U19 World Cup | South Africa | Jan-Feb 2024

[secretzimbo]

Wow, Ireland beat New Zealand!

[secretzimbo]

Zimbabwe final positions at u19 world cups;

1998 - 8th
2000 - 11th
2002 - 9th
2004 - 5th
2006 - 7th
2008 - 14th
2010 - 13th
2012 - 15th
2014 - 11th
2016 - 10th
2018 - 11th
2020 - 11th
2022 - 12th
2024 - 12th

[secretzimbo]

It's almost like the kids who grew up in the 'old' system were better than the new system, but I couldn't possibly comment....

[eugene]

That 2004 squad was quite something.

[sam_ahm]

Probably the worst Zimbabwe U19 campaign I've seen. Nothing left to say. The team got bundled out for less than 100 almost every game other than the Namibia one.

To be fair, Ireland, Scotland and Nepal have all looked better sides which are very dangerous signs for Zimbabwe cricket.

[TapsC2]

We only got 1 half century right? Terrible

[ZIMDOGGY]

Simbi and Patel are potential franchise level players and that’s about it.
Schonken us only 17 still so give him one more chance befrie writing him off

I know this isn’t always the case but generally doing well internationally you need to dominate under 19 level.

Williams, Burl (albeit inconsistent), Wes, Ngarava, Shumba, and I think Marumani all did well at u19 level

[Googly]

What stuck out for me was that our players look like they develop physically later. They just looked younger than a lot of other players and most aren't. Afghanistan aside, compare our physicality to the South Africans.

Our bowling attack was pretty good, I thought. Nyamhuri was good. There were also glimpses of decent batting, although the scores clearly don't reflect that.
You also have to wonder if they'd have done better with different coaching staff. We'll never know. You can give some good prep on a bowling machine to simulate a hooping left arm seamer into the right hander. Not one of our guys seems capable of picking a googly. They all seemed determined to play off the back foot as well.
If you don't face that quality at any point, or a simulation of that quality and get taught how to play it you're not going to manage, I don't care who you are. Most of our batters just dried up when facing a good length outside off, barely any of them had a scoring shot or any plans to disrupt line and length. You can teach that.

What costs us every time is that none of these u19's appear to be committed enough to play men's club cricket. If you're going to be a good batsman you should more than hold your own in club cricket from the age of 15 onwards. A parent or coach needs to recognize that if a promising batsman only plays school cricket here and doesn't play at least one, if not two, age groups up he's finished. You can't make a good batsman at age if 18. It's about 6 years too late.

The next U19 coach has not a lot to work with. He's going to be relying on the South Africans coaching whoever is down there on scholarship. The school cricket here is of such low quality across the board its almost impossible for the odd good player to realise his potential....unless he plays 2 age groups up and plays men's cricket from 14 or 15.

That HPC with a quality coach is imperative. It's just bizarre that we don't have one. The big 6 countries have an HPC in each franchise side, we don't have one in the entire country!!
Multiple schools in England have better facilities than our national team!

[ZIMDOGGY]

What stuck out for me was that our players look like they develop physically later. They just looked younger than a lot of other players and most aren't. Afghanistan aside, compare our physicality to the South Africans.

This is a consequence of the point you made last week of 50 white school kids and 5 are decent and 100 black kids where 10 are.
The Zimbabwean u-19 side is just a collection of a handful of handy cricketers.

These other teams you spoke of. These are kids who are actual athletes and in serious training and above all, had to rise up against hundreds of ambitious cricketers and a pool in the thousands.

If you took a small snapshot of a regional competiton of Sydney, let’s say the NDCA, you’ll get a similar quality level and athleticism. A couple of decent kids and a few passengers from all walks of life.
But if they took their best kid and pooled them with the 50 other associations that’s a pool of 50 of the best to choose.

[ZIMDOGGY]

It’s basically been a modern miracle till now Zimbabwe have done well with such a pool.
Without the culture and the coaches that made them then I think it’s equlibrizing.