ICC Men's T20 World Cup Africa Sub-regional Qualifier

[Kriterion_BD]

Ervine is either hanging out to play that test, or the 27 wc.
maybe the test is where he reassess if he has that further two years in him.

not really sure why the England test is such a big deal. Yes, from a sanction/political pov. But it will be a half assed england side played in Cumbria or somewhere.

Mark my words - this series has "boards have mutually agreed to postpone this series due to a packed international calendar" written all over it. Which of course means the ECB will tell ZC they don't see the point of having to honor their commitments.

[secretzimbo]

Ervine is either hanging out to play that test, or the 27 wc.
maybe the test is where he reassess if he has that further two years in him.

not really sure why the England test is such a big deal. Yes, from a sanction/political pov. But it will be a half assed england side played in Cumbria or somewhere.

Mark my words - this series has "boards have mutually agreed to postpone this series due to a packed international calendar" written all over it. Which of course means the ECB will tell ZC they don't see the point of having to honor their commitments.

Absolutely will not be postponed or cancelled. Trent Bridge have already sold a few thousand tickets for each of the first three days, at like £60+ each.

[Pat_Bee]

First 3 days?

That’s an awful lot of confidence in our batting. Suppose it could rain for 2 days and drag it out a bit.

[eugene]

First 3 days?

That’s an awful lot of confidence in our batting. Suppose it could rain for 2 days and drag it out a bit.

We could surely have squeezed in a 2 or even 3 test series into the 5 days?

[Pat_Bee]

First 3 days?

That’s an awful lot of confidence in our batting. Suppose it could rain for 2 days and drag it out a bit.

We could surely have squeezed in a 2 or even 3 test series into the 5 days?

We could. Bat first, out for 87 by lunch, England go full on bazball and plunder 400 off Larry and Faraz, declare at tea then bowl us out for a much improved 124 before stumps.

[aydee]

Ervine is either hanging out to play that test, or the 27 wc.
maybe the test is where he reassess if he has that further two years in him.

not really sure why the England test is such a big deal. Yes, from a sanction/political pov. But it will be a half assed england side played in Cumbria or somewhere.

Mark my words - this series has "boards have mutually agreed to postpone this series due to a packed international calendar" written all over it. Which of course means the ECB will tell ZC they don't see the point of having to honor their commitments.

Absolutely will not be postponed or cancelled. Trent Bridge have already sold a few thousand tickets for each of the first three days, at like £60+ each.

Yeah, no chance this will be cancelled.

[Googly]

There's a FB page called Zimbabwe Cricket Ultras that I've weirdly never seen before that has 19k followers.
Mutendira is under the pump from the public. I'm sure it's not going to make a difference because these guys make decisions with impunity, but at least there's some discomfort because he's been on a podcast trying to justify their selection procedures.
As usual he was just allowed to talk instead of being asked some direct questions.

The real question is how he gets to be the national convenor and he's been in the mix since 2010 or thereabouts. Is it just him and Chigumbura with input from Hamilton, Raza and the coaches? How much input?
Do these guys ever go and watch a domestic game other than Takashinga club cricket?
He had a very mediocre international career and his domestic stats are not great either. I'm not suggesting that if you're personally not great at cricket you don't know what's good and what isn't, but it sure looks that way.
I am skeptical of a mediocre bowler being able to see who's got potential as a batsman though.

At some point the hierarchy must realize these rubbish selections have cost us dearly. How long does it take for that to sink in? The answer is more than 25 years, that much is clear. They can't seem to understand that a core of decent players, that themselves struggle at international level, can't possibly carry 3 or 4 players that are just repeatedly not cutting it. A real question is- how long are you going to give them before you give a better player an equally long opportunity?

Whittal's outburst against Mutendira was when they had a really strong side and he felt one passenger was too much. Of course that was perceived as racist. It may well have been, I wasn't there, but trust me he didn't have a problem with Olonga. I don't think he would have stuck his neck out on racial lines though. Now we have a situation where a lesser side has to carry a lot more dead weight.
Does it even occur to them what the better players think of all of this? You're asking guys to go into battle against world class players with two thirds of a team. If you're in a mediocre set up and you're not fielding your best team you're going to lose most times, and that's exactly what keeps happening.
When they all stand there singing the National Anthem they must be wondering about patriotism. If you know x, y answer z are not there on merit is it possible to try extra hard?
It's exactly why our team has rarely had any cohesion.

Raza is interesting here, he's more than happy to keep punting for his mate Faraz, who doesn't need the money or the career, it's just a hobby for him.
So if you've got a captain and arguably your best player, pushing for a friend then can you rely on him to be unbiased in other selections? The simple answer to that is no. You can't be half pregnant.
Raza says all the right patriotic stuff but he plays the political game very well.
If he can get Faraz selected as an A category player in T10 he has undue influence. End of.

I know two guys that should be on the panel- Houghton and Brent. I see Zolsky has tried to shift the onus onto the coaching staff, saying that they had the ultimate say. If anyone believes that then I dunno.

[Pat_Bee]

There's a FB page called Zimbabwe Cricket Ultras that I've weirdly never seen before that has 19k followers.

…

Raza is interesting here, he's more than happy to keep punting for his mate Faraz, who doesn't need the money or the career, it's just a hobby for him.
So if you've got a captain and arguably your best player, pushing for a friend then can you rely on him to be unbiased in other selections? The simple answer to that is no. You can't be half pregnant.
Raza says all the right patriotic stuff but he plays the political game very well.

Ya I’ve seen that ultras page.

And I keep saying Raza is a shady guy nobody will have it though because he’s a run machine.

[Donald]

Zimbabwe have sunk so low in past 20 years you would think we have got past cronyism and nepotism and thinking less along racial lines and just picking best side.

[secretzimbo]

They don't even pick the best black players.

There's pure favouritism even amongst the blacks - some talented black guys have never been given an opportunity for whatever reason whilst others get endless opportunities.

Also I don't like wishing a hard time upon anyone, but maybe if his family business went kaput then Faraz would finally stop being 'selected'