Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan | Second Test | 02 January 2025 - 06 January 2025 | Queens Sports Club

[Kriterion_BD]

Spoken like a communist. Stop funding wars around the world, put Musk in charge of slashing the budget by 50% and less tax = more disposable income, more businesses opened and everybody is happy. Watch and learn how capitalism really works.

No he just dropped some math on ya. If you make $100 dollars, and your spending is down 20, but your tax income is now down 50...you've just increased your debt by 30.

Lets use a cricket example. If Zim had scored 100 more runs in their first innings, but conceded 200 more to Afghanistan, would they have won the game?

[sloandog]

BT? Seriously? I'd love to see Taylor in the red again, just for nostalgia purposes but honestly, does it even have any traction?

[sam_ahm]

Shame on Zimbabwe cricket for losing to both Ireland and Afghanistan in test matches despite being a far more older member of the test club.

The amount of money Afghanistan and Ireland get is also less than what Zimbabwe get and same with international fixtures.

Zimbabwe pride themselves on playing logan cup and having a proper FC structure, very unlike Ireland and Afghanistan who do not boast of a strong FC structure.

Absolute shame. The players and board both should be ashamed of themselves.

I think Afghanistan get the same money as us? I stand to be corrected though. I wonder if the Taliban distribute it more equitably than ZC?
Ireland get a fraction.

Afghanistan also have a solid, consistent FC setup as well. Lots of this touring side were selected directly because of their FC performances.

Granted, Ireland do not...

They do, but it is not as good as the Logan Cup Zimbabwe play, and Zimbabwe play a lot of longer format stuff.

What is more disgraceful is for a country which is a test playing nation since 1992 and has produced the likes of Andy Flower, Dave Houghton, Heath Streak and the likes is losing to a country that has barely played a test match against top opposition.

It is an indication of the depths to which Zimbabwe cricket has fallen and it all looks quite normal because the 'fans' are now so used to it. A defeat against Afg or Ire now looks normal. Because there are days when the team even loses to Uganda and Singapore.

Absolutely shameless.

[Googly]

Taps
So are you suggesting they stick with this squad because theyve become accustomed to the pressure of failure? The one thing that you can bet your life on is that they cannot be worse. Go and check on everyone's match stats in this woeful team. The one thing we know for certain is that maybe 4 guys can cope with the pressure and the rest collapse almost every time into a quivering heap of jelly or just aren't good enough and neither of those problems will resolve after nearly 50 international caps ea.
Those coaches can keep telling us the guys are nearly there for the next 2 years

You watched NW play some T20's on a wet and doctored pitch where practically everyone else failed as well, and stupidly wasnt picked in the fateful match against Uganda, who's been sacked for that blunder, probably cost us a wc spot? Hardly a fair reflection. and in and out of the line-up. They'll back lesser players for dozens and dozens of games with no return though. Had he had Marumani's opportunites he'd be up and running, never mind Madhevere's, or Myers or Bennett's or Madande's.
It's just straight bias.

Nobody is disputing that international cricket is a big step up.
That Irish seam attack is not to be sneered at either.
It's who copes with the pressure best. If you're wanting to start your career at 26 or 27 or whatever he is I'm pretty sure he's willing to suck up the pressure. The option is to carry on playing franchise at 300 dollars a month and piss your life away. All anybody wants is a fair crack of the whip. The usual culprits haven't batted long enough in the last 2 months to learn a single thing and every single one of them should be suffering from PTSD, but they won't be because they've got years of ridiculous opportunites lined up for them.
If wishes were horses....

[Googly]

Spoken like a communist. Stop funding wars around the world, put Musk in charge of slashing the budget by 50% and less tax = more disposable income, more businesses opened and everybody is happy. Watch and learn how capitalism really works.

No he just dropped some math on ya. If you make $100 dollars, and your spending is down 20, but your tax income is now down 50...you've just increased your debt by 30.

Lets use a cricket example. If Zim had scored 100 more runs in their first innings, but conceded 200 more to Afghanistan, would they have won the game?

The condescending cricket example is wonderful but the other maths not so much.

Let's stick to cricket. Let's see how next year rolls out if they don't get Mr Orange first.

[sam_ahm]

From what I've seen so far, I can say that Ben Curran is a better player than both Bennett and Campbell... And I have a feeling that N Welch would be better than those two as well, going by his domestic numbers.

I'm not saying that Bennett isn't good. He is very good, but I'm being realistic here. I know they can't select more than 4 white players in the team and at the moment, until Ervine and Williams retire those 4 best white test players are N Welch, B Curran, Ervine and Willo... Once the latter two retire then Bennett and Burl/Campbell can get in. Yes, I feel Burl will make a good test player.

The problem here once again is that there aren't enough coloured batters who are making a case for themselves, which makes team selection very difficult because ideally on merit there could be 6 white players in there + Raza... But we can't play such a combination.

[Kriterion_BD]

I think Afghanistan get the same money as us? I stand to be corrected though. I wonder if the Taliban distribute it more equitably than ZC?
Ireland get a fraction.

As far as I know, the ICC funding bypasses the Taliban. In fact, money from bilaterals even bypasses the Taliban. The money goes straight to an escrow account in Dubai or Doha or something. I don't even know if many of the Afghan players live in Afghanistan full time. They probably show up just to tend to their property, and play a few domestic games.

[TapsC2]

And what about the last domestic season? NW struggled just like Curran did when he started out. We always talk about them trying to unearth a world class talent and they they have been failing. If you look at Dion or Maru or Bennetts domestic numbers, they are the same as Curran and NW this season but we all see how it's not easy facing Rashid Khan. All I'm saying is that this constant push to select NW might backfire because he might not find it easy initially. If he comes in and struggles after all this pressure to select him you won't hear the end of it.

I don't believe there is a quota. It's a slippery slope always blaming that for our failures when we failed in 2018 with 6 white players in that team. There is no magic wand solution for our problems. It's going to take time for the new generation to get it right. Years.. it's a structural problem mainly caused by a weak domestic system filled with toothless bowlers.

[TapsC2]

We need better franchise coaches as well with serious batting and bowling coaches and analysts since we now have lots of domestic footage. What happened to the international coaches for the local teams?

[TapsC2]

I suspect that Welch will be in the next squad