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Ok time is a huge factor here, but im at a PC so going on a mini rant.


I have noticed something lately that i fear could ruin cricket in zimbabwe. No one else has seemed to pick up on this here at XCF...But i have followed the clues.

Alot of the players want out..... the reason why they stay is they havent found a fence wherein the grass is greener ....yet.

Clues:

Sean Williams leaving= disillusioned...everyone here knows the story
Taibu= spoke out about the pay situation= everyone here knows the story

now fast forward a bit...

There was an interview about 4 months ago (i can not find the thread or the article...my internet and google search skills evade me) where a player abroad- i think it was james cameron, but it may have been ballance or ervine - stated that he doesnt want to go back to the ZC fold and was quoted as saying words to the effect "most of the players in zimbabwe would leave if they had the chance, trust me on that"...... that stuck with me, thats a very big call and a call that was said with such confidence that i believed him. That is very very scary if the players become in demand and improve their skills.


then we hear from andy24 and various news sources that ballance wont return. Fair enough...but its the almost mocking tone he displayed that made me realise that this player, and likely others...think ZC is an absolute joke.


Then Vusi Sibanda.....goes to play grade cricket in nsw, after TURNING DOWN A RHINOS CONTRACT pre season.
what did that Ndebele fella (like me) have planned?
What is going through his mind doing such a thing?

After a successful 2011....i cant help thinking that vusi was backing himself to move onto bigger and better things. Why else would he refuse this then leave?
Recent interview from Firdoose said he was expecting to be in the big bash (lol).
I think Sibanda was trying his luck to make a career in australia and had ZC as a fallback option.
It didnt work, and now he is drawing his hidden ace from his sleeve....until the next offer comes along.

Keegan MethOn his facebook states "its great to get out of this shithole of a town for a while"- words to that effect.

true zimbabwean patriot right there.



The only3 that i believe this doesnt apply too are Brendan Taylor, graeme cremer and Ray price. Good enough to go abroad but no indication they will (although thats an iffy with the 2 spinners)

Although if your going to be REALLY cynical... its been mentioned Taylor is from a wealthy family- maybe money is no issue to him and its in his interests to be close to the family?

When you still have Bvute and Chingoka there of course things are still going to be rotten. Those two are ZANU thugs and they always will be. And don't even try the whole 'David Coltart wouldn't be involved if things were rotten' argument. MDC are so desperate to be in power that they would go into a partnership with the devil (infact they did by joining with Mugabe) to gain some portion of power.

to be honest i dont understand what the average zimbabwean is thinking with electing Bobby.
yes i know these days he does the cheeky election rigging routine...

But he helped in slaughtering thousands of us Ndebeles in the early 80s..

Didnt people twig at that point "this guy might not be the sharpest tool in the shed and one cake short of a picnic"?

Even if your one of the Shonas you dont want people with that mental state running the show.


Anyway this is slightly offf point.

More to the point...

bottom line is i believe its a sad and depressing fact that if Zimbos can jump the boat....they will.

yeah I remeber am sure it was sean erv and it was clear things were not all rosy when Butcher came in and in his interview basically said the players were too scared to open up.

Our players are like any other worker in Zim who if given a better job else where they will skip town and it has nothing to do with patriotism. cops soldiers have all scipped and they are the personification of patriotism.

Thats why ZC seriously needs to change their policy which has nothing to do with the development of a stong FC. i dont buy that.

If ZC allowed to play wherever like soccer then the standard woukd actually get good organically cos those GOOD enough play abroad opening slots for younger talent. Not more than 5 peeps are goin to be selected outside ANYWAY at the moment so i dont know why they stress. At the same time ZC keep bringing in foreigners to take up the First three batting slots in our league why not have a ploicy that says only two internationals per squad.

ZC are also too lazy to follow up players outside the country to see who they can snatch up.

Tino was also clear that he would like to get a county contract.


so if there is a better job these boys will most certainly skip.

The sh*t does still stink and it's all not rosy! I agree Zimdoggy. Which is concerning for us fans, something echoed by a selection in that Coltart article on the paper. A lot of them are disgruntled. As far as players are concerned, the same applies, and no one denies that they would leave at the earliest opportunity, your 'mini rant' clearly shows that they have limited incentive to commit to Zim.

My encouragement to them is to hang on because the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Even Andy failed to cut in WA, and had to move to the less challenging county circuit, while his brother Grant had to bear with abuse from fans being a kolpak who was holding back a spot for one of their local youngsters. Apart from the shorter formats, he was never that good in their FC. The list is endless because at different times the likes of Carlisle, Gripper, Blignaut, Ebrahim, Ewing, Friend etc, have fallen short of the standards.

Others like Ireland have been there and fallen off badly. We can only speak of Sean Ervine, but that's just one good season, and I fear his snubbing Zim is the only reason Hampshire will be loyal to him, and I doubt it will last beyond this season. It remains a mystery to me why Worcs are still to find a more capable opener that James Cameron, my feeling being that one will be unearthed soon enough. Let's not forget that it took Ballance 5 years before he settled, lthough age can be used as an excuse. He's the only one on the up, but seeing that he was snubbed for the fateful tour of the Lions to Bangladesh, I doubt they want to take the risk of throwing in another Southern African, at the risk of him outperforming many of their future stars, so much that they may have to give him a run first WHEN Morgan/Bopara fails.

Going back to the reasoning you signed off with, let's be rational about the socio-econimic and political situation in Zim. The economy was messed up before the land grabs, when bogus&legitimate war vets forced the hand of the government to pay out lump sums and some monthly grants. Inflation and Zim dollar value started crashing at that point. Don't blame Mugabe - these were war vets threatening action if they didn't get their way. As the economy got even messed up and they couldn't do much with the funds they received or were receiving, they thought to themselves we got away with compensation, we can get away with grabbing land.

Bob never ordered them to go into the farms. Genuine war vets, old & young fake war vets, as well what are now mdc people(with farms), even ndebeles all took farms. The incidents were isolated, covered the entire breadth of the country, and were not systematic. Even if it was in the best interests of the country, for government to restrain them, they had neither the capacity nor the resources. The Zim army & police's vehicles, weapons, manpower etc was severely depleted (big enough to cope with tiny mdc uprisings). Bear in mind that a good portion of the army & police are war vets themselves, who stood to benefit.

So guys get this through your heads, Zim people stuffed up the economy themselves, not Zanu PF or Mugabe - parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles who suffered for you 'liberation'! The next worst criminal after the Zim people are economic sanctions - which those idots told you,as they are telling the Iranians, that they will only hurt your leaders! You or most of you were in Zim when all these things were happening so stop listening to doctored western media reports. If anything the worst thing people ever did was not to vote for Mugabe at the most crucial time. There was a Referendum in which people voted against Mugabe (NCC), and went with the silly things they were told by Madhuku(NCA)&the West with it's pre-MDC - without bothering to read that draft themselves. That constitution would've ensured that Mugabe would've been out of politics by 2009! Instead people voted against it and they're stuck with the bastard! Afterwards Zanu/Bob wins the 2000 parl & 2002 pres election and the rest is history. You can try to blame policies, but hey Gono(&Simba/Herbet) did his 'best' under sanctions and the influence of the army - none of you would have done better. So just like (Putin)Russia now, and the ANC(SA) in the previous parl elections, they said he rigged it, but they won! I know a few of my old Ndebele & Shona schoolmates who are running farms, ranches and mines happily, they hate Mugabe, but prefer Zanu over MDC, so he gets their vote. No one wants to cut off the hand that fedds them!

Just like the ANC in South Africa, there will only ever be one party in Zim - ZanuPF, so forget the ballots, otherwise you will be revolting endlessly against the MDC like every other 'emancipated' Arab Spring state. Sanctions are what's killing Zim, so unless that's lifted, Zimbabweans, and it's cricketers should stop running away from Zim blaming Mugabe and Zanu PF, but face up to their problems under the existing conditions. Afterall Zim is far more democratic than most countries the west continues to trade freely with, so a corrupt one-party state has never been a hindrance to prosperity and aid from the west. That's not the problem. I hate Mugabe for a legitimate reason, he killed innocent people, and has had a hand in many other deaths after that. Most of you hate him for things you don't understand or were made to believe. It's not his fault equally hypocritical murderers take the moral high ground and refuse for Zim cricket to tour/host Eng and make some money, and there are plenty of worser people than Peter&Ozias who are administrators of cricket in many other full members, so that doesn't cut it either!

hhm wrote:The sh*t does still stink and it's all not rosy! ... !

This much is clear

Zimdoggy wrote: but its the almost mocking tone [Balance] displayed that made me realise that this player, and likely others...think ZC is an absolute joke.

But we don’t want to project our misgivings too easily…Was it a mocking tone or is there some interpretation? Why are others more likely like Ballance than Taylor?

Zimdoggy wrote: Keegan MethOn his facebook states "its great to get out of this shithole of a town for a while"- words to that effect.

I often feel that about the place I live now – I just don’t have a facebook to go twittering… I mostly know I would probably not really want to be anywhere else…

hhm wrote:My encouragement to them is to hang on because the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Even Andy failed to cut in WA, and had to move to the less challenging county circuit, while his brother Grant had to bear with abuse from fans being a kolpak who was holding back a spot for one of their local youngsters. Apart from the shorter formats, he was never that good in their FC. The list is endless because at different times the likes of Carlisle, Gripper, Blignaut, Ebrahim, Ewing, Friend etc, have fallen short of the standards.
!

Probably good advice … and Taylor, but particularly Cremer, would be struggling to cut it.

hhm wrote: The economy was messed up before the land grabs, ... So guys get this through your heads, Zim people stuffed up the economy themselves, not Zanu PF or Mugabe !

I believe it is the government’s responsibility to govern the people not allow the reverse … I have little else to argue with your generally HrHrM ( ) and no will to do so, but who was managing the economy before the land grabs. The NCC referendum was a big mistake (also seemed a turning point in Bob’s mental state towards the people). I know a few farmers myself and their attitude is more of distrust in MDCs ability to govern (whether it’s justified or not is not really provable)
Us ‘nuetrals’ have slight leanings I guess

I like 99% of zimbabwe fans think that not all ir right with how things are run. Yet i would have to say about Meths facebook comment, lets not read to far into it. I come from a small town of about 7,000 in Australia and i hear that kind of comment of cant wait to get out of here all the time. Gennerally it has nothing to do with the whole town but just two or three people and gossip. but i could be wrong.

The referendum would not have ensured that Mugabe would go by 2009. He would have just changed the constitution so he could stay. He has never shown any interest in relinquishing power. Plus the new "constitution" effectively legalised government administered land grabbing so I think Mugabe did endorse the seizure of white farms. I think hhm's portrayal of Mugabe as a poor old man who was taken advantage of by some nasty war veterans is rather dishonest. Mugabe was always a thug, it just took people 20 years to realise it.

Sanctions Hhm? Rhodesia managed for a long time under proper sanctions. I'm sure you could run the country better than Bob. The farm invaders representing overwhelming force for the police and army? Come on mate, I'd believe you on Duffin and Panyangara a long time before I bought that one.

I've met a good number of farm invaders and the invaded and I'm pretty sure locking a couple of them in prison - even for a couple of weeks each would have provided the disincentive for further incursions. You are right that things weren't systematic - but that is more a description of the incompetence of ZANU - their genocidal performance was not as efficient as the Germans. This was approved at the top. The only thing that Bob was/is afraid of was the army overthrowing him. And he wanted to allow them to loot and pillage. The vampire state depends on more blood. Mugabe has always been a destroyer and no amount of ZANU nonsense will change the facts there.


How all of that plays out for ZC is yet to be determined. What it means financially for the players is that things are going to be rosy on the outside for a long time. For Ballance, who can be sure of at least a long FC career the pull of tests doesn't seem to outweigh the cost. For most of our current players I can't see them securing a contract in a place they would prefer to live - They aren't going to head to BD or Pakistan or Sri Lanka for cricket. NZ probably represents their best bet for FC contracts - but they could probably wangle it to play in NZ or 2nd Div CC and still represent Zim. Plenty of the Windies played in England and still turned out for the Windies. I don't see the conflict. Zim has the least full calendar of any team. If a player is good enough, they can have a contract for a dmoestic team and still play for Zim - so long as ZC can get its head around the arrangement.

Most of the so called 'war veterans' were either too high, drunk, or AIDS riddled to mount any organised show of force. They were just lucky they outnumbered the farmers by 500 to 1 most of the time.