Random ZC related thoughts by one of the great minds on ZCF.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

In a test vs South Africa at Harare in 2001, he kept wicket for 10 hours without conceding a bye (600-3 dec), then he batted for a total of 16 hours over 2 innings as Zim followed on ( 142 not out, and 199). This is truly phenomenal when you think about it, and for me puts him above Gilchrist or Sanga.

Despite all these heroics, the biased SAF gave Kallis the Man of the Series

[Robbo]

Flower even managed 67 and 14 not out in the 2nd test ( or something very similar, correct me if i'm wrong). I think Kallis got it, because he was never actually dismissed. In John Ward's words he scored runs ' like an automaton'. No justice....

[zimbofan88]

Back then, Zimbabwe played nearly as many tests as everybody else.

Zimbabwe, like today, were the whipping boys of the test world.

All star batsman got the luxury of having their averages padded up by playing against Zimbabwes potato pellet gun attack.

Even at our best, our bowlers were still very much sub par compared to the rest of the world. Besides Streak, and a lesser extent Strang and Brandes, we havent had any first class quality bowlers, let alone international quality. The likes of Blignaut and Jarvis were decent, and we saw the odd flash of quality from Price and Olonga, but at the time of playing for Zimbabwe, I don't believe they would have made either the South African or Australian first class system.
Jurys still out on Cremer.

Streak was the only quality bowler we had. Price didn't play many games and wasn't in his top form during that period. The reason we were hammered by the good teams was because we always had some 2-3 mediocre bowlers in the team such as Rennie, Murphy, Whittal, Friend, Marillier,Mbangwa etc. I don't think we would been that ordinary side if we had regularly played guys like Streak, B Strang, Brandes,Price, Olonga and Blignaut in the team.
Similarly, in our present squad we could be a much better side if we have likes of Jarvis, Ireland, Cremer, Chatara, Price etc playing regularly for Zim.

[sloandog]

Take Ireland out of that list - well and truly past his best