Schools T20 Comp

[secretzimbo]

How much of an impact has Covid had on this age group though? They lost a year or two of cricket completely. Surely that has to be a factor.

[secretzimbo]

But for sure thats only partially to blame. You're right about 'cricket culture' in general.

It's going to be very hard to turn around. ZC don't - and won't - get involved with the private schools so I'm not sure what the answer is. Are schools focusing more on other sports now, or are we in the shit across the board? I don't really follow hockey/rugby/soccer.

[Googly]

They're not focusing on anything from what I can see.
Our national sport is soccer and the schoolboy standard is also abysmal.
St John's have that astra turf pitch and that's always busy.

Our rugby is not too bad, there was some entertaining schoolboy rugby this year. The black schools appear to continue to load their teams with players who quit school years ago, which does raise the standard
but they'd be destroyed by a top SA side, whose schoolboy rugby is the best in the world. All steroid monkeys, they've shortened their lifespans by about 30 years.

Here's a harsh truth-
The private schools always provided a nucleus of good players for age group tours. Zc would ignore more than half of them in favor of second rate players, thinking white kids would stupidly keep playing cricket but that's done and dusted now. Two decades of that behaviour with no pathways for pro cricket is what created the low standard of our domestic and club cricket so ZC have actually played a direct hand all this time. You can only pluck the goose for so long before it dies. Plus there is very little age group cricket. The sham trials usually involve hundreds of second rate players and the selectors sitting under a tree on their phones because they've already picked their team.
If they're going to turn over a new leaf in selection processes at national level then they need to stop being hypocrites and do the same at age group level, but it's probably too late, there's very little interest amongst the white kids now. They've ripped the heart right out of it and there's no-one to blame but themselves, not even sanctions.

[secretzimbo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT57LbL ... =SandSport

St George's bowled out for 84 against a fairly standard SA side.

We're up the creek with no paddle

[secretzimbo]

I used to visit these festivals in years gone by. I wouldn't bother now even if I lived 5 minutes away

[Googly]

Sa schools used to queue up to play, now St Andrews can bring their first and second team? How does that work?
Couldn't ZC have arranged a pick up side of their grass roots players so we could see how they're progressing?

[secretzimbo]

Nice to see Marumani's younger brother - Tanatswa - score a few runs this morning. He underwent life-saving surgery about 18 months back. The school, led by Tadiwanashe, did lots of fundraising for his medical bills.

[secretzimbo]

Dylan Nzvenga with a nice knock today, 67 off 35 balls for Falcon this morning. He's the kid who scored a double century in SA a couple of years ago.

Final is live here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUeQi0i ... =SandSport - decent crowd by the looks of it. Peterhouse Vs SA.

[secretzimbo]

Fuck me this is bad quality cricket. The St Andrews fielding is a joke, it's like watching u10 girls. Are these supposed to be one of the best SA schools? If so, they are as much in the shit as we are.

[secretzimbo]

Match tied! Super over time

Bennett Jr was bowling well