Zimbabwe Vs West Indies | 2nd Test | 12-16 Feb 2023 | Bulawayo

[secretzimbo]

There’s no way Raza is on 25k a month from ZC!!! Maybe 10k at a push and presumably if they are granting him NOC’s he will be getting only a percentage of his normal salary.

I’m not sure even the head office cartel pay themselves quite that much

[jaybro]

There’s no way Raza is on 25k a month from ZC!!! Maybe 10k at a push and presumably if they are granting him NOC’s he will be getting only a percentage of his normal salary.

I’m not sure even the head office cartel pay themselves quite that much

If he’s sacrificing his salary to go play in there tournaments then fair enough, but if he’s still taking his full package yet isn’t himself available then that’s a shit go.

[jw2]

Lots of good pints being thrown around ( great to see the forum in great shape again)

My thoughts

- Anyone writing off the ‘little 3’ (as opposed to the big 3) Wes, Shumba & Marumani will be proved a fool in the long run. Sure they’re not ready for Test cricket & maybe not even ODI cricket, but they have talent and they will be the backbone of the national side for a long time.

- Kaia’s revelation proves my point that I’ve been saying ever since I joined the forum 10 years ago (holy shit that’s gone quick) that most baysman aren’t ready for international cricket until they’ve scored 3000-4000 first class runs.

When the Big 3 retire, I’d suggest Zimbabwe might be best to look for experienced players on the local scene to fill the voids. Possibly the likes of Tari, Roy Kaia, Kasuza & of course Burl should be primed by then.

- Players should be encouraged to play overseas in Australia & England, as we’ve seen before they improve loads. The only concern is that they don’t come back.

- The talk about money or lack there of for domestic players is concerning, and also makes me really pissed off with Raza. He’s apparently on around $25k USD per month (can anyone confirm?) which is a lot of money.

The fact Raza has skipped two series now including a Test series, plus he’s also going to miss the Dutch series, I just think it’s poor form. Sure, he wanted to play the PSL & IPL, but he also missed games for the BPL and ILT20 which are Mickey Mouse tournaments.


I agree., especially after his fine speeches about how proud he is to play for his country!

Raza has a lot of good faith with their fans in Zimbabwe, but when we’re getting pumped at home in a Test match rolling out the likes of Chamu & Tsiga I think leaves a bad taste in the mouths. Unless he secures World Cup qualification I think a lot won’t forgive him.

[secretzimbo]

Why are people having a pop at Raza but not Burl?

Burl’s absence is much worse imo.

[zimbos_05]

Lots of good pints being thrown around ( great to see the forum in great shape again)

My thoughts

- Anyone writing off the ‘little 3’ (as opposed to the big 3) Wes, Shumba & Marumani will be proved a fool in the long run. Sure they’re not ready for Test cricket & maybe not even ODI cricket, but they have talent and they will be the backbone of the national side for a long time.

I don't think anyone doubts their talent. The questions are whether they are up to it or are developing as the promise shows. Wes and Shumba have been around the team for a while now and jus thave not kicked on as they should. All well and good to hype them up, but they are falling behind where they need to be.

- Kaia’s revelation proves my point that I’ve been saying ever since I joined the forum 10 years ago (holy shit that’s gone quick) that most baysman aren’t ready for international cricket until they’ve scored 3000-4000 first class runs.

Countless international players disprove that point.

When the Big 3 retire, I’d suggest Zimbabwe might be best to look for experienced players on the local scene to fill the voids. Possibly the likes of Tari, Roy Kaia, Kasuza & of course Burl should be primed by then.

They should, but they probably wont be. We don't have the development structure that we need to have and we are struggling at the moment to get players into these positions where they need to take over. We've gone back to Chamu and even Maruma to a degree. This just goes to show how bad our depth is.

- Players should be encouraged to play overseas in Australia & England, as we’ve seen before they improve loads. The only concern is that they don’t come back.

This I agree with. I am not a big fan of forcing players to play in our domestic if they want to play for the country. Yes we need to build our domestic scene and all that, but that is not the responsibility of the players. ZC needs to fix it's club system first before forcing these players back. They also need to have a regular set up and proper structure for the domestic scene before forcing players. Still waiting for more word on that T10 comp. In the mean time, use the other systems. It's free development being done for ZC.

- The talk about money or lack there of for domestic players is concerning, and also makes me really pissed off with Raza. He’s apparently on around $25k USD per month (can anyone confirm?) which is a lot of money.

I would counter that he might not be. I don't know if he is, but if he is on that money, I doub't hed be running off to play 2/3 games in random leagues all over the world. You might be right, just my thoughts.

The fact Raza has skipped two series now including a Test series, plus he’s also going to miss the Dutch series, I just think it’s poor form. Sure, he wanted to play the PSL & IPL, but he also missed games for the BPL and ILT20 which are Mickey Mouse tournaments.

Raza has a lot of good faith with their fans in Zimbabwe, but when we’re getting pumped at home in a Test match rolling out the likes of Chamu & Tsiga I think leaves a bad taste in the mouths. Unless he secures World Cup qualification I think a lot won’t forgive him.

I agree, questions need to be asked of Raza. I get he is at the end of his career and trying to make the most of his earning opportunities, but he can't be off in random leagues whilst his nation is struggling. Not good form at all. He definitely really needs to perform at the CWCQ. I also agree with secretzimbo. Burl should also be scrutinised for missing a series. I wouldn't say his is a bigger loss, but our key players missing diminishes the value of zim matches.

[Crastle_cog]

Why are people having a pop at Raza but not Burl?

Burl’s absence is much worse imo.

I reckon raza's worse. Burl only had two francise commitments, one in Bangladesh and the other in Nepal. He played the full Ireland series while Raza skipped half of it and then went to play in the ILT20, an absolutely pointless competition
Burl will be back now however Raza will be missing the camp for some time now with his PSL and IPL commitments which is understandable.
Just can't make sense of that ILT20 thing.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Yeah, skipping tests for OTHER T20 stuff that doesn't even add to your overall T20 records cannot be acceptable, especially since he had PSL and IPL lined up anyway. even playing BPL is adding to your T20 records, but not the stupid ILT20.

[zimbos_05]

Most of the T20 comps are pointless, but they offer good pay days. I would probably only want to play in either the BBL, IPL, and the Vitality Blast. CSAT20 also has some appeal. Other than that, would not be rushing everywhere else. For players like those from Zim, that's something they can't pass up.

After what happened in Nepal though, hopefully they don't go chasing those kind of comps.

[TapsC2]

Yeah, skipping tests for OTHER T20 stuff that doesn't even add to your overall T20 records cannot be acceptable, especially since he had PSL and IPL lined up anyway. even playing BPL is adding to your T20 records, but not the stupid ILT20.

In his defence I don't think he had the PSL and IPL lined up when he accepted the ILT20 offer. Its a tough one to find common ground. Yes we can all say the West Indians skipped tournaments but thats because somebody like Holder has already played multiple seasons of the IPL and other leagues. They have already made a lot of money. The real reason why we faced a full strength team is because they were preparing for South Africa.

What we need to hope and pray for is that Raza actually has a great IPL so that he can start turning down leagues

[ZIMDOGGY]

If it’s any consolation, I suspect this will be Razas one and only IPL.
He’s there off the back off a purple patch. A lot of it against associates.

My prediction is he has 2 failures and one success with bat and ball.

I’m not saying ‘this is what will happen I’m telling you’ because he might surprise me, but it’s my suspicion it’s how it plays out.