Least talented Zimbabwean

[ZIMDOGGY]

Interesting observation to the sidepoint I very vaguely alluded too in the OP. Everyone has their own interpretation of what constitutes natural talent or not.

By my interpretation to which I prescribed in the OP. I’m generally referring to players who had little athleticism, no sled or technique, flipped between specialisations overcame it with some sort of X factor or dogged determination like quality.

Ray Price to me is the epitome of the least talented.

[TapsC]

would big hitting ability like what Mire or Zhuwao do be classified as natural talent? to me Mire just looks like somebody who would he good at any sport coz he is an athlete. not necessarily a naturally talented cricketer.

[Googly]

Amusing post until Psoriasis butted in. He must get up in the morning and shout at himself in the mirror until the lithium kicks in.
Razor was briefly ranked No 1 ODI bowler in the world if memory serves me correctly. He was damned good in his day. The most aggressive spinner the world has seen and a potty mouth second to none. The constant torrent of abuse and aggression bought quite a few of his wickets and probably had a hand in his fall from grace in the post rebel period. He ruffled a few feathers in franchise games where everyone thought they should be all friends.

[Googly]

Richie Kaschula may well have been the most unathletic cricketer we’ve ever produced, but what a talent! He used to eat an entire tub of ice cream at lunch! He was South African cricketer of the year once when we were in the Currie Cup, that shows how good he was.

[foreignfield]

It may sound like blasphemy, and is not quite to the point of this thread, but if you measure the distance between which tools their maker gave them and what they made of them, I'd put Andy Flower up there with Price. Of course Andy Flower had enough natural ability but when he was a schoolboy would anyone have predicted that he'd end up with a Test average 20 runs higher than Grant or AC or anyone else?

[Googly]

Frylinck and Ranatunga are his modern day equivalent.
I think the few years after the rebel saga we practically had entire teams (barring one or two notables) that fitted this description. One of our problems is the lack of aggression in our games. I watched two prem club games in SA recently. You don’t want to be on that field if you’re average and don’t have rhino hide. The abuse is something to behold, if you don’t have any sort of ability it’s not a fun way to spend a day, the hostility creates its own natural selection.

[Googly]

Ya I agree Foreignfield. It shows how much of cricket is preparation and mental strength and sticking to your game plan. He was a freak, and had he stuck around longer much of that would have rubbed off on some of our players. I believe Vusi and Hammy would have been exceptional under Andy’s guidance.

[Conant]

What about the one and only Keith Dabengwa ? He was bang average and that’s being nice

Dabengwa would walk into ZIM's T20 side today.

It's shocking to read anyone say Dion had no natural talent. A proper way for me to put it would be - who had more natural talent in ZIM than Dion Ebrahim?

NB: Is this still about natural talent or stats? Revise the OP accordingly.

Played spin better than anyone in the team. That's talent.

[Googly]

Kirsten and Steve Waugh were interesting. Talented players that rethought their games and put away a host of shots to focus on a few scoring areas, it just shows what a mental game it is and that once you reach a certain level it’s definitely more mental. Grant Flower probably lacked a bit of talent, but made up for it by making sure he was the fittest player, and a brilliant fielder. It was not much fun being an opener in his era against the Windies and Pakistani bowling attacks. Wasim Akram rated Andy as the most difficult guy to bowl to. He made half the deliveries a non event by just watching them whistle past.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

This is one of the funniest threads ever posted on ZCF, I've laughed out loud at pretty much every second post

We've had some real shockers over the years. The two that stand out though are Zhuwao and Maruma. Bar one T20 match where Maruma got on the end of a few, I've never seen them (at international level) play an innings of substance.

Chari would be in that group too, were it not for his Test match 80. At the very least that showed he's got some ability that can be tapped. And although his FC record is still mediocre, it is slowly improving.