No, you got it the wrong way round.
10 team WC (and more significantly the general big 3 approach and total inability and lack of desire to grow the game at all in any direction) produces these kinds of results.
No, you got it the wrong way round.
The ICC has only gone to a 10 team world cup in the past few years...these types of results have been going on for decades.secretzimbo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:48 amNo, you got it the wrong way round.
10 team WC (and more significantly the general big 3 approach and total inability and lack of desire to grow the game at all in any direction) produces these kinds of results.
The Houghton era is still very early, and the signs have been fairly positive. But historically speaking, this doesn't make much sense. Its been about 10 years of consistently playing the Ireland/Afghanistan level of teams, and the graph there hasn't gone up at all over 10 years and a lot of games. In fact its arguably gone down considering Zimbabwe used to win a couple of games vs AFG per series but recently got blanked. The top level of 3-4 teams is a very harsh environment, you don't get better simply by playing a lot of matches. Its way more grassroots than that. If it was so simple, teams like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh would be top 5 teams by now. No team plays more against top 8 opposition than Sri Lanka in the past decade, they are still bottom of the pile in the top 8.But again if we were playing top class teams consistently every year, I'm absolutely certain we would see some improvement at some point.
We have improved though lol. We just beat Australia at home. And anyway we have famously gone through transition. Up until 2015 we were pretty alright. Then Sanga, Mahela, Dilshan, Malinga, Kulasekera etc retired. Our recent outfits have largely only been together since what 2020? And there's been pretty significant improvement. More games mean more experience. One win against a good side and all of a sudden confidence shoots up. Zim were so bloody close during that India series. What SZ is saying makes sense.Kriterion_BD wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 2:56 pmThe ICC has only gone to a 10 team world cup in the past few years...these types of results have been going on for decades.secretzimbo wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:48 amNo, you got it the wrong way round.
10 team WC (and more significantly the general big 3 approach and total inability and lack of desire to grow the game at all in any direction) produces these kinds of results.
The Houghton era is still very early, and the signs have been fairly positive. But historically speaking, this doesn't make much sense. Its been about 10 years of consistently playing the Ireland/Afghanistan level of teams, and the graph there hasn't gone up at all over 10 years and a lot of games. In fact its arguably gone down considering Zimbabwe used to win a couple of games vs AFG per series but recently got blanked. The top level of 3-4 teams is a very harsh environment, you don't get better simply by playing a lot of matches. Its way more grassroots than that. If it was so simple, teams like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh would be top 5 teams by now. No team plays more against top 8 opposition than Sri Lanka in the past decade, they are still bottom of the pile in the top 8.But again if we were playing top class teams consistently every year, I'm absolutely certain we would see some improvement at some point.
The funny thing is, I think the perception of Afghan is that they are better than they really are. Not saying they are a poor side, but I'm not ready to say they are are a great side either. On the other hand, their achievements are still impressive for a country that just picked up a bat or ball a mere 15 or so years ago. But, the crucial point will be where do the Afghans go from here, ie how much progress will they make in the next 10 years?zimbos_05 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:50 pmI get the idea that playing top teams needs to be more consistent, however the argument can also be made that we play AFG quite a bit yet continue to struggle against them, whilst they continue to improve.
They are not really playing top teams in bilateral series that often as well. A lot of their players made their mark in T20 comps and have improved, hence they have kept earning contracts and playing at a high level.
It's an easy excuse, but it's also a slightly lame excuse. If you want to improve your talent and quality, you also invest in grassroots and domestic competitions, and make a serious effort to ensure that the quality of competition provided for the teams and the level of coaches is high.
Our current bowling coach is Njabulo Ncube. That does not instill much confidence in our bowling set up.