[Series Thread] Zimbabwe U19 in South Africa

[cock]

I agree that it is good to see players coming from all parts of Zimbabwe (as this builds our player base) and was just pointing out that besides the three from Mutare who have performed well there were also good performances from the two boys born in the district in the north of the country. Unfortunately the whole team hasn't perform well in one match, just diferent individuals in each match so hopefully they can all perform in the final one day.

[Flower power]

I think we should give the U19s time to breath and refocus .
By rebuilding the Schools cricket structures and club structures we will soon see our U9s become world beaters as they were once before .
ZC should not be spending too much resources on people like Brian Lara .Paying him lots of money for an appearance was just too much .The same amount of money can sustain and run a provincial league which is the basic source of our players .

[Boundary]

I think it's good to get whipped if we learn from it and use it as a measure of the standards we wish to attain.
http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2011-0 ... a-worrying

For the second time in six months the South Africa Under-19 cricket team has completed back to back whitewash series wins over the Zimbabwe Under-19 team.

The South Africans completed a clean sweep of Zimbabwe across both limited-overs formats by winning the Youth One Day International (ODI) series 5-0 before finishing off with a 2-0 win in the Twenty20 encounters.

When the South Africans toured the country in June last year, the tour ended in another whitewash victory for the tourists with coach Robin Brown in charge of the team then.

New Zealander Chris Harris took charge of the team for this tour and the results were not forthcoming which shows that there must be something wrong with our junior structures.

A brief look at the profiles of the players from both teams showed that while we were adopting the same criterion in terms of selection during the matches, the South Africans however would come out too strong for us in the end.

One undeniable fact evident in the composition of the team is that more than 10 players in the South African Under-19 team are already part of that country’s franchise structures even when as young as 17.

In contrast, only five players in the 15-man Zimbabwe Under-19 team are playing for the franchises’ B teams while only three of those five are already 19 years of age which makes them ineligible for the World Cup in 2012.

Only 17-year-old Liberty Nherera, who features for the Mountaineers’ B side and skipper Goodwill Mamhiyo from Tuskers, are the only eligible players with franchise experience.

The rest of the team comprised schoolboys who have not been exposed to regular competitive cricket on the domestic scene which explains why they meekly fell to South Africa in all the matches.
Zimbabwe Cricket’s development manager Nicholas Nsingo conceded that it was not ideal for crucial national age group teams like the Under-19s to be dominated by schoolboys when it should act as a springboard for the players into the senior national team.

“It’s definitely not an ideal situation to have a crucial age group national team like the national Under-19 team to be composed mainly of schoolboys without any franchise experience.

“It was clear that the South Africans were more tactically superior to us despite the similar ages because their players are already featuring extensively for their franchises’ development teams.

“They already know how to play hard cricket at that age and it’s the trend with all the other Test-playing nations around the world,” said Nsingo who is also the Under-19 team’s manager.

“From next year we will move away from that situation and make it mandatory for the franchises to give priority in their development teams to youngsters for our national age group teams,” Nsingo said.

The selection process for the current teams started in September when Nsingo welcomed submissions of names of Under-19 players from the local franchises for them to undergo trials.

As a result of the few names which came forward assistant coach Walter Chawaguta embarked on trips to areas like Marondera, Mutare, Masvingo and Bulawayo to scout for young players for the trials.

In contrast, the South Africans were using the Cricket South Africa Under-19 Franchise Cubs Week tournament which featured young players from that country’s franchise teams.

However the positive aspect that came out of the tour is that the coach, Harris and his technical staff will now know where to start from as they prepare for next year’s World Cup.