2nd ODI ZIMBABWE VS SRILANKA

[Googly]

So we're effectively replacing H Masakadza, BT, Ervine, Williams and Raza with Kaitano, Madhevere , Shumba and Burl.
In addition we're hoping a couple of the current u19 crop will miraculously be given franchise slots, flourish and take to international cricket like the proverbial duck. There ain't nobody emerging from our current franchise system except possibly Evans.
If that doesn't set off nuclear alarm bells then nothing will.
Of course one or two may come good, but we are headed for disaster.

[Googly]

Hard to compare really. I can foresee Shumba slowly giving up his bowling over time and specialising as a batsman. Probably Craig's replacement at 3 eventually.

With Wes and Burl, Burl is 6 years older and made his domestic debut six years earlier as well, so you'd expect him to be far ahead by now. Give Wes another six years experience and maturity and I'd hope he turns out a better play than Burl is currently. He might not, but I hope so.

Burl has been batting number 4 for Rhinos all season and I think last season too. Averages 16 from 8 innings in List A this season. But Wes & Shumba only averaging 21 each too. None of them have been in great form, but you'd expect Burl at his age and experience to be starting to dominate.

In around 18 months, post WC/WCQ, we are going to have all of Ervine, Williams, Raza and Chakabva retiring at once. Scary. Then Burl will be the most senior batsman in the team and will probably get chances higher up the order. Until then he needs to stay in the team somehow and I guess he has to find a way to make his bowling more reliable and his batting more explosive at number 7.

If that's the scenario in 18 months time then the situation is beyond calamitous. Without Ervine and Williams in particular, but also Raza, we will pretty much be at 2004 levels which is start from scratch and hoping people emerge from the pack of FC cricketers. Only the most very naive optimist may think that this will happen. It is almost impossible to become a world class cricketer in our system.
We've debated this point to death, but unfortunately it's concrete  fact. We're all mostly armchair experts, but if you ask a reputable international coach I'm almost certain you'll get the same answer. You are only as good as your domestic system unless you're a bit of a freak. Had Taylor and Williams been raised in a different system they'd be even better than they were/are.
It takes a very special cricketer to come from here, get thrown in the deep end and swim well.

On top of that the walkout team bought us time to "rebuild."
Two decades later with a now  collapsed club system that genuinely worked and an ailing stop start franchise system, no pathways for age group cricketers  we are still rebuilding, this time with Lego bricks instead of clay ones. A high percentage of our franchise guys don't have the ability to improve even with the best coaching in the world because they didn't have a good enuf base to begin with. That livestream I watched the other day filled me with alarm.

I'm covering boring old ground that tends to divide this forum, but there is deep trouble around the corner.
What kick started our best era was the import of Johnson and Goodwin and we're going to have to revisit that again soon, but there's nobody currently out there that are of their caliber either.

[Googly]

In addition to that we won't have a captain, unless Reggie hangs in for a bit longer than the others.
Appointing a 21 year old like they did with Smith is not an option because we don't have a 21 year old Smith. Well we have our own example- Taibu. He was an excellent player, I don't recall what his captaincy was like, but he didn't have the players to work with.

[Googly]

Despite Chatara being only 30, he's lost a lot of pace and looks like he's at the back end of his career. He'd have some work to do to turn it around physically and get some speed up again. Will he still be going in 4 years time? Anderson and Stevens have shown that all things are possible, but I have my doubts.
We're suddenly facing a situation where 30 something year olds are quitting and the 23 year olds aren't as good.

[Donald]

We could have emmanuel Bawa as our next ODI captain . Now that would be a left field decision by Zimbabwe cricket. I would certainly like to see him around the senior squad. The boy has talent

[CrimsonAvenger]

The senior 4 contributing with the bat

Who would have thought two years ago that Regis would become a rightful member of the Big Four?

Someone mentioned that Regis suffered from batting down the order early in his career. I tend to disagree. He was early on identified by the coaches as a top order bat, although results were mixed and he was shifted about a lot. In his first full series in 2010 he batted 3, 3, 6, 8; in the 2011 WC it was 7, 6, 2, 2, 2; 2012 in NZ: 3, 3, 6; 2013 saw him bat at 7, 7, 5, 2. He was also in and out of the side a lot.

My impression has been that it was Test cricket where it really made click for him; with a clearly defined role, batting down the order he was finally able to find his feet in international cricket and and get over what was probably more a psychological hurdle than a technical issue. And now we see the rewards.

Could his career have been handled better? Probably, if we had played a lot more Test cricket (and more domestic cricket of a higher standard). Remember that he showed glimpses of his true potential with occasional defiant knocks in the odd Test match we played here and there. But he definitely wasn't ready for the job he was at times given in 2011/13; he needed time to mature.

Agree with all this. He definitely did not push his case to go to the top of the order either in his earlier international outings or domestically with this kind of success (domestically, he did have good scores but in the upper middle order and not opening most of the time). It was definitely not a case of him not being used correctly. He did not do enough to be trusted for this job. So, whatever made him finally go for it, or the current team management to send him up there, it worked this time. He seemed ready for it, thanks to those confidence boosting test knocks probably.

As for his technique, he always looked compact and it is coming to the fore now, combined with his new found confidence. The long term Regis fan in me can only rejoice .

[Googly]

And our 2 6ft 8 strike bowlers bowl at 130 and one carries 20kg more than he should. Don't get me wrong, we are very lucky to have them and they're pretty decent, but the rest of the world is at 140 plus.

[Googly]

We could have emmanuel Bawa as our next ODI captain . Now that would be a left field decision by Zimbabwe cricket. I would certainly like to see him around the senior squad. The boy has talent

When Reggie hangs it up it will be Shumba or Wes if they've done moderately well.

[TapsC2]

I don't see Regis hanging up his boots any time soon. He has finally hit top form and ZC have probably started paying him accordingly. I'm sure he will get a big renewal this year. He hasn't gotten the chance to enjoy the money long enough to consider retirement anytime soon. Zim is a tough place and this is guaranteed USD in his pockets. There is even the opportunity of a couple of low level T20 gigs if he continues opening and scoring.

He is in it for another 4 years minimum but he will probably give up keeping after the ODI qualifiers/World Cup. Ervine is 37 this year and he looks like he can keep going for another 18 months at the top level. If not longer.

Let's not forget we have established a lot of these age frauds are probably retiring officially as 35 year olds but they will really be 40 years old if the system wasn't toxic a lot of these guys would continue for as long as possible.

The plan B is obvious to get maybe Ben Curran and Nick Welch in. If that works and you add Evans to the current young players we will be fine. Not amazing. But just fine.

[TapsC2]

Our domestic system is not the best but these guys probably played 3 weeks of serious short form cricket and somehow have been competitive in Sri Lanka I don't know how they do it