ESPNCRICINFO reports that Gary Ballance has retired from all cricket - does anybody know details, what happened ?

[CrimsonAvenger]

There are a lot of hopefullys anyway, with our without Ballance

[jontym87]

I know I sound like a stuck record, but I can't wrap my head around Jonty thinking that GB is not essential to firstly our white ball and secondly to the overall state of our national side. We have not long to wait to see life without Ballance, Williams, Ervine and Raza. We might be back to our worst days, when the rest of the world has moved on. Disaster is looming. Sorry but its true, my timing has been out, but it has an air of inevitability about it and GB was a very necessary part of keeping it together.
The proviso is obviously a fit, healthy and happy GB, which is obviously not a guarantee.
Pick a side without our big players. It's grim.
When the dust settles and he personally takes stock of the mess he's made and how people pushed the boat out for him he's going to have real problems reconciling that. Yorkshire were patient with him and that was due mostly to his undeniable ability and not his sparkling personality. People with knowledge seem painfully aware that you don't just pick a 20 year old and he will rise to Ballance's ability. Jonty's pick was Dion. Well let's see, undeniable ability, but in this environment he's in long shot territory, no disrespect to the guy. He'll be farming within 5 years, that's my prediction. Yet Jonty thinks - don't worry there's a plan. There currently really isn't.
As I pointed out before, ZC have laboured under this for decades and it just hasn't happened. The best kid they've had for years has been Madhevere that they've really looked after and he is yet to deliver, and may never do so. He needs to have his head on a swivel for the lab coats as well. The number of guys they've ignored or just not groomed correctly or allowed to slip through their fingers has been criminal.

This really shouldn't be a gotcha moment, we're in serious trouble.

What serious trouble? GB wasn't going to be the Messiah. Zim lost and won games without GB. What's worse that could happen? Mind you GB had not played any meaningful cricket for almost 24 months and little cricket he played did nothing extra ordinary. You cant judge a person by just one inning in International Cricket otherwise people like Braithwaitte (Carlos) would still be playing for Windies because he smashed Stokes for sixes to win the world cup. Cricket isn't played in the past, yes GB scored a ton but was he going to do it over a sustained period of time? In white-ball cricket if you looked at his innings against Netherlands he wasn't convincing for a person who is to provide stability to the side.

Zim cricket lost nothing and gained nothing. In your senses you would rather pick someone on the back of performances of 5/6 years ago but done nothing in the last 12/24 months? If that was the cricket i don't think ECB would have dropped him in the national side would have continued with him. Yes we have average players but that doesn't a side has to be picked on historical performances.

Ok if i may put to you on what basis did he walk straight into that team? Had he played meaningful cricket over the last 24 months? NO. Had he scored any runs in the last 24 months? NO. So you pick that person to play ahead of people that have been scoring playing and runs (forget about the standard but take int consideration its cricket), what message will the selectors be sending other guys? That you can make side on historical performances and weight of your name?

There was nothing special about GB he had not played any cricket should have been treated same way anyone else is treated. It's a good thing this happened because it exposes the hypocrisy of ZC. I would say same thing had it been Kaia, Chatara, Madhevere or any other player. This was a very very very bad precedent set by ZC that even without playing cricket you can walk into the national team.

Please argue with facts and come with numbers here of matches played by Ballance before Zim selection. The whole Zim selection panel should be ashamed of themselves for this.

[TapsC2]

What a fuck up man. When this hits the news there will be absolutely nowhere to run. He has let a lot of people down including his own family. Life away from big salaries is going to hit him hard. This is a serious own-goal man. What a disaster. He might be better off staying Zim than Yorkshire once this hits. Yorkshire are going to get into trouble for this too because the rumour is they let him get away with it for years. They failed him too.

[jontym87]

The hope is that we do have a bunch of guys in the system currently who are of good ability, are committed, are young, and are seemingly being taken care of better than previous generations. And despite this latest disaster theres a generally positive vibe around our cricket and most facets of it are improving.

Madhevere
Munyonga
Marumani
Shumba
Madande
Bennett
Campbell
Curran
M Welch
(maybe N Welch eventually)

Frost and Schadendorf did well in their recent appearances, although I don't rate them hugely.

Fingers crossed for a couple from the next u19 batch too.

But ya the issue is Ballance was the perfect age - him giving us 3-4 years to sit alongside and lead this group of youngsters was critical. We could very quickly go from having the oldest top 7 batsmen in the world to the youngest! A batting lineup with no Ervine/Williams/Ballance/Raza looks truly tragic currently. Hopefully Raza plays until he is 40 and remains available and somehow retains his ridiculous form from the last 12 months for another several years Hopefully one or two other do a Kaia and up their game miraculously. Naqvi?

There's a lot of 'hopefully's' here.

There are bigger problems at ZC and whole structures need a total revamp. Get the right personnel in the structures. Right now we have franchise coaches who have been coaching for the longest have never upgraded their skills they got their qualifications in the early 2000s, so what new things will they impart on those youngsters? What it means the youngsters have hit the ceiling in terms of development and whats happening now is they are learning on the go which is not ideal. Look at the period 2009-12 we had the likes of Allan Donald, Chris Silverwood, Jason Gillespie, Monty Lynch, Andrew Hall coaching the sides. How competitive was professional cricket? Guys like Muzhange from Midwest were unearthed and what happened to them when those coaches left?

Look at Kaia i mentioned he was just an average cricketer, but joined the right clubs in England and Australia and his game improved massively.

[secretzimbo]

The really brutal thing here is that the ICC almost never, ever, conduct in-competition testing at bilateral series. At Qualifying tournaments and world cups etc yes, they do frequently. But a random bilateral series between Zim and Ned? It’s unheard of.

It’s therefore almost a certainty that they got a tip-off from someone. Someone reported him. It’s extremely unlikely to have been anyone in the ZC setup considering the amounts of money they were supposedly paying him.

It’s either a severely disgruntled local player here who thinks along the likes of Jonty and was exceptionally bitter that he walked straight into the team and was twice the player they could ever dream of being.

Or it’s someone he upset at Yorkshire. Rafiq and his pals maybe

[jontym87]

What a fuck up man. When this hits the news there will be absolutely nowhere to run. He has let a lot of people down including his own family. Life away from big salaries is going to hit him hard. This is a serious own-goal man. What a disaster. He might be better off staying Zim than Yorkshire once this hits. Yorkshire are going to get into trouble for this too because the rumour is they let him get away with it for years. They failed him too.

This is a big disaster and unnecessary attention on YCC

[jontym87]

The really brutal thing here is that the ICC almost never, ever, conduct in-competition testing at bilateral series. At Qualifying tournaments and world cups etc yes, they do frequently. But a random bilateral series between Zim and Ned? It’s unheard of.

It’s therefore almost a certainty that they got a tip-off from someone. Someone reported him. It’s extremely unlikely to have been anyone in the ZC setup considering the amounts of money they were supposedly paying him.

It’s either a severely disgruntled local player here who thinks along the likes of Jonty and was exceptionally bitter that he walked straight into the team and was twice the player they could ever dream of being.

Or it’s someone he upset at Yorkshire. Rafiq and his pals maybe

You think so? That its unheard of? Ask us who have been in the setup and very close to the team will tell you. You are wrong ICC carry out random tests in-competition at bilateral series my guy, I've seen it happening. They actually target countries with no robust anti-doping policies eg Zimbabwe and Pakistan. These are random tests ask Doug Hondo will tell you.

[jontym87]

The really brutal thing here is that the ICC almost never, ever, conduct in-competition testing at bilateral series. At Qualifying tournaments and world cups etc yes, they do frequently. But a random bilateral series between Zim and Ned? It’s unheard of.

It’s therefore almost a certainty that they got a tip-off from someone. Someone reported him. It’s extremely unlikely to have been anyone in the ZC setup considering the amounts of money they were supposedly paying him.

It’s either a severely disgruntled local player here who thinks along the likes of Jonty and was exceptionally bitter that he walked straight into the team and was twice the player they could ever dream of being.

Or it’s someone he upset at Yorkshire. Rafiq and his pals maybe

This is what @crimsonavenger was saying earlier why you making the thread about me its about Ballance. He fucked up, he was a good player but past 24 months a nobody as he had not scored any runs or played meaningful cricket!

[ZIMDOGGY]

I'm not sure why this thread has become about Jonty and not about Gary. Come on, Jonty has been a valuable contributor for long. Disagreements need not get personal. Yes, some of us are overly harsh on some players, but it's a quip and we move on. Can't have pages of going at each other while the other person is also bringing facts to the table.

The bottom line is probably difficult to accept may be? Also, there was no way Gary could have played an "ICC tournament" - the qualifiers with all the random testings - in this state anyway, would have been a major egg on the face of ZC, so isn't it good that he walked away?

Saying Garry doesn’t add value, needs to do a Logan cup stint and that sniffing coke nullifies tournaments records would do that.

[secretzimbo]

The really brutal thing here is that the ICC almost never, ever, conduct in-competition testing at bilateral series. At Qualifying tournaments and world cups etc yes, they do frequently. But a random bilateral series between Zim and Ned? It’s unheard of.

It’s therefore almost a certainty that they got a tip-off from someone. Someone reported him. It’s extremely unlikely to have been anyone in the ZC setup considering the amounts of money they were supposedly paying him.

It’s either a severely disgruntled local player here who thinks along the likes of Jonty and was exceptionally bitter that he walked straight into the team and was twice the player they could ever dream of being.

Or it’s someone he upset at Yorkshire. Rafiq and his pals maybe

You think so? That its unheard of? Ask us who have been in the setup and very close to the team will tell you. You are wrong ICC carry out random tests in-competition at bilateral series my guy, I've seen it happening. They actually target countries with no robust anti-doping policies eg Zimbabwe and Pakistan. These are random tests ask Doug Hondo will tell you.

Ask BT. He is convinced someone tipped them off. Says it was unheard of for ICC Anti-doping guys to turn up at a low-key series between e.g. Zim and Ireland like when he got caught.