brmtaylor.com admin wrote:OR... why not send some of our batsmen to play in the Ranji Trophy? They've got like 600 FC teams over there. Even someone like Chari would make a first XI somewhere you'd think.
There are 28 FC teams. And that does not mean the standard is so low for a Chari kind of guy to walk in to a side. To give an example, Karnataka have been in finals in 3 out of last 4 seasons and are table toppers again this season in one of the groups. They have won the Ranji Trophy twice out of those 3 occasions. At any point, there are 25 guys fighting to be in the final 15 this season. And you can see at least half a dozen former Karnataka cricketers with more than decent FC records who have left the state in search of regular first team opportunities in teams like Vidarbha and Assam.
Yeah. Chari might not even make a first xi in a bangladeshi first class side. Although chari has decent technique...at least he looks like he can hold a bat.
But in india you probably have a talent pool of several million...equivalent to the entire zim population competing for 300 first team slots. So yes there are a lot more first class roster spots in india, but the number of people competing is magnitudes more.
Simple math. 60 fc spots in zim (15 man squad x 4 teams), and lets estimate 5000 club cricketers in the country. But in india there would be 500 spots but the entire country would have say 1,000,000 serious cricket players.
Having a Test player on the books though - deserved or not - is probably something some teams would like just from a prestige perspective.
A bit like how average FC players from Zimbabwe seem to be in hot demand among the English club teams.
Kriterion_BD wrote:So my 5000 number is pretty close.
The problem is of that 5000, maybe a couple hundred are white and most of them wont stick around. But 90% of the talent is in that group of 200 odd white players. Maybe with streak some will come back and or not leave.
Well you're not that close. If we had 5000 we'd have triple the depth we do now and we'd be smiling. Whites in club cricket number less than 15, in franchise there's less than 6. For the overall numbers we do have we're pretty good.
Kriterion_BD wrote:So my 5000 number is pretty close.
The problem is of that 5000, maybe a couple hundred are white and most of them wont stick around. But 90% of the talent is in that group of 200 odd white players. Maybe with streak some will come back and or not leave.
Well you're not that close. If we had 5000 we'd have triple the depth we do now and we'd be smiling. Whites in club cricket number less than 15, in franchise there's less than 6. For the overall numbers we do have we're pretty good.
Can you name the 15?
Are any of the former internationals (I'm thinking of the Duffin/Coventry/Lamb ilk) still playing at any level?
There are 28 FC teams. And that does not mean the standard is so low for a Chari kind of guy to walk in to a side. To give an example, Karnataka have been in finals in 3 out of last 4 seasons and are table toppers again this season in one of the groups. They have won the Ranji Trophy twice out of those 3 occasions. At any point, there are 25 guys fighting to be in the final 15 this season. And you can see at least half a dozen former Karnataka cricketers with more than decent FC records who have left the state in search of regular first team opportunities in teams like Vidarbha and Assam.