Can Logan Cup/Pro 50 go to a tri series?

[ZIMDOGGY]

Thinking out loud here and touching on it previously.
Is there merit on reducing the Logan cup setup even further to a 3 team thrashout with a draft system of sorts?

Looking at these games and no names, its clear the talent isn't there. You can argue correctly that the national team being absent makes a massive difference but there is only 14 players missing.

Its hard to believe two years back that there were even more teams in the setup.

I wonder if we can go to a 3 way setup of a Mash/Mat and Midlands/mountaineers merger, and implement the old 12 player substitute rule, and implement a 'max one import per setup' rule, with maybe an allowance for a player that may be looking to qualify for Zimbabwe.

The money saved is obvious, the standard is increased, and with the substitution rule the batters will face better bowling throughout and likewise the bowlers wont be bowling at pure junk batsman.

Its not an extreme suggestion, right now there are 44 players on the park should all teams be playing today, but under this idea, it will be 36 active players all with a slight pay increase.

So its only an 8 player reduction in reality.

[Kriterion_BD]

As long as ZC admin are thieving, it doesn't matter much. All the good players will leave and national team will lose a closely contested series to PNG or Nepal. Even in an ideal situation where BRMT, Jarvis, Ballance, and the Curran brothers were playing, ZIM would still be sitting under the West Indies in the rankings. But those guys all left, and more are probably on their way. The blacks just don't have the passion for the game, generally speaking, and hence there is almost no talent. Its a white man's sport in country where there almost no whites left.

Unless and until ZC experiences regime change, the team is screwed. The experiment has failed.

[zimbofan88]

The side with Ballance, Taylor, S Ervine,Mire,Blignaut, Currans,Jarvis,Cremer,Williams,Welch,Byrom,Grandahomme etc could have been a mid -ranked team better than Windies, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Chigs,Waller, Raza and most of the players in the current side wouldn't have even made to the A side.

[Kriterion_BD]

The side with Ballance, Taylor, S Ervine,Mire,Blignaut, Currans,Jarvis,Cremer,Williams,Welch,Byrom,Grandahomme etc could have been a mid -ranked team better than Windies, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Chigs,Waller, Raza and most of the players in the current side wouldn't have even made to the A side.

I respectfully disagree. Mire was terrible, check his stats. Jarvis was horrible in ODIs. Ballance too has a poor ODI record and he got a good stretch of games to prove himself too (16 matches), but he's made England's side so he likely has the talent. Cremer has a wretched record as well, although I admit he's supremely talented. Williams is at most decent because he's inconsistent and/or throws his wicket away when set. Ditto for C Ervine. Blignaut was also decent based on his stats. Taylor was of course very good as was S Ervine. Welch, Byrom, Grandhomme, Curran bros are untested.

SL, BD, Pak, WI can all win series at home, and win odd matches overseas. Would a full strength Zim side be able to match that? I think they'd be as good as WI are now but thats it. PAK and SL are just rebuilding now and BD is already a mid ranked side without being fully developed yet.

In Tests you'd be better than BD, and level with current WI side. But once BD wins a couple, they'll be up past the WI too.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Agreed with everything Kriterion said in birth posts,
However to add, i dont think Grandhomme would have been any different to say a Raza (which mind you,is great for the current team but largely ineffective by world standards) and i think that Ballance, without any pressure, would have been as good as Taylor without the added pressure of always fighting for his spot, but then again, he could be complacent and be another Hammy.

[ZIMDOGGY]

The other one to add is Hilton,
hes on the cusp of playing the toughest first class system in the world, but cant get a run.

i watched his big knocks in the matador cup and he has talent, he would be so handy for zimbabwe.

Unbelievably, he got dumped from his Big Bash team. He absolutely hits the ball a mile and would be so handy for the world cup upcoming.

[sloandog]

I'll be a honest, a real deep sadness came over me then when i read Zimfanatics post.

The rebel saga was awful, yes, we lost a massive amount of talent and player strength. However, Gripper, Carlisle, Sims and Flower were (at that stage) performing poorly and were more than likely over the hill. Flower's average had dropped alarmingly in the 2 years leasing up to that Bangladesh series in April 04. The only real innings of substance was the 96* he scored against England in the 2003 tour at Nottingham; I was there as a kid and remember my dad going wild when he cover drove Giles to seal the game.

Yet I feel the generation of cricketers we've lost in the past 2 years have been amongst some of the most talented we've had. Say what you want about Byrom being arrogant and not as good as everybody makes him out to be, he's scoring big hundreds for Somerset 2's and opened the batting with Trescothik. The bloke's doing something right.
Burl I'm glad to see back but, with the present state of affairs, how long for. Looks like a real talent.
Welch is another one. By all accounts, thanks largely to the greatly appreciated insight from the men on the ground, he's one of the most talented 17/18 year old batters the country has ever produced. Massive blow that he's gone.
Brad Evans by all accounts had genuine pace, as did Gary King before leaving. Then there's Malcolm Lake.

Sam Curran is going to be world class; imagine him, Welch, Byrom, Burl, Wasakadza, Mumba and Musoko in this side; Shit it literally sends shivers down my spine.

I just feel that this generation of players could have taken us somewhere, somewhere really high up and special. And it's tear your hair out stuff when you think a lot of them would gladly return after their education, if the admin was run properly.

I mean i think it's great that we've had a fresh unflux of talent into the side, but they aren't blowing teams away. If the above players were involved, along with Mire and perhaps a Diplock, we would crunch associates like Aghanistan.

This generation that we've just lost, in my opinion, was and is more talented than the Taylor generation. Some of them (Curran, Welch) are probably better than Taylor was when he was 18/19...imagine how good they're going to get.

[Kriterion_BD]

sloan I was very briefly (2011-2013) a ZIM supporter when you had Taylor, Jarvis for Tests, and expected Welch to make the side soon. All of them are gone, and with it, my desire to see ZIM do well on the int'l stage.

you mentioned, Mire...I saw him in the BD series and the world cup (hus entire int'l career) and he looked the epitome of mediocre. Stats showed it too. I may catch some flak, but to me Jongwe looks like a Mire clone ie an all rounder who is not very good with bat, and just Ok with the ball.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Yeah you kind of want them to fail massively so you can kind of Say ' I told you so' to the ones who justified the admins efforts.

[aydee]

Jongwe looks like a Mire clone ie an all rounder who is not very good with bat, and just Ok with the ball.

He is only 20, to be fair to him. In international terms, you may well be right, but in Zimbabwe terms he is definitely a promising all round prospect.