Derbyshire to tour Zimbabwe in March

[Zimco]

@Googly. Do you know about ancestral rights or visas. Can people play county on them?

[Googly]

Yep. There’s no plan. You need citizenship. Then you must not have played at U17 level or above in a national side or there’s a one year waiting period. If you were to be picked for England you’d wait 3 years.
You have to be a serious cricketer to just pitch up in England with your Brit passport in hand and get signed. They give bang average academy boys a contract because they get a serious financial incentive from the ECB if they sign one of their youngsters that has been through their ranks and you literally have to be twice as good as one of them before they’ll look at you. There are some fine youngsters there but they also have their fair share of entitled dickheads.
I don’t actually know of one young guy that has just arrived, passport in hand and been signed. Byrom did 2 years of school, had a passport already and was then contracted. Nor do I know of one youngster that has gone through an eligibility requirement and then been signed, plenty of older guys, but no young blokes. Graeme Hick is the only guy I know that got there at 18, did his time and played. Nick Welch is close. He’s now eligible but now waiting for the actual citizenship, it’s not a slam dunk either, it takes months and it’s not guaranteed. If he succeeds it will have been against almost insurmountable odds that would have destroyed a lesser character, he’s wasted valuable years in the wilderness with very limited opportunities to practice at the level required. Its hard to fathom how he’s stuck it out.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in that passport queue.
Muyeye is of huge interest to me and should be of even more interest to ZC, but sadly not, because unless ECB use discretionary powers he’s simply not eligible, he’d have to claim asylum or find another loophole. ZC don’t deserve him, that’s the bottom line.

[Robbo]

Googly, did you mention this guy Munyeye is at Eastbourne College, and if so is he still there?

My parents have a holiday home in Eastourne and I go there quite a bit (you can't turn down a free trip). If he's there I'd like to watch a game or two if possible. Private School cricket isn't a bad standard.

[Googly]

That question had thrown me, I’m not 100% sure whether he’s finished or he’s still got this season? I think he finishes this year. Yeah do yourself a favor and go and watch him, he’s some player, I tell you, really nice young man as well, got his shit together big time. I would drive some distance to watch him, guys like him come along not very often.

[sloandog]

That question had thrown me, I’m not 100% sure whether he’s finished or he’s still got this season? I think he finishes this year. Yeah do yourself a favor and go and watch him, he’s some player, I tell you, really nice young man as well, got his shit together big time. I would drive some distance to watch him, guys like him come along not very often.

Would you say he's the most talented youngster we've produced since Andy Flower?

[Robbo]

Thanks Googly. I'm down there next in May, which is the right time for schools cricket in UK. I'll send the wife shopping and get myself to Eastbourne College.....

[Googly]

That question had thrown me, I’m not 100% sure whether he’s finished or he’s still got this season? I think he finishes this year. Yeah do yourself a favor and go and watch him, he’s some player, I tell you, really nice young man as well, got his shit together big time. I would drive some distance to watch him, guys like him come along not very often.

Would you say he's the most talented youngster we've produced since Andy Flower?

It’s hard to say, cricket is a different game now with T20.
You’d have to think top schoolboy cricket in England today is stronger than the equivalent in Zim 40 years ago. Sport just generally gets better the world over, except in Zimbabwe where we’ve regressed half a century in every aspect. We are a failed State in every respect. We do produce the world’s finest thieves, I guess we have that going for us.
We won’t know how good Tawanda is until he plays in the top men’s leagues, but he’s certainly right up there with the best boys we’ve had from Zim. Hick was incredible at school. Sam Curran was damned good as well. I can’t help thinking that with all the extraordinary opportunities he’s had, he’s missed the boat with his batting a bit. Surrey focused on his bowling from the age of about 16 and he took his foot of the pedal a bit with his batting. He should have been groomed as a frontline batsman and not as a bowler. People can see his talent- he’s even opened in IPL. He’s a millionaire at the age of 21 so he’s hardly been a failure, but my 10c worth is he’d have been a better top order bat than a bowler.
One saw glimpses of Byrom’s abilities at school, but he didn’t really set it alight, but he’s on the cusp of what I believe is going to be a massive career, a late bloomer, so to speak.

[sloandog]

Both Tom and Sam are killing it right now.

Tom's been in the MSL, the Big Bash, the IPL, he's touring with England.
Sam's a big part of Englands test side, he's been selected again in the IPL and is just starting to come into contention for England's LO stuff. Talk about living the dream

[zimbos_05]

I don't think anyone realises how good our system was in the late 90's early 00's. I played a lot of cricket at school level and knew people involved with a lot of different programmes and initiatives. I don't know if Stragglers still happens.

However, from school level all the way through to the top level, there was so much happening and the amount being invested was brilliant. We were playing games in random places of the country, and the infrastructure was there for it. Even if the poorer schools did not have the best equipment, they had equipment which was good to get them through a season and had a plan in place that saw them getting new equipment regularly. I remember playing at a school in one of the townships, and they had 2 brand new nets with stumps, bats, balls, pads etc all brand new part of a ZC programme with a manufacturer in Pakistan. It was stuff that no one in that town would have been able to afford, but they had it, and they had a well maintained field.

I remember Imran Khan visiting my primary school to donate a whole bunch of equipment as part of a ZC initiative. We got everything in that donation. CSA and ZC got together to get a supplier to provide sun screens for our field, and equipment for the groundsman. I remember thinking my school pitch was Wanderers.

My local club, Universals had a pristine wicket with top notch change rooms, brand new nets and some brand new bowling machines. Some of the national guys used to come train at the club too. One of the machines now sits broken and derelict rusting away in the rain against nets that have weeds growing out of them and the fences in tatters.

I went to a few other clubs whilst I was there and saw much of the same state, with equipment no longer functional or looked after. Clubs are still using equipment that is outdated and wouldn't be considered fit for use. It's not wonder that players are coming through he system so under prepared. Says a lot about a player like Taylor who came through all that turmoil and turned out to be a quality player.

[sloandog]

I think Taylor was part of a system which no longer exists, much like the system you just described up top. In the early 2000’s Taylor was rubbing shoulders with hardened club cricketers and doing well. It’s amazing if we ever get a player of genuine talent because we don’t have the facilities to develop them. I was really impressed with the wicket keeper Dollar in the precious under 19 World Cup.