Zimbos in UK 2018 Season

[sloandog]

I think people have got the wrong end of the stick, Roche like Schadendorf have signed for clubs in Liverpool as they will be joining the Rising Stars. The squad for the 2018 tour will be announced this week.

Now there's some good news. Straight away we have a couple of potential future national batters in the squad! Brilliant. So not just a team full of bowlers like last summer

[Lee]

yeah true flashsport.uk has just confirmed squad to be announced this week.
So glad for the continuation
are there any players being retained though?

[aydee]

This is where cricket seems so archaic. Why can't guys play in England or anywhere and still be selected for Zimbabwe? Why can't cricket just work like football, rugby, basketball, ice hockey, etc?

They can...

However:

- Anyone not an international regular wouldn't get a work permit, same as any other sport.
- ECB's rules state that a county can only field one overseas player. Local rule, nothing to do with eligibility.
- Kolpak, residency, ancestral visas, etc provide routes around the above. Zimbos basically aren't good enough to be a county team's one overseas player. If they use any of the other routes, they can play, but are considered to be "English". If they are "English", clearly they can't play for Zimbabwe. If they aren't "English", they can't play in England.

[eugene]

So really the ECB needs to lift its one foreign player per team rule for things to change? Is that rule even legal under EU law, or are Dutch, Irish cricketers exempt from the foreign quota? Of course I know about Brexit so this will be a moot point soon anyway. I just know that EU law is often cited as to why football leagues can't put a limit on EU-foreigners.

[TapsC]

To be honest I think the ECB making the kolpak players choose not to play for their country was a way of stopping guys from just flooding their market. I think you would have found the S.A. Zim and West Indian domestic structures would have no quality players at all as they would all be on kolpak contracts whilst playing for their countries at the same time. That would have then made clashes with national and domestic duty happen etc..

In the end I think you would have had a football kind of situation where all the top players play in Europe with the domestic leagues in their home countries being significantly weaker but the problem with international cricket is that countries choose when they want to play international games instead of a global calender. Then you also have these t20 leagues popping up everywhere.

In an ideal world for a country like ours where our domestic structures are poor that would have favoured us as all our top players would have been getting world class training but for S.A. maybe they want to keep a strong domestic structure going. The football model for me is the best for growth but the big 3 countries don't want to lose control.

[ljriley90]

Sibanda - Cleethorpes
Musoko - Hartsholme
Timycen Maruma - Balbirggan
Tedai Mauma - Brandninch
Kunje - Ivybridge
Scott Daly - tamworth (A Zimbo who left for SA - http://www.worldsportsxchange.co.uk/client/scott-daly/)
Shingi - Dalton
Zhuwao - unknown club according to Cricx
Adam Keefe - ^^
Murtizwa - ^^
Carl Robinson - ^^
Dean Peall - Babbacombe
Craig Stow - Ashton On Mersey
R. Kaia - Haverigg

[eugene]

To be honest our domestic structure would be best served by entering 2-3 teams in the second tier South African Sunfoil Cup and having a Zimbabwe team play in the top tier Sunfoil Series (Currie Cup).

[Googly]

It would be excellent except for the travel expense and time away. Zim players would have to get used to playing two weeks Ina row. There's more likelihood of the Zambian space program putting a man on Mars than ZC being able to successfully organise this. Obviously it opens up opportunities for theft so it may be considered.

[Flakeman]

I’ve often thought about us playing in the SA comp. Would be so helpful, but seems like a dream that’ll never happen cause it’s too much like hard work to organize. I know the players are keen for that idea !

[Googly]

There are problems with this idea. Firstly we have to keep our FC facade going or we don’t tick the boxes for test status. If they started sending sides down there our FC system would be further weakened. It’s a measure of desperation from the players to think “well maybe we will miraculously improve if we play over there!” CSA may consider a team in the lower tier but they’d probably not agree to one in the upper one. There’s nothing in it for them, it would just be to help us and they’d need a guarantee that we would complete the season. Neither of those are likely.
The standard of our cricket would be shown up. In an ailing South African structure we’d be the whipping boys and that would not be a good look with ICC when it came time for review.
Our players also like the idea because they think ZC would pay attention and support them more and pay them a liveable salary and it’s something different and exciting, which it is, but it’s guaranteed there would be the usual headaches and at some point they’d be stranded somewhere with no money. You stage a strike there because of rhe inevitable non payment and they would kick us out immediately. We can’t complete a season of List A, FC or club cricket right here in our back yard, we can’t spread ourselves even thinner.