State of SA

[Googly]

Those three are absolutely good enough, all of them damned fine talents. Especially Muyeye. That sounds stupid when you see how well Wes has done, but Muyeye has the ability to be next level.

[Zimco]

There are two keys to creating successful black cricket organisations.
The first one is competent administration. Once a guy is in office he expends most of his energy and the organisation's resources into ensuring he's there to stay. Whites do it, but the black guys are grand masters. Transparency goes out the window and election season is a non event, it's taken care of way beforehand. With millions flowing in annually the temptation is too great. Get rid of the opposition and make sure people can't check up on you, and if they can, make sure you own them. People let them do it, that's the problem. They come in as saviours and the new guardians but as sure as the sun rises tomorrow they become opportunists.

The second key is the enigma of producing world class black batsmen. West Indies produce more than their fair share so why not SA and Zim? With quality black batters CSA and ZC wouldn't have to keep dangling packages for the Fafs, the AB's, the BT's of this world and transformation would be a piece of old tackie.
I have the answer and will gladly share it because its so hard to do. With very few exceptions (there are always exceptions), if you ask a quality batter to tell you their story its invariably the same-
They come from a cricketing background. They ideally should be around like minded kids/brothers playing competitive playground stuff.
Someone has thrown them endless balls from a very young age 3,4,5,6 days a week for years and years. The coach has to be as driven as the kid.
They have a really good junior coach.
They have had a serious support network of a relative/s that provides, fetches and carries, provides emotional support.
The kid has a driving goal to be a pro and to succeed and to be like someone he profoundly admires. He must want to be somebody and to daydream AND be prepared to put in the hard yards. Anyone can fantasize- its not enough.
They MUST play competitive cricket. As a junior this means playing up 1,2 or 3 years.
They need to play 20-30 games a year. 10 is not enough.
They need to be mentally tough, talent only gets you so far.
If they're not banging hundreds at school they're in long shot territory of being really good.
Once they're about to crack men's level someone has to believe in them and open that final door.
Throw in a dash of luck to fire when it counts because when you're at elite level you're competing for the big prize and you're now with the last 4 freaks who are as determined and capable as you. You're batting for your life and the 10-15 years of sacrifice you and your network have put in and you need fucking balls of steel, cricket might be the most unforgiving sport of all and you don't get many chances...except in Zimbabwe and South Africa

This is the patented formula and you need the talent to begin with, otherwise practice your bowling and bat in the middle.

This is why Muyeye is the ultimate prize. The poster boy. I’m surprised they haven’t done everything in their power to bring him in. I completely get what you are saying but I think Myers, Muyeye and Madhevere might change that black batsman narrative sooner than you think. Those kids have what it takes. I don’t know how but they certainly do.

The problem is that ZC is showing that you can survive and not get kicked out if you tick certain boxes. SA has enough competitive schools cricket to produce a couple of players a year and the reality is that’s all you need.

One big reason for Zimbabwe’s decline besides the obvious reasons is that we went on a 6 year period where we didn’t produce any decent cricketers. Think about the generation just below Jarvis all the way up to the Burl/Musakanda generation. 5 years of nothing. Only Chatara is a regular. The PJs and Kasuzas failed to cement their places in the team. It affected us big time. Only Mire getting a century

I think Zim bled heavily during these 5 years cause I played with boys from those five years and many of them are playing for other countries or in other countries.
Eg curran, Curran, Byrom, jongwe was badly managed, Welsh, snater , Ryan higgins, maybe Murray. That's half a team right there.

Angus Curtis chose rugby.

The ones that have played for Zim - Moore, burl, kamukamwe, mavuta, blessing, Ainsley ndlovu.

[Googly]

I agree, South African cricket will collapse quickly by the looks of it. The fact that earlier Hashim, Tahir, Duminy who were in the team on merit and also contributed to the Quota numbers is also gone now. Apart from Rabada I don't see any other colored player 100% deserves his place in the side.

Ngidi isn't bad

Ngidi is a good bowler, he's a wicket taker for sure. It perplexes me a bit because his go to ball in the death overs are innocuous looking off cutters that just keep getting wickets.
He was given the best opportunities at private schools by folk trying to make things right (Hilton in fact), as was Rabada and Bavuma, yet they're right behind the calls for quota. They don't like the very working system that brought them fame and fortune I'd be mighty aggrieved if I was the dumb schmuck that organised those scholarships, have a tiny bit of gratitude.
No doubt plenty of hardship and some prejudice along the way. If you want to see real prejudice these days spend a week in our shoes.

There's no olive branch being accepted, they want the whole tree.

Myers -St George's Head Boy
Madhevere- St Charles Joburgh.
Muyeye- Peter House and Eastbourne UK.
Byrom- St John's and Kings College
Welch - St John's and Whitgift
Curran - St George's and Wellington College.

There's an obvious common thread here. Elite top of the range schools.

If I saw names from Dzivaresekwa 4, Muzarabani High with its adjacent Academy and Isivavane Secondary I'd say f#% it, burn the house down.

Curtis still had the option of swapping over. Multiple concussions and a knee reconstruction at the tender age of 22. Only a miracle will see him have a long rugby career, he's too small anyway, as brilliant and tough as he is he's going to get stuck in someone's spokes again.

[Googly]

Zim didn't bleed, those guys wouldn't have been picked, pure and simple. They also wouldn't have been as good as they are now either. Cricket in the UK and in other member nations is played at a completely different level to here.
You have to raise your game pronto or you're done.
If Curran had stayed here I'd almost guarantee he'd be in Moor's or Burl's position. In and out and not quite cementing his position. He'd most definitely not be opening the bowling even for a franchise side. He'd have been first change and batting at 4 for Rocks. He'd be recognised here for his batting and not his bowling. Thats the difference between the two systems. One promotes race and the other promotes cricket. Welch made an astonishing start at Eagles and was overlooked the next season. He played franchise cricket well at 15/16 but couldn't make the u19 side
The system is broken.

[Googly]

Ask Monte Lynch the West Indian who coached Rocks for a while. He refused to endorse the agenda and had to leave as he was threatened and took it seriously, he still spits blood if you mention his time here.

[Zimco]

Sure Curran etc wouldn't probably have been as good but they were amongst the very best at the age group level and some of them would have played for zim.

Blessing came from somewhere rural? In Africa, school cricket is the only option at a young age.

Whereas district cricket is another avenue to the school pathway in new Zealand, Australia , UK (club) and you don't need as much money to play district, it's still expensive though.

Churchill and PE are pretty elite sporting schools and they allow the best black sporting talent to compete with these private schools at the school level. Does ZC fund these schools?

All these players like Curran and Byrom also had to have a connection/help to get to the the next level. As good as the Curran's having an 'in' helps to get to the next level.

[Zimco]

Zimbabwe school cricket was a good starting block ten years ago for Curran etc. It was good quality hard ball cricket with some good coaches and ZC funded tours to South Africa. In the UK they are still playing with plastic balls in training at that age

Not everything in the systems in Africa is worse, some parts are actually better. Zc still does some good/clever things

[Googly]

During Curran's time ZC had all but given up SA tours for U14, parents clubbed together because they realised they had some very special boys and raised money themselves to tour and to bring SA sides to Zim.
They needed the blessing of ZC and raised money for black youngsters in the side, not a jot of help from ZC. In fact the two guys allocated to them helped themselves to cash and the entire brilliant concept ground to a halt because their SA counterparts refused to have anything further to do with them

[Googly]

Churchill i don't think even has a cricket pitch and the ZC scholarship thing to the school is finished. PE cricket has gone down the shitter as well. They need to resurrect it pronto.

[Googly]

The same connections that helped Byrom and Co also helped Huchu and Muyeye get placed overseas to help rock solid talented boys.