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

[mnelson68]

'Not fluent in white ball cricket' are you mad?

Career average of 47+, over a 17 year List A career in England.

No one else in Zimbabwe save Williams/Raza would average over 30 in England and you know it. (Heck, hardly any even average over 30 here )

Nonsense from 2006 until 2010 he played sporadically for Derbyshire and Yorkshire. It wasn’t until 2011 that he fully broke into Yorkshire first team.

You just don't like him , nobody with any cricket knowledge would agree with your assessment of Gary. You could see from his first innings that the bloke can seriously play. Knows his game inside out and plays to his strengths. His demise will set the country back big time , this will be felt massively when Ervine, Williams and Raza depart. It's going to be a long road ahead , my hope is that Bennett and Campbell can help stabilise the situation whilst enticing some young talent back from England. The cupboard is pretty bare in logan cup cricket.

[Zimco]

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[slcricfan1]

Can we just end the Ballance debate. If jonty thinks he isn't that good, thats fine. More important things to talk about

[TapsC2]

Sad to think we might have no middle order in 3 months if things don't go our way. Desperate times ahead. I have been hearing about some guys retiring this year. Googly's doomsday clock might be correct this time if they don't sign Welch and Byrom immediately after. They have to throw everything at them. This is why I'm really disappointed with Ballance. Anyway I guess this discussion has been exhausted. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

[tej_27]

Sad to think we might have no middle order in 3 months if things don't go our way. Desperate times ahead. I have been hearing about some guys retiring this year. Googly's doomsday clock might be correct this time if they don't sign Welch and Byrom immediately after. They have to throw everything at them. This is why I'm really disappointed with Ballance. Anyway I guess this discussion has been exhausted. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I am slightly happy that atleast it's not ZC or its policies which has forced Ballance to retire which could have really deterred likes of Byrom and welch to join

[Googly]

A few more retirements are just round the corner. Two of them could be as soon as tomorrow but discussion are being held to delay this till at least after qualifiers if we qualify after then after World Cup.

Why would anyone outside of Mukhulani and Masakadza be privy to any discussions being held with players about delaying retirements? That must irk them for once being held to ransom.
Are they just dangling financial carrots to players to delay their retirements for a while? I'd be shooting for a 40 year retirement job like Prosper, Elton, Hamilton himself, Banda, Jarvis etc. These guys earn way more money now than in their playing days, don't have to even arrive at work and winning or losing is completely irrelevant. It's the Holy Grail and the only thing to look forward to.
They could pretend to have an Academy and demand the best players abandon their existing clubs for major comps? Not a bad idea.
I wonder if the system could support 80 administrators and 7 players?
If those players retired now these qualifiers would be disastrous for Zim on many levels.
This latest Ballance disaster just makes people not want to play in a team where players are continually getting exposed. They should be taking their lead from administrators with an impeccable record, but the bar is on the floor.

[zimbos_05]

We always had a gaping hole in middle order what’s new about that? We have won games and lost games without him. Qualifiers were always going to be tough and having Ballance in the side doesn’t mean Zim would qualify either he is not a messiah to the team.

Basic probability would suggest you are bound to win at least once even if you put the shittest player in the middle order, however, Ballance offers solidity in the middle order. How often have players failed to score more than 20 in that role and have done so for more than 10 games.

I agree, Qualifiers were always going to be tough and Ballance does not offer certainty, but he does offer extra strength and experience, which is what we could have used, especially as you suggest that two players are wanting to quit tomorrow.

There are no guarantees we get Byrom or Welch back, so we are then having to go back to our flops who don't inspire any confidence.

I don't know what agenda you have against Ballance, and I'm not saying I agree with the drug use. However, in pure cricketing terms to suggest he added nothing to Zim is plain ignorance and arrogance

[Googly]

Jonty is sadly temporarily filling Zolsky's role.

The situation is about to become so dire that we may see ZC helping BT appeal his suspension

[Googly]

Zolsky and Larry are deathly quiet

[secretzimbo]

They will be busy drafting the ‘statement’ . Third instalment of the trilogy following the gleeful hand rubbing after Streak and Taylor