NPL 2025

[zimfan1]

Cunninghammania incoming!

[zimdan]

Inno Kaia 102, 150, 96 in his first three matches, albeit against poor opposition shows he still has it.

His colleagues aren't even close to him.

Good batter that hasn't had a look in when competing with the likes Makoni....

[secretzimbo]

I like Innocent a lot but scoring runs against whoever these random people forming the ‘Methane Lions’ counts for absolutely nothing. I follow every level of domestic cricket extremely closely and even I have never heard of whoever these bowlers are. Scoring runs against a Merlin machine would be more valuable.

Sorry to shit on guys who are probably trying their best but some of these NPL sides are a waste of time.

Outside of the top 5-6 sides you might as well bat against some school teams.

[secretzimbo]

I haven’t played for 15 years but 100%, I am a better player than a few of the players in the bottom NPL sides. Sorry to be harsh but it’s absolutely true.

The league would be stronger and better if it was restricted to 8-10 sides at most.

[secretzimbo]

Our school cricket is properly shit but some of our school teams would finish mid division in this NPL. Says a lot.

[secretzimbo]

I don’t think at least half the SOGO players would be bothered travelling to Kwekwe on a Wednesday afternoon to play a team of school teachers from Chiredzi or Gwanda unless the post-match beers were free and the camaraderie was so fun. They’d genuinely be better off playing an inter-squad game.

[secretzimbo]

If everyone was available then the Harare Vigne Cup would be significantly stronger and higher standard than this NPL.

[secretzimbo]

And that’s not even including all the elderly half-cut whites who play in the Boozers league at OG and Wingate or all the Asian dudes who play in their private leagues at Sunrise and Alex and Universal every Sunday, who are better players than at least half of the players in this league.

[secretzimbo]

If you really want a 14-team ‘national’ premier league then sorry but at least 10, maybe 11 of the strongest sides are from Harare. Maybe 1 side from marondera, 1 from somewhere in the midlands and 1 from Bulawayo.

I had the misfortune of being in attendance at a ‘1st League’ match in Bulawayo at Emakhandeni sports club in February and the standard was apalling and quite significantly below
Almost anything you’d find in Harare 1st league or even 2nd league. Aside from me being firmly told that the 16 year old talented white boy relative on debut in the visiting side should be ‘playing with other people and other teams’, most alarming was the minefield pitch that hadn’t been covered or rolled or maintained or watered for probably at least a decade. Also quite alarming was the fact that there was only one umpire on the field!!! And he spent half the match looking at his phone. And this is the ‘first league’ that is deciding multiple teams that qualify for the NPL?!?! Take a guess who has been responsible for running club cricket in this region into the ground. Cricket in Bulawayo is completely finished. You think standards have fallen in Harare but then take a look down here and open your eyes.

Of course all this is symptomatic of 25 years of destruction of club cricket in the regions by ZC and nearly 50 years of forced demographic change.

[zimdan]

I like Innocent a lot but scoring runs against whoever these random people forming the ‘Methane Lions’ counts for absolutely nothing. I follow every level of domestic cricket extremely closely and even I have never heard of whoever these bowlers are. Scoring runs against a Merlin machine would be more valuable.

Sorry to shit on guys who are probably trying their best but some of these NPL sides are a waste of time.

Outside of the top 5-6 sides you might as well bat against some school teams.

Don't disagree at all, but as I have pointed out many times, no matter who you are playing against, the best players rise to the top. If a player you expect to do well doesn't in the NPL, ask yourself are they really that good.

This is all I am pointing out with this stuff.

I do hope we see some of the Chevrons suiting up. Keen to gauge their level to be honest.