CAN bat to some degree at least. But they've thrown him out after just 1 bad series. They've done similar stuff to Mossadek by mismanaged him completely (made him a LOI player when he's more suited to Tests).
Two best recent examples of how to trust a cricketer and give them extended runs to reap rewards was seen in NZ backing Henry Nicholls and SL backing Kusal Mendis. The first one succeeded but second seems to have not, despite Mendis clearly having oodles of talent. Also considering the fact that we do not have any others to back outside of these kids and can only go back to the Marumas, the Chamus and the Charis, it is a no-brainer that we need to back these guys for the time being and hope they come good. 20-30 innings look fairly sensible overall.
Loads of stupid decisions yesterday by the looks of it - by the umpires first in giving a reprieve to Stirling and then looks like a shocking decision against our in-form batter Chakabva too.
Then we messed up further by sending Burl further down the order!!! Every layman knows by now that Burl takes a while to get his eye in and then can go really big. And we cut down his chances of getting his eye in by sending him even below Jongwe! Also, given the Irish have been struggling against spin, not bowling more spin was stupid too. And the selection of the XI is already a joke, so no further comments.
Loads of stupid decisions yesterday by the looks of it - by the umpires first in giving a reprieve to Stirling and then looks like a shocking decision against our in-form batter Chakabva too.
Then we messed up further by sending Burl further down the order!!! Every layman knows by now that Burl takes a while to get his eye in and then can go really big. And we cut down his chances of getting his eye in by sending him even below Jongwe! Also, given the Irish have been struggling against spin, not bowling more spin was stupid too. And the selection of the XI is already a joke, so no further comments.
Stirling was definitely out! He even knew it. Regis one was definitely going down leg. I will mince my words and call those decisions at the very least, disrespectful.
Two best recent examples of how to trust a cricketer and give them extended runs to reap rewards was seen in NZ backing Henry Nicholls and SL backing Kusal Mendis. The first one succeeded but second seems to have not, despite Mendis clearly having oodles of talent. Also considering the fact that we do not have any others to back outside of these kids and can only go back to the Marumas, the Chamus and the Charis, it is a no-brainer that we need to back these guys for the time being and hope they come good. 20-30 innings look fairly sensible overall.
Mendis has some disciplinary issues (current banned for 18 months or 2 years soemthing like that by SLC and prior to that had a serious drunk driving accident). Apart from that Mendis averages 30-35 in both formats and thats actually pretty good by SL standards. Its not as if they have a Sanga or Mahela who's not getting games. But he was frustrating in his inconsistency. I guess thats why they eventually dropped him...but the key here is that Mendis had a 4-5 year unquestioned run before he was dropped because SL had no one else. Madhevere/Myers should get 1 full year at least, and quite possibly 2. I probably wouldn't give them longer than that. Madhevere is doing fairly well so far.
Two best recent examples of how to trust a cricketer and give them extended runs to reap rewards was seen in NZ backing Henry Nicholls and SL backing Kusal Mendis. The first one succeeded but second seems to have not, despite Mendis clearly having oodles of talent. Also considering the fact that we do not have any others to back outside of these kids and can only go back to the Marumas, the Chamus and the Charis, it is a no-brainer that we need to back these guys for the time being and hope they come good. 20-30 innings look fairly sensible overall.
Mendis has some disciplinary issues (current banned for 18 months or 2 years soemthing like that by SLC and prior to that had a serious drunk driving accident). Apart from that Mendis averages 30-35 in both formats and thats actually pretty good by SL standards. Its not as if they have a Sanga or Mahela who's not getting games. But he was frustrating in his inconsistency. I guess thats why they eventually dropped him...but the key here is that Mendis had a 4-5 year unquestioned run before he was dropped because SL had no one else. Madhevere/Myers should get 1 full year at least, and quite possibly 2. I probably wouldn't give them longer than that. Madhevere is doing fairly well so far.
Sl did have other guys, its just mendis was and is ridiculously talented. He was just beginning to get good in odi when he kept throwing it away. That was his own fault. Fortunately guys like Asalanka and Kamindu are just beggining to get the chances Mendis did
Two best recent examples of how to trust a cricketer and give them extended runs to reap rewards was seen in NZ backing Henry Nicholls and SL backing Kusal Mendis. The first one succeeded but second seems to have not, despite Mendis clearly having oodles of talent. Also considering the fact that we do not have any others to back outside of these kids and can only go back to the Marumas, the Chamus and the Charis, it is a no-brainer that we need to back these guys for the time being and hope they come good. 20-30 innings look fairly sensible overall.
Literally nobody is arguing for Chari or Chamu or Maruma to be picked!!! But we have our greatest ever white-ball player sitting on the bench, alongside our recent captain and also a guy who keeps getting overseas T20 gigs when no other zimbo ever does. Picking all 4 youngsters every single time over those guys is a joke.
Agreed they need time and plenty of innings. But surely it has to be in rotation, and they can’t just all expect to play every single game despite being bang out of form.
Yeah, my point was more about giving them an extended run to prove themselves in general, not at the cost of benching BT, Williams and co or the current situation per se.
Two best recent examples of how to trust a cricketer and give them extended runs to reap rewards was seen in NZ backing Henry Nicholls and SL backing Kusal Mendis. The first one succeeded but second seems to have not, despite Mendis clearly having oodles of talent. Also considering the fact that we do not have any others to back outside of these kids and can only go back to the Marumas, the Chamus and the Charis, it is a no-brainer that we need to back these guys for the time being and hope they come good. 20-30 innings look fairly sensible overall.
Literally nobody is arguing for Chari or Chamu or Maruma to be picked!!! But we have our greatest ever white-ball player sitting on the bench, alongside our recent captain and also a guy who keeps getting overseas T20 gigs when no other zimbo ever does. Picking all 4 youngsters every single time over those guys is a joke.
Agreed they need time and plenty of innings. But surely it has to be in rotation, and they can’t just all expect to play every single game despite being bang out of form.
I agree with Zimbos05 here, which is a rarity!
fair enough idm a rotation but 2 of the seniors is enough in t20. WHen the odis come we need full strength back
Yeah, my point was more about giving them an extended run to prove themselves in general, not at the cost of benching BT, Williams and co or the current situation per se.
Yeah.
So someone like Marumani. Who’s built his game on confidence and swagger since primary school - do we keep throwing him in? I’m a huge believer in him, think he has as much talent as anyone in this format. But when does his confidence take a knock? That’s his biggest asset. He’s had a good run. Now he needs to sit out for a while. It’s still great that he’s with the squad on tour and learning. There’s another domestic season only 2 months away which he will boss, then he can have another crack at the national team.
Similarly Myers - what does it teach him if he keeps getting picked despite failing? It teaches him that failure is okay and is accepted in the Zim setup (like so many before him). He’s a smart kid. If he gets a kick up the arse by being dropped, I Back him to have the attitude and intelligence to work realy really hard to improve and come back on the next tour and perform.
It’s important to teach winning and success and have high standards.
I think ideally 2 of the four youngsters should play in a match. That seems like a nice balance. But we still need to have standards of what we expect from them performance-wise just like we do for more senior guys.
