The "good" years from 1992-2004

[Kriterion_BD]

Zimbabwe's struggles come as no surprise. The economy is in shambles, the government is tyrannical, and the ZC is corrupt. However the first 2 factors were present in the Flower brothers era as well. And guys like Chingoka were in charge of ZC since the beginning...so how was ZIM thriving before 2003? What changed around that time that eventually led to the exodus of 2004 which was the beginning of the current [apparent] demise of ZIM cricket?

[eugene]

Things really started going south right after the 1999 World Cup which was a high point for us. By then the farm invasions had begun and the economy was in free-fall. Zimbabwe really benefited from a golden generation of players which I doubt we will ever have again. We had a top ten batsman in Andy Flower and a top ten bowler in Heath Streak. Without this golden generation I am not sure Zimbabwe ever had the player base or infrastructure to mount much of a challenge to the big boys. One could argue granting us full membership was a short-sighted decision doomed to eventual failure. A nation like Bangladesh was always going to come good due to sheer player numbers, Zimbabwe has never, and will never have this luxury.

[Kriterion_BD]

One could argue granting us full membership was a short-sighted decision doomed to eventual failure. A nation like Bangladesh was always going to come good due to sheer player numbers, Zimbabwe has never, and will never have this luxury.

Yeah, I think teams like NZ, SL, ZIM, IRE ultimately are there to make up the numbers. SL and NZ perenially punch above their weight at World Cups, but NZ has never won one and while SL has won one (I don't really count T20s as significant) it was largely due to a golden generation of freakish players (eg Murali).

Even with BD, PAK, and AFG countries with sizeable populations and massive interest in the game, there is likely a ceiling above which they realistically can't perform. Most of that has to do with corruption and ineptitude within their respective administrations.

In the highly professionalized era of the sport (post 2000) its really between Australia, India, and England vying for dominance because they have the money (and hence infrastructure), and a professional board.

[TapsC]

Scariest part for me is that I now realize that the guys who came after 2004 were part of a golden generation themselves. We have never had better u19 teams than in 2004 and 2002. Taibu was named player of the tournament in 2002 and the 2004 team actually played really well. Another walkout by senior players now would be catastrophic because the kids are just simply not good enough.

The 90s generation were tough mentally and to me thats the difference. Its the attitude and character thats different. In terms of talent i think overall it might be the same besides andy flower who was genuinely world class. A lot of people dont know that only 8 Zimbabweans average 30 or above in ODIs. Half of them played in that UAE game. Only 7 guys average 30 or above in test cricket and only 3 of them are from the golden generation.

I was genuinely shocked when I saw that Hami actually has a slightly better test average than Grant Flower. Better than Neil Johnson, Carlisle and Campbell too and the sad thing is that Hami only averages 29.77 Who would have ever guessed that?

Even the bowlers. For example the top 5 ODI strike rates are Mupariwa, Olonga, Chatara, Hondo and Cremer in that order. Streak is 6th. Brandes 7th. Mpofu 8th. Elton 9th and Brent 10th. The top 5 lowest averages are Mupariwa, Streak,Cremer, Chatara and Brandes in that order. Only Mupariwa and Streak have an average below 30. The test bowling stats are hard to interpret because we havent played enough games overall.

A lot of the 90s guys werent even pro players. They did it for nothing else but the love of the game. Im not trying to knock the current generation down. Im just trying to show that these guys just dont believe in themselves. They are not as bad as they think. They have pulled off some unbelievable victories. They just dont realize it. Or maybe we have just always been useless with stats like those

From an admin perspective we all know whats going on so there is no need to say more. They have ruined our game.

[eugene]

Keep in mind the guys in the 90s were playing much tougher opposition than in the 2000s and 2010s so a statistical comparison isn't really accurate.

I think New Zealand could definitely win a World Cup and be a top test nation, the quality and player base is there. If Australia could win the Rugby World Cup twice, New Zealand could certainly win the Cricket World Cup. New Zealand also doesn't suffer from clueless admin like SL does.

[ZIMDOGGY]

in a way, i think we are almost better now than we were then.

What I mean by this, remove the weakest seamerand weakest top 6 bat, and insert Flower and Streak in their prime, and I feel thats wayyyy stronger than 2001-2004 team, and getting close (but not quite) to 1999.

[eugene]

in a way, i think we are almost better now than we were then.

What I mean by this, remove the weakest seamerand weakest top 6 bat, and insert Flower and Streak in their prime, and I feel thats wayyyy stronger than 2001-2004 team, and getting close (but not quite) to 1999.

The guys in the 90s were tougher I reckon.

[Black Mamba]

Golden Generation had all those achievements playing against top sides, some of the present players might have better stats then those players, because they played against Bangladesh more then them and have faced three phases weakest, competative snd now challenging Bangladesh side.

Mugabe's arrogant move of planting quota destroyed Zimbabwe in 2003 World Cup.

[Jemisi]

Dogg, I pretty much agree. Put in Flower and Streak and teams wouldn't be taking us too lightly. BT and Ervine and Flower would be making some big stands and Cremer would love Streak making some in roads ahead of him.

[jaybro]

The Rebel saga put us back so far and really hurt the progression of young guys like Vusi and Matsikenyeri. As Brent said in his interview these young guys had no senior players to set the standard.

Looking at the amount of quality players that Zimbabwe have produced since 2004 that have left the system it makes me sad to think where Zimbabwe could be if things were run properly.

I can’t really comment about when things started to go wrong as I wasn’t following in 1999 and issues were already happening by the time I was following, but the Rebel saga was the death of cricket in Zimbabwe, apart from a couple of Test wins at home and the SL series win we’ve never recovered.