Zimbabwe Squad for Sri Lanka

[55727835]

Noting this forum has taken a slight shift from the squad announcement- a few thoughts.

Chatara is not in the squad- huge win! Was half expecting him to make a return, but I hope he's doing okay following the absolute storm that came over him from the qualifiers. I'm a little disappointed that Welly has been able to jump back in so fluidly, but he's undoubtedly one of our strongest spinners, particularly with Mavuta's ban. It makes sense to keep him.

Similarly, Marumani hasn't been picked either. Begs the question as to whether Wes would have been selected were he not smokin the good shit. It suggests, at least temporarily, selectors are looking to the Bennetts and K-longs for new talent. K-long looks fucking excellent, but needs to learn to reign it in following his boundaries. Why Bennett is in the T20 squad and not the ODI squad makes no fucking sense to me either.

Mufudza being selected is absolutely fantastic. It's such a shame it's taken so long for him to be picked, but I pray to every holy God he doesn't sit on the sidelines waiting for an injury. Ndlovu's selection irritates me, he doesn't spark any sort of excitement for me, and I think we should be doubling down on Mufudza, granted we haven't seen him under international pressure yet.

Finally, want to again give my shout-out to Madande- this kid is an absolute ripper, and I can't wait to see him play in some international conditions. He's got incredible patience and seems to work in great sync with Burly and Raza. He's the one I'll be keeping my eyes on in this series, alongside Bennett and K-long.

[Donald]

What makes the Uganda players so comfortable to walk out of their crease to chatara and hang back against ngarava and blessing.

Lack of pace and movement that's what. There has been a decline for a while. Its time for fresh blood.

[secretzimbo]

What makes the Uganda players so comfortable to walk out of their crease to chatara and hang back against ngarava and blessing.

Lack of pace and movement that's what. There has been a decline for a while. Its time for fresh blood.

There’s no one else who would be much better at that level. Especially pace bowlers!!
They gave Gwandu a sniff and then dropped him like a stone.

The cupboards are bare. Deluding ourselves that we have much better players waiting in the wings is a waste of our time.

The failed system overseen by this board has simply not created enough good cricketers over many years.

[ZIMDOGGY]

What makes the Uganda players so comfortable to walk out of their crease to chatara and hang back against ngarava and blessing.

Lack of pace and movement that's what. There has been a decline for a while. Its time for fresh blood.

There’s no one else who would be much better at that level. Especially pace bowlers!!
They gave Gwandu a sniff and then dropped him like a stone.

The cupboards are bare. Deluding ourselves that we have much better players waiting in the wings is a waste of our time.

The failed system overseen by this board has simply not created enough good cricketers over many years.

Pace bowling is ZCs biggest failure
That’s the one type of player we should in theory have lots of

[Googly]

Let's try break it down. How much would it cost if ZC took the financial responsibility of grassroots cricket. All the way from u9s to an academy.

Googly said it cost 30k to get a cricket ground done. Now if we want to have 100 extra schools playing that means ZC would have to pay 3 million to get that done. Then those 100 schools are going to need a couple of coaches each, ground staff, boreholes to keep the pitches in good condition plus all the cricket equipment.

Let's say they pay 400k to get the boreholes done. 200 coaches on that $600 salary for 6 months of cricket. They could some of these guys to coach kids. 720k extra a year.

Ground staff. Maybe 3 guys in each school. 200/month for 12 months a year. Another 720k/ year. They will need each school to get kit and pads, bowling machines etc. Probably buy them regularly. Then they will need to provide the logistics for these schools to have tournaments and play each other regularly. So maybe roughly 2.5 million a year on schools cricket after having sunk in maybe 4 million to get it going. This is excluding taxes etc so let's just 3.5 million a year on schools cricket.

Could this be done? Well if they don't build a stadium in Vic falls then probably. All I'm just trying to show is that's its not as simple as people think because ZC would have to do all this by themselves and it will cost a significant amount of money. Add a world class academy with world class coaches plus increasing expenditure on the domestic league, a fully dedicated ''A" team touring regularly with world class coaches etc the costs could easily sky rocket to 8 or 9 million a year.

Countries like Scotland, Netherlands and Ireland don't pay for most of these things that we are talking about. I'm not sure about Namibia but their economy is good. Nigeria with its economies of scale can get cricket going without the board paying for it. Its not as simple as saying the board must go.

In fact I think if you were to put this board of experts people it would still take them 10 years to fix. It's not an easy fix. The guys in charge in the 80s and most of the 90s did not have to deal with a failing economy

If they're taking a long term view of fixing grass roots then for sure something has to be done about schools.
The government isn't fixing them, nor are the parents contributing. Getting good kids from a handful of schools is unrealistic.
The two premier government schools, PE and Churchill are in poor shape. Churchill is basically dead and buried. I don't know how that was allowed to happen.
You don't need 100 gov schools, you need a dozen with about 3 grounds per school. You might find some schools already have boreholes.
Even this is a huge undertaking and I'd have to say is necessary. I'm not saying ZC have to do it, maybe they can coerce government or private sector to assist. As I write this I realise its a long shot.

[Googly]

In a nutshell what I’m seeing here is that they players aren’t good enough and that’s because of the board. I think overall those 2 things are true. If that’s the case then all sides must be held accountable instead of blaming the board when things are going wrong but only praising Raza when things are going right. All sides must be held accountable when things go wrong.

When things were going right Raza specifically said that they were feeling good playing. Salaries and match fees cleared. Rajput was toxic for them and they changed that. Gary Ballance was brought back. The senior group of players are not affected by all these structural problems. They grew up in a good system. They are well paid. Given time off when needed. Scotland, the UAE and Uganda would die to have them in their setup. Why did they fail then? Not once, not twice. 3 times

Why we failed against Uganda and Scotland is one question. Why the kids aren’t improving is a different question. Those questions have 2 different answers in my opinion

What are your answers?

In my view there's only about a dozen batters in total that could withstand international cricket. That's optimistic.
Of rhe half dozen or so not already in the mix they need to get them into an academy in the off season.
Same story with a few of the bowlers.
The good players are like hens' teeth, they need to be looked after, not put on bread and water.

[Googly]

The plan before was to hope the good kids got scholarships overseas or SA and hope they come back. It's still part of the plan, there's no escaping that. In fact theyre far more likely to be better than home grown because they'll get a better standard of cricket.

[Pat_Bee]

Raza didn’t even go to school in Zim can’t be blaming the schools for him holing out in successive qualifiers. What’s next in the firing line? Mazoe not being as refreshing as Gatorade and that’s why the boys failed miserably ?

[Googly]

What I don't get is how ZC expect players to play mid week cricket as a living for a pittance. Only possible in a country with 90% unemployment. How are you getting people to commit to cricket as a career if this is the plan?

[Googly]

Raza didn’t even go to school in Zim can’t be blaming the schools for him holing out in successive qualifiers. What’s next in the firing line? Mazoe not being as refreshing as Gatorade and that’s why the boys failed miserably ?

So what do you think the problem is and what's your suggestion to fix it?