NPL 2025

[Googly]

I think they firmly believe the matter has been put to bed. Coltart has been put in his box and life can continue as normal. All questions asked and answered.

Problem is there's more shit coming. Sri Lanka are pretty strong as well and we are likely to get savaged again.
People will get bored soon enuf and start shouting- WE MUST JUST GIVE UP, WE DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME.

I see the conspiracy has now extended to SOGO and the Moor family. Theyre also behind the attempted takeover that the whole nation must rally against.


I

[Googly]

The brave patriots will easily fight them off. No to Rhodesia. No to going back to slavery and repression.

[Marshmallow]

We matched their salaries from county?
Play international for the same price.
Righ there he's saying theres no financial upside for most of the players.

Where have masakadza and chigumbura retired to? To a life of golf and idleness earning way more than they used to and it matters not what they do or dont do.

At least these two are working, unlike Jarvis, who was once appointed as the talent scout and then as a member of the U19 selection panel

[Googly]

Jarvis's free ride is a mystery.

[Googly]

That presser generated a lot of interest. At one point there were 1700 people online on this forum.

ZC is on a hiding to nothing. This Sri Lanka series is their last "warm-up" before the qualifiers. Ideally they should be putting our best team on the park. They could take a chance and persist with their previous T20 squad and hope that it carries us thru the qualifiers, but there are some proper potential banana skins in those qualifiers. Plus yet another savage beat down from Sri Lanka so soon will really ramp up the ill-feeling towards them. These squads theyre about to pick will be telling.
If they persist with that team it doesnt change the fact that that team will not competitive at the WC. Its apparent they dont think that far ahead though.

[Googly]

That Wise Owl initiative-
School cricket has all but collapsed here. Government schools are finished. Zim is littered with these small private achools that charge 600 bucks a term because anyone worried about their kids' education cannot send their kids to a government school, 90% of them dont even have text books. These new schools pretty much offer education only.

But just sending kids to Wise owl is not really a fix unless there are proper facilities and proper coaches there. There might be, Im just making an observation. And it depends on which kids you select to go there. It's a weird place to decide on investing in until you realize Mr Makoni is a Mutare boy.

Someone has to get it thru to ZC that unless the kid is really really promising before they're even a teenager its almost impossible to produce a real quality player. This is a very difficult sport. You cant get a part time tennis player or golfer at 18, give him a crash course for a year and hope he's going to be a world class pro. How is cricket any different? It's not.
Every single international batsman was exceptional from a young age. These Chigumbura academies trying to produce a Brian Lara with a one year course are an exercise in futility. If they dont know this its really alarming. Its never happened in any country ever. The kid has to be really sharp at a young age and has to be looked after and be in a good system.
What they're doing is just window dressing. If they admitted that its a whole heap better than believing it's possible.

I wonder if the Chigumbura academy gets a lump sum to do with what they wish, or do they produce an invoice to ZC to pay? I guess it's none of our business
If theyre just padding out these academies with very ordinary players its a monumental waste of money. Weve seen these academy guys. There's literally one or two that are ok, but the batters are thin on the ground for reasons I've stated.

By all means have an academy in Highfields but that's not where the good cricketers are. Theyre in Harare. Can you imagine what we could have done with that 10 million that's going down the Batonka toilet? We could have put in a fantastic set up or two here, upgraded about 6 or 7 club grounds, really targeted promising young kids, really worked on our peripheral guys with proper coaches....and paid them a living wage. They want to be competitive and even win some games so the ICC magic fairy keeps sending money but they expect the cricketers to work for free and the only light at the end of the tunnel for them is if they are prepared to do this for 15 years and grovel at the feet of the masters they might get a retirement job at ZC where they no longer have to perform at all and maybe if they have a proper plan they can jump on the gravy train. What a career plan that is.
Let me say it again- the ball throwers at The Hub earn more than ALL our franchise cricketers and more than half our international cricketers. Let that sink in. They must not try and convince anybody that has a brain cell that they have the cricketers' interests at heart. They rely on Stockholm syndrome. They will favor a couple of players by giving them a dollar extra so they feel special.
Sometimes you can jump the whole queue and become the PR man or a board member, but you have to be blood.
As white guys we shake our heads at how black guys accept this.

[Marshmallow]

No live stream has started for the most anticipated NPL match against Rangers and Takashinga yet!!

[Googly]

Just had a look at the team sheets. Not all the big guns are playing. Takaz look short a seamer.
The toss is quite important at OH. Not an easy pitch in the morning.

[secretzimbo]

BT and Raza not bothering to turn out for Taka then.

[secretzimbo]

There is an NPL match at Kadoma today and from the stream it looks sort of okay which is encouraging as about 18 months ago it was a jungle with waist high vegetation all over it.