Confirmed in commentary: Sibanda leaving

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Just announced, he's leaving to play grade cricket in Australia. They think this rules him out of playing in the New Zealand tour as he won't be playing in the Logan Cup.

Probably not surprising news, ZIMDOGGY I think mentioned this a few days ago. But still, a big blow as he's been good at the top of the order.

[zimfan1]

Oh well, if he doesnt want to play he doest want to play, the idea of this new Zimbabwe team is that they play for the love of the game and not for money so if vusi wants to go of to Australia it means that either Duffin, Ewing or Chibbaha can come in his place and i allways want someone in the side who wants to play for the team.

the door will allways be open for him to come back next season.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

Let him go. We invested too much and too long in him. The future is Tino..the talented Tino.

[maehara]

At least the Aussies'll pay him, I guess. Any indication yet what club he's heading to?

[zimfan1]

At least the Aussies'll pay him, I guess. Any indication yet what club he's heading to?

Its interesting that its the smaller franchises that seem to have the trouble paying there players e.g Mountaineers, Rhinos and the Rocks.

The big Franchises the Tuskers and the Eagles dont seem to have the same problem.

[maehara]

At least the Aussies'll pay him, I guess. Any indication yet what club he's heading to?

Its interesting that its the smaller franchises that seem to have the trouble paying there players e.g Mountaineers, Rhinos and the Rocks.

The big Franchises the Tuskers and the Eagles dont seem to have the same problem.

After their block grant from ZC, the franchises are supposed to be self-sufficient. We know Eagles got their big sponsorship deal, so no problems there. But if there's not enough money to go around to support 5 sides, there's another argument for a reduction to 4, quite separate from the "spreading the talent too thinly" argument.

[aydee]

Really bad news! Sibanda has been excellent throughout this season, and is clearly one of the first names on the team sheet these days. Something must be seriously wrong for a player to want to play club cricket ahead of international cricket... Possibly he is just a sellout, but I'm afraid that there is alomst certianly more than to it than that, presumably more issues with pay.

Zim can not afford to lose their best players, from the international and domestic game. This is a very serious problem indeed...

[zimfan1]

At least the Aussies'll pay him, I guess. Any indication yet what club he's heading to?

Its interesting that its the smaller franchises that seem to have the trouble paying there players e.g Mountaineers, Rhinos and the Rocks.

The big Franchises the Tuskers and the Eagles dont seem to have the same problem.

After their block grant from ZC, the franchises are supposed to be self-sufficient. We know Eagles got their big sponsorship deal, so no problems there. But if there's not enough money to go around to support 5 sides, there's another argument for a reduction to 4, quite separate from the "spreading the talent too thinly" argument.

The franchise that im most suprissed that are sturggling are the Rhinos, as i know that Storm Booth is the Administrater there and from what i know about her having met her in the past she is very good and extremley pracmatic. Also Kwekwe has allways been a decent cricket base and have held a couple of ODI's in the past. perhaps signing the links of Franks (who they didnt need) and Vincent overstretched them a little bit last year.

[ZIMFAN]

I just find this completely depressing.

Without wanting to turn this into another Ervine/Balance thread, you understand why these guys wouldn't want to play when even members of the team are leaving.

Can he not play grade cricket and still play for Zim did he not do that before?

[triedzi]

We live in the 21st Century. Long gone are the days where people play purely for the badge. These guys are professional cricketers in a third world country. If they don't get paid they don't eat. I think it is a bit unfair to be bitter about him leaving to earn a living. Also Australia isn't that far from NZ. Is it not possible that he might still play in the NZ series given he will only be a short (comparatively) plane ride away.