Logan Cup R4 2019/20 Mountaineers v ACHPP & Rhinos v Tuskers

[Googly]

That’s worth revisiting. Practically all the good school cricket happens at the private schools (except George’s and HH), there’s only a few of them though as we know. Of the players there more than half are white kids. Of these kids virtually none of them continue on to club or franchise here. This means that of our really pitiful junior player pool more than half of the ones with facilities and opportunities don’t carry on with the game. It’s not entirely ZC’s fault, but they’re far from blameless.
The only spin is that when you see mostly black guys playing representative cricket they’ll say grass roots is working, but it isn’t.
Of the one but last u19 squad the only white guy we’ve seen is Burl. Of the last one we’ve seen Murray, albeit briefly, and Roche. I don’t think I’ve left anyone out.
Of this current lot the only one that has a shot at being good is Schardendorf and he’s leaving.
So out of 6 years of cricket we’ve basically got Burl.
That is an absolutely shocking stat and it’s going to get even worse.
One solution is to stop picking whites altogether, but the guys replacing them are highly unlikely to make it either, so that’s not really a solution. It’s a spiteful option which they have in fact exercised in the past through quota so I wouldn’t put it past them, but black guys have also now left so that horse can no longer be saddled either.
The reality is that they’re probably now looking for the odd decent white guy so they don’t look too racist because there’s virtually none of them around anymore.
They’ve set out to f%# it up and now that they’ve finally managed to achieve one thing they’re now looking askance at each other wondering what happened. Well I don’t think they’re even doing that yet because the enormity if the blunder hasn’t quite dawned on them yet. If it wasn’t tragic it would be laughable. It’s also why they’ll try and grab an import who’s at school outside because they just assume he has to be better than what’s on offer here. They’re mostly right, but not all the time.
Hamilton’s dismissive “well we can’t stop anyone leaving” is true, but unless they have the brute force option open to them they are clueless.

[Googly]

And when you grab the import is he coming back or is he just taking the free holiday? He’d left for a reason in the first place. I think Madhevere may think about it, but he may also get an offer from a franchise down there. They’re in the same boat, they need to prove their failed transformation policies are working and are desperate for a half decent looking black batsman so they can keep grinding their communal axe. I wouldn’t discount him getting an offer from one of them, he’s a decent player.

If you look at the costs of one of these U19 campaigns they’re probably huge. This one may have been our cheapest since their biggest tour was probably to Takashinga, but if you consider the costs of coaches, kit, travel, etc etc over 12-18 months you’re looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars. You can’t just shrug your shoulders and say nil return at the end of it.
Look at Madhevere and Shumba- they’ve been to THREE world cups. If you consider what’s been invested in these two alone it’s mind boggling. They’re not great examples because these muppets will finally hopefully do something with these two, but it’s not a given, they’re that useless.
These U19 campaigns are expensive, time consuming and use up resources and yet they’ve produced virtually nothing for nearly ten years. You’re probably realistically looking at a million dollars in total for nothing, except to tick a box with ICC and pretend we’re complying. Shameful and shameless is what they are. And on top of that when there are selection shenanigans it makes it doubly so, and every two years you hear first hand of shameless parents and equally shameless “selectors” exchanging gifts. It’s unsustainable and it’s why we’re on skid row.

[jaybro]

Mpofu & Madziva having great games both looking to push for spots on the plane to Bangladesh, maybe for the shorter formats I’d say but still wickets are wickets

[ljriley90]

Thinking white, what happeneed to James Bruce he was getting touted up on here.

Was he that good or big noise because he was white?

He had a hiatus from after finishing age group cricket didnt he?

[Googly]

I’m not sure. He played for Rhinos a while then stopped.
He was a big strong guy and was a damned fine rugby player as well.
He was a bowling all rounder if I recall, but what little I saw of him I didn’t think he would go all the way, basically a decent FC Zim cricketer by all accounts.
His family are all pharmacists and hyper smart folk.
I’d bet he’s overseas now and not playing anymore.

[Googly]

He has a younger brother, Angus, who was also a good sportsman, probably more a rugby player, but one of those good all rounders.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Does it seem strange to anyone that in a town as big as Bulawayo there's not at least one or two white guys playing club cricket somewhere competing for a FC spot? Even if it's just to have a bit of fun a few days a month and get a Cricinfo page, because obviously nobody would be doing it for the money.

How big do you think Bulawayo is, Bud? Do you know how many white guys actually live there?

I always enjoy doing these sums to horrify myself.
There are basically three schools with white kids there-
CBC, Whitestone and Falcon. Falcon probably has 250 white kids at most, and that’s a stretch. Multiply that by 3. That’s 750 kids. Assume 2 parents per kid, we’re at a grand total of 2250. Double that for grannies, grandpas and and 1000 for hillbillies in them thar hills .
I don’t reckon there’s more than 6000 pinkies there.
When the pink kids leave school the vast majority leave the country if they are able. The black kids are no different. Any parents who can afford Uni send their kids out and most never come back.
These are our “elite” kids, the guys and girls with a good education and a head start in life and would make a big difference to our economy.
Whoever mentioned Diplock was right, one white guy in the whole country that plays club cricket, and believe me he’s the absolute last we will ever see. He’s like that last Northern Rhino that died a few months back. The last of his species. They should make a Diplock Memorial Cup.

I just find it shocking, I mean let's be really conservative and say there's 500 blokes in that 15-35 age bracket. In such a strong sporting culture, not even ONE of them is having a bit of a hit in club cricket even just for fun? If a white guy in Bulawayo wants to play a game of cricket what does he do? Same goes for Harare, how can Diplock be the only one? I just find it staggering.

[Googly]

You play Boozers’ league so you can have a laugh with your mates, but I think this is dying a slow death, if it hasn’t already.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

You play Boozers’ league so you can have a laugh with your mates, but I think this is dying a slow death, if it hasn’t already.

Do you know what "RhoDocs" stands for?

[Googly]

The last time there were enough decent players to get some white guys together for club cricket was back in 2014 I think? Almost every game they played was turned into a racially charged event by the opposition and it was often unpleasant. There were a few cool heads, but there were always spoilers. The opposition would play unregistered players to beef up their sides as well. Also there was no continuity to the season, sides wouldn’t pitch and it was just not worth the drama.
Those days are probably largely past, but there’s now zero interest from our community, and there just aren’t the players, it’s pretty much over with finality.
The white guys don’t really want to be the only one or two in a side, they want to play in a side with at least 50/50. You see it in school cricket and in age group cricket. The black guys gravitate towards one another and vice versa. If they decide to go out after there’s very little mixing. There’s no animosity or anything like that, it’s just oil and water, you do get a bit of cross over, but not much. It’s the same at school outside of sport or even when they’ve left school, you don’t often see white guys get invited to black guys’ houses or vice versa. If you do it’s often a business relationship.