Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan | First Test | 26 December 2024 - 30 December 2024 | Queens Sports Club

[Googly]

I was just looking up who'd played a test before first class. There's only been about 5 players in the last 100 years, Ghazanfar also being one of them.

I don't know what to think. There are two sets of rules in play. They espouse domestic stats and then disregard them when it suits them. I don't know what message this sends to others?
They say they control PONI's in domestic yet they forgot to pick him for a single FC game? So was he a last second wet dream?
He's been very wayward in his last few games and I think hes a bit off getting this type of opportunity. We've got other seamers that have been grinding it out, Big Mike was even an option.
They keep saying Salamander asked for him, and it's been said often enough that he probably didn't.

Having said all of that he does look quite promising, but its not like he's head and shoulders above other guys. If he was I'd be giving him an emphatic thumbs up. It just smacks of this crazy desperation to find a generational gem talent. We are running out of time, but that's absolutely not the motivation here.

It's almost like they're looking for deliberate distractions. Everyone must now get on the Newman train. One good outing and they'll now be grooming him for captain.
The second they find a promising black lad they fast track. The success ratio has been poor so far, but hey, eventually they'll get one right and disregard the other many players they've ruined in their wake.

[ZIMDOGGY]

I was just looking up who'd played a test before first class. There's only been about 5 players in the last 100 years, Ghazanfar also being one of them.

I don't know what to think. There are two sets of rules in play. They espouse domestic stats and then disregard them when it suits them. I don't know what message this sends to others?
They say they control PONI's in domestic yet they forgot to pick him for a single FC game? So was he a last second wet dream?
He's been very wayward in his last few games and I think hes a bit off getting this type of opportunity. We've got other seamers that have been grinding it out, Big Mike was even an option.
They keep saying Salamander asked for him, and it's been said often enough that he probably didn't.

Having said all of that he does look quite promising, but its not like he's head and shoulders above other guys. If he was I'd be giving him an emphatic thumbs up. It just smacks of this crazy desperation to find a generational gem talent. We are running out of time, but that's absolutely not the motivation here.

It's almost like they're looking for deliberate distractions. Everyone must now get on the Newman train. One good outing and they'll now be grooming him for captain.
The second they find a promising black lad they fast track. The success ratio has been poor so far, but hey, eventually they'll get one right and disregard the other many players they've ruined in their wake.

One of the reasons I ask is I know you have spruiked for fast tracking identified talented individuals for a while.
So wondering if he is in this bucket.

I also didn’t get any ‘wow’ factor about him, but I am wondering if I should be looking at him as our Mitch Marsh or Mitch Starc.
Elton, Bliggie or Ngarava?

If it’s his batting that succeeds then he might just be a good 4th seam option the way we wished Tiripano could have been.
Get a century and chime in with two wickets with the ball

[Mr Twig]

If Big Mike is an option then surely Victor Nyauchi should have retained his place. Did I miss something with him?

Assuming there's no rain, Afghanistan will want to accelerate and put on a 150 lead and hope to bowl us out in a session and a half. I've got a bad feeling about this.

[eugene]

I was just looking up who'd played a test before first class. There's only been about 5 players in the last 100 years, Ghazanfar also being one of them.

I don't know what to think. There are two sets of rules in play. They espouse domestic stats and then disregard them when it suits them. I don't know what message this sends to others?
They say they control PONI's in domestic yet they forgot to pick him for a single FC game? So was he a last second wet dream?
He's been very wayward in his last few games and I think hes a bit off getting this type of opportunity. We've got other seamers that have been grinding it out, Big Mike was even an option.
They keep saying Salamander asked for him, and it's been said often enough that he probably didn't.

Having said all of that he does look quite promising, but its not like he's head and shoulders above other guys. If he was I'd be giving him an emphatic thumbs up. It just smacks of this crazy desperation to find a generational gem talent. We are running out of time, but that's absolutely not the motivation here.

It's almost like they're looking for deliberate distractions. Everyone must now get on the Newman train. One good outing and they'll now be grooming him for captain.
The second they find a promising black lad they fast track. The success ratio has been poor so far, but hey, eventually they'll get one right and disregard the other many players they've ruined in their wake.

One of the reasons I ask is I know you have spruiked for fast tracking identified talented individuals for a while.
So wondering if he is in this bucket.

I also didn’t get any ‘wow’ factor about him, but I am wondering if I should be looking at him as our Mitch Marsh or Mitch Starc.
Elton, Bliggie or Ngarava?

If it’s his batting that succeeds then he might just be a good 4th seam option the way we wished Tiripano could have been.
Get a century and chime in with two wickets with the ball

Mitch Marsh would be lucky to make the Zimbabwean lineup. No idea how he keeps making the Australian lineup given he can't bat or bowl. He isn't even the best allrounder from his state.

[Googly]

Nyauchi had that confrontation with Hamilton. I'd be surprised to see him in a national jersey any time soon. He narrowly escaped being made to sit out of franchise.
It's all about power and control. I think he had to make some big sorry's to escape censure there.

As I say he has got something about him, left arm seam and swing, you can't buy that. I would love to see how quick he actually is though. He hurries some batters with a few deliveries. My guess is 135ish. He can certainly hold a bat but its way too premature to get excited about him as an all rounder.

We have a low bar here. A decent 20 or 30 or a couple of wickets and the acolytes start crowing to their tiny audience.
We're so past that surely? Every aspect of our cricket is in deep deep trouble, do they not see that?

[Googly]

Nyauchi is in the squad, I believe.

[Googly]

If ZC were 100% invested in improving the situation we'd have had a proper HPC a long time ago. We still don't have one! Its inexplicable.
Even if they're persevering with Mutendira's wisdom at least hedge your bets and say to Houghton- pick whichever guys YOU want to work with. Say the same to Brent with seamers.
Say the same to Mangongo with guys that would benefit from a boot camp scenario. There's nothing like this going on. I will guarantee we're the only full member that is operating at this level and there will be many associates with professional programmes.

That's basically my version of fast tracking, it's what's normal elsewhere.

"Fast tracking" I guess is a term for u21's into the national side, presumably through some A games and practicing with the national squad. We get one or two A games a year so that adds a year before you start. If the kid does poorly does he wait another year? That 3 month stint that emerging/u25 side did in UK was good for sure. Houghton was supposed to take that but got sidelined so some of the benefit was lost. He no longer seems to have a say, despite being our most successful coach in decades? He must have pissed on someone's battery big time.

Jumping a young bowler into the national side you can just get away with if he messes up. I mean you just take him off. It's done all the time with a bowler getting some tap.
Obviously impossible with a batter, he can usually only make one or two mistakes at this level and he's out, aside from some play and misses that don't find an outside edge. There's nowhere to hide. Well not strictly true, you can put him at 6 or 7, it's generally a bit easier down there unless you're coming in at the death and need 10's.

You have to be exceptional to jump into a national side as a young front line batter and have some success. Wes managed it early on before whatever started to go wrong, but its somehow been enough to give him a 110 cap rope!!!. What partly went wrong was man management, that's a fact.
They did the same to a lesser degree with Shumba but he fell out of favour a lot quicker.
They're doing the same with Maru, Madande, Musekiwa and Myers. That's SIX players with very limited success!!
Dion is work in progress and I believe can go up a level. Maru also. The term they're throwing around is "up-skilling."
It's not a guarantee We've seen that clearly. It sounds like a boardroom decision- up-skill these guys and we're good to go. It just doesn't work like that
That's surely where you need a HPC with a real quality guy like Houghton? Let him loose on 6 or 7 guys OF HIS CHOICE
(In what world does Mutendira know more than Houghton?) for 3 months and at the end of that he will tell you- these two guys here might have what it takes to play international cricket, these 4 I think will struggle.

Other sides are doing it and they seem to be backing the right guys because their failure rates seem to be a lot lower.
Either our guys don't have the ceiling or something else is wrong, or both. Do their coaches and selectors have a better eye and a better plan? Do they have youngsters with higher ceilings? Looks that way on all counts.

Let me tell you one youngster they've overlooked- Matt Welch. He's just 21. He's essentially won 2 franchise T20 finals with the bat, he helped Rangers get to the finals of the NPL and then essentially won that final as well against our national bowling attack. What other player has done that? Not youngster, but player? Yet somehow they think there's at least 10 youngsters better than him he couldn't even make the T10 draft ahead of some very very ordinary "emerging" players? Some nasty skullduggery went on behind the scenes there. Why? They want some players to "develop" and not others, it's clear as day. Larry ask the question.
Never ask a question you don't know the answer to!

[Googly]

This test has the possibility of going badly sideways on us.
As Twigs and Taps said, they will look to get a 150 run lead and put us in chasing six an over? Something like that.
Eeish. Who's confident of us not getting rolled in the last session? Not I.

[zimbos_05]

Googly, you speak of dreams. The only investment happening is at Takashinga.

All the other academies have to fight and fend for themselves. I will never ever respect TM and Bvute for what they've done to our sport and team.

[Andy31]

Very boring match.

Afghan are going to have to step up the run rate at some stage