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Shamar Joseph has really come from nowhere to put in an immense performance - you rarely see Australian batsmen so troubled. A year ago he was working as a security guard and comes from a village in the Guyanese jungle. It makes you wonder how many other guys might be out there undiscovered. Why does Zimbabwe seem to do such a poor job unearthing diamond in the rough bowlers? Is anyone even looking?

Interesting parallel with Ebadat Hossain who was playing volleyball and a cadet in the Bangladesh Air Force. Never played age group cricket or anything and got discovered during a talent hunt by Aaqib Javed.

Hawking recycled pampers in mbare with the dogged persistence required for a blistering six over spell.

That's the reason why even when West Indies couldn't make the World Cup and lost to Zimbabwe, Scotland, Netherlands, there was always hope, because they still produce quality like Shamar, Alzzari, Jayden Seales and the likes.

Their board has also been quick to discard players opting for franchise leagues over internationals and if you see except for a few extraordinary ones like Narine, Pollard, Russell the rest are going no where... Like Odean Smith, Holder, Mayers, Fletcher, Lewis... Most of them are disappearing.

Holder skipped a national contract thinking he would get an IPL run, he wasn't picked by any franchise and was left high and dry.

Anyways I know I'm deviating from the topic, I don't think Zimbabwe have enough talent to unearth such gems... They don't have the structure to produce such bowlers either. Don't get me wrong, I'll be delighted if we could get such players
.. May be Maposa and Nyamhuri are two good young pacers Zimbabwe can work on.

eugene wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:55 pm

Shamar Joseph has really come from nowhere to put in an immense performance - you rarely see Australian batsmen so troubled. A year ago he was working as a security guard and comes from a village in the Guyanese jungle. It makes you wonder how many other guys might be out there undiscovered. Why does Zimbabwe seem to do such a poor job unearthing diamond in the rough bowlers? Is anyone even looking?

My opinion is that there must be unexpressed talent in Zimbabwe.
It's likely that in lower income communities to buy kit to play hardball cricket is beyond family budget, so talent pool remains low.

Such catch22 scenario might be overcome by pushing tapeball cricket contests among youth in poorer neighbourhoods.
Tapeball cricket is entirely a no-budget recreational activity and may surely impact on :
- broadening the pool of potential players (I've been told that in Zimbabwe there are only some hundreds cricketers, not thousands)
- having the chance to scout promising juniors to be given a short stint in an academy to try if they are as promising with hard ball also.

Shamar Joseph is just another example that you may still find stars in remote grassroots area. Such scouting might be attempted in Zimbabwe.

ZC should totally set up a none ICC sanctioned tapeball league then we can settle debates on just how well you can bat after shovelling 2g of blow up your nose, how quick Faraz really is and so on.

They are there, in Zim, we just have a board that only gives jobs to "the boys" so none of these talents actually develop as they should.

The players then get complacent as they know they will always get selected and get to travel the world every once in a while, and win the odd game which everyone things is amazing and secure their spot for the next 15 games, so why should they push themselves.