Vusi Sibanda interview

[jaybro]

Few things I took from the interview

Vusi is injured at the moment he’s had knee surgery in December

Highly critical of Streak blooding Muzarabani and taking Murray & Mavuta on Tour. He thinks our best chance of qualifiying for the WC is through our experienced players.

Clearly stated he likes opening the batting and doesn’t enjoying watching others before he comes in. He said he enjoys the adrenaline of opening. Puts to bed the rubbish claims of Hhm that Vusi was forced to open.

He said Williams was dropped for discipline but injury has kept him out of the UAE tour.

Critical of BT & KJ since they’ve returned but backs them both to improve and perform.

Doesn’t think Mire should open he’d rather him bat @7 and bowl ( not the worst idea )

Said the core group of players Zimbabwe should rely on were Hami, BT, Raza, KJ, Chatara & Mpofu ( must ha e forgot Cremer )

Didn’t seem that confident Zimbabwe will qualify

Doesn’t think Waller, Moor or Burl should be in the side along with the 3 young guys

Still wants to play for Zimbabwe and spoke about him having runs on the board which they can’t deny ( not sure which runs he’s talking about ?)



Vusi’s XI

Hami
Burl*
Ervine
BT
Williams
Raza
Mire
Cremer
KJ
Mpofu
Chatara

Didn’t really say who he thought should open with Hami but ended up saying Burl, I would have rather he be confident and say ‘I should be opening’

All in all not too bad considering English is his second language he did go around in circles a few times but was pretty honest

https://t.co/mGkyJb89KU

[CrimsonAvenger]

Great summary jaybro, thanks for that.

[Kriterion_BD]

Vusi's english always sounded quite good to me. Speaking of which, Mawoyo is in the commentator's box in Chittagong right now and I must say he's a very decent guy with the mic.

Vusi is wrong about Muzarabani...he's got the core mostly right (I'd add Ervine and Cremer and drop Mpofu).

Qualifying for the WC is going to be tough. With only 2 spots and 4 (possibly 5) teams all capable of pushing for those means its going to be a series of death matches. Its just going to be about who can put in 4-5 good games on the trot. Will reqiure mental toughness and calm under pressure.

[Googly]

4-5 good games on the trot and calmness under pressure?
That sounds like a big ask, but for sure it’s what we need.
That was a great opportunity to ask some proper pointed questions and not allow him to get off the hook by glossing over the problem areas, same old answers to script and covering his back completely with ZC, either he agrees with how they’ve administered to date or he’s grimly aware of how spiteful they are, probably a bit of both. The thought just occurred to me that, given that they know pitifully little, they must have regularly asked Vusi, Hammy and Prosper for their opinions on a variety of things.
Here’s a reality check- if our system couldn’t turn Vusi into a world class player then pretty much everyone else is going to struggle because he’s a very talented bloke. It really does boil down to the strength of our FC system as to how good our guys are. For sure you can have a good run in our FC, effectively putting your hand up, but then the jump to International is just massive. That’s basically why he’s saying stick with the old guys who’ve had loads of experience.

[MushZW]

Hmm backing the expreienced players , trying to buy favors for team retention through comments ?
The younger guys are needed

[Googly]

Vusi advocates the Bangladeshi approach of sticking with essentially the same squad for a decade or more and thinking that they will come right eventually. Of course with our set up having the disparity between FC and international it’s the option they’ve exercised for a long time and it hasn’t really worked. Their change of plan may not work either because it’s really late in the day to give the guys the years that he’s talking about.

[Andybligzz]

Jog on vusi , runs on the board my ass . Great servant in the dark days but overall he was bang average. Belongs no where near the team and it’s time to move on.

[Kriterion_BD]

Vusi advocates the Bangladeshi approach of sticking with essentially the same squad for a decade or more and thinking that they will come right eventually. Of course with our set up having the disparity between FC and international it’s the option they’ve exercised for a long time and it hasn’t really worked. Their change of plan may not work either because it’s really late in the day to give the guys the years that he’s talking about.

I think there is a big disparity even between County cricket or Sheffield Shield and Test cricket. Certainly the difference between Bangladeshi domestic leagues - players had referred to it as "picnic cricket" - is massive. The Bangladeshi model was to keep throwing in teenagers and hope a few made it. We didn't really have a choice as the core we had when we got Test status were not at all up to the mark. Longer version cricket was relatively unknown in BD. If there was an Intercontinental Cup back then, we'd definitely be behind Kenya, and possibly Ireland, Scotland, and Netherlands as well.

But for any developing team (ZIM, IRE, AFG) the seletors need to identify genuine talent. Its one thing to smash double hundreds or take 10 fers against the likes of Hong Kong in the InterContinental Cup or World Cup Qualifyer. Genuine talent is showing some match-defining performnces against the best teams in the world (AUS, ENG, IND, SA). Guys like Ashraful and Aftab had this talent but what they lacked was the ability to be consistent at it.

[eugene]

Of course the Bangladesh model is hardly applicable to Zimbabwe. Bangladesh was always going to come right, simply by sheer numbers. Awarding Bangladesh test status has ultimately paid off, Zimbabwe I am not so sure. Zimbabwe was always going to struggle to ever get any better even without the collapse of the country.

[Kriterion_BD]

Of course the Bangladesh model is hardly applicable to Zimbabwe. Bangladesh was always going to come right, simply by sheer numbers. Awarding Bangladesh test status has ultimately paid off, Zimbabwe I am not so sure. Zimbabwe was always going to struggle to ever get any better even without the collapse of the country.

If enough blacks get into the game, ZIM might still have enough in terms of infrastructure and talent to stay ahead of countries like Scotland and the Netherlands. A case can be made that they are also serious nations and Test cricket could be expanded to include the top 14 or 16 countries. I hope that happens in my lifetime, but I also think keeping Test status to the top 12 teams is the right approach.