U-19 trial tournament,2020

[Googly]

Its like Miracle Max from The Princess Bride-
Its mostly dead.
School cricket is at an all time low, and nothing is looming on the horizon to improve it, in fact we will feel the effects of covid more than most. The yard stick for all to see are the two T20 festivals every Sept where we host a couple of SA schools. The last one was a dismal affair expect for an exciting game involving Bawa and Myers against an SA side.
Age group cricket involves multiple trials and the occasional tour to SA for perhaps 2 age groups where our decline is masked by the poorer standard we now face from the SA provincial sides.
Club cricket involves more than half the clubs not even having their own grounds and being completely controlled by ZC. As a consequence there's never any continuity and we rarely seem to get through a single season without major interruptions. This NPL was a decent surprise that was played at a better level and with more intensity than we've seen in years, but what is it exactly and will it be repeated? The Logan Cup as usual seems to be delayed.
Not much to see here either.
The franchise started in December, there's been two games and now we seem to be setting up for some T20? There's no rhyme or reason to it and because they don't seem to have a media dept the country relies on one guy who has the inside track. We are supposedly hosting someone which means there's a strong chance that both the club and franchise seasons will not be completed., I hope I'm wrong.
We wait to see if the contracted guys get their pitiful 6 months worth of salaries whilst the hierarchy get their full 12 months worth of big bucks. Even if they do its not really acceptable when you consider what might have been with $9m a year instead of a paltry $5m which only allows us to survive with our lips one inch above the water line.
It could be so much more without too much effort.
That's mostly dead in my book.
We're looking to see our fortunes turned around by strong leadership, not the same old crap year in and year out.
Until we see different we're mostly dead.

[TapsC2]

We are in such a difficult position because we have a choice of actually performing decently until 2023 with the same old guard but then face a real decline because the kids won’t be ready or we start getting them into the team now which would mean paying top dollar for some kids to come back now at the expense of a couple of senior players.

Jarvis gone frees up the wage bill a bit but I’m sure blessing got at least half that money. It also gives us the opportunity to build a new pace attack whilst the likes of BT are around. I feel like instead of thinking of somebody like Ballance we need to pay top dollar for Welch and Curran and Muyeye now and they get some experience whilst the senior players are still there. This is how we survive.

I am convinced Myers Madhevere and Shumba will be direct replacements for Ervine, Raza and Williams. What we don’t have right now is replacements for BT and Hami.

I also don’t believe we are about to collapse. The collapse should have happened around 2006. ZC’s main goal is to keep the gravy train going and for that very reason they will import players. It’s also life or death for them.

The only question I would have for people here is that if you could use the money that BT is on to bring in Welch and Curran would you do it? 10k/month each would be very convincing

[TapsC2]

You only need about 2 serious kids out of every cycle and you will survive. If the next cycle produces Welch Jr and Bhawa for example and you add Myers Wes and Shumba that’s already a new middle order

[ManOfMystery]

Rockingham Colliery Cricket Club (Yorkshire, UK) have been doing some work with St Aidan’s Primary School in Chitungwiza.

Please feel free to take a look....

www.Facebook.com/staidanscricketteam
@staidanscricket

If any of the UK based forum members may be travelling home in the near future, then please let us know, as we have some more equipment to send!

Cheers
Skip

Richard Skipworth
Rockingham CCC
Vice Chairman
skip@rockinghamccc.co.uk

[ZIMDOGGY]

Rockingham Colliery Cricket Club (Yorkshire, UK) have been doing some work with St Aidan’s Primary School in Chitungwiza.

Please feel free to take a look....

www.Facebook.com/staidanscricketteam
@staidanscricket

If any of the UK based forum members may be travelling home in the near future, then please let us know, as we have some more equipment to send!

Cheers
Skip

Richard Skipworth
Rockingham CCC
Vice Chairman
skip@rockinghamccc.co.uk

What’s the plan?
Curious on more info here as it looks deep!
Ps. Be careful because sending cricket gear to poor kids who aren’t interested will mean they will sell it.

[ManOfMystery]

The links between Rockingham Colliery CC, one of the YCSPL’s most active and progressive clubs, and Zimbabwean cricket started with the arrival at ‘the Rock’ of Zimbabwe international opening batsman Stuart Matsikenyeri as its overseas player in 2017.

Stuart, who was highly popular at Rockingham, subsequently introduced one of Zimbabwe's bright young stars to the club; Tony Munyonga, who arrived as Rockingham's 2019 overseas player. Tony is a former pupil of St Aidan’s Primary School in Chitungwiza, from where the club’s interest in the school developed. Chitungwiza is a small Zimbabwean town about 20 miles from the capital, Harare.

A party of Rockingham members went out to Chitungwiza in February 2020, where they visited the school and played cricket with the children. They were amazed by the enthusiasm and the natural talent they saw, but were disappointed by the facilities and lack of opportunities for progression. They learned that the nearest club cricket ground is 15 miles away and that the secondary schools in the town do not play cricket. In consequence, the young talent from St Aidan’s is often lost to the game.

Since the party’s return to the UK, the Rockingham club have set up a project team to take forward a partnership with St Aidans. So far, they have donated some cricket equipment, set up a social media platform to highlight the achievements of the school team, and have also established an annual scholarship award.

The winner of the first annual Rockingham Colliery Scholarship Award in 2020 was 13-year old Zimbabwean all-rounder Ben Zuze, who is a left-handed batsman and bowls slow left-arm unorthodox spin. As a result of the scholarship, he will be able to attend the prestigious Churchill High School in Harare for the next four years. Ben was adjudged the most promising player at St Aidan’s by a panel including the cricket coach and the headmaster. Their decision was based on ability, attitude and effort, academic achievement and attendance. This is an amazing life opportunity for him – to study and play cricket at a school that has produced two international captains, in Hamilton Masakadza and Tatenda Taibu. Ben is a tremendous young talent and all at Rockingham CCC sincerely hope that this scholarship can help him to achieve his dreams.

Following the announcement about Ben’s success, St Aidan’s have also been delighted to announce that the have been able to secure a scholarship place for another young talent, Leeroy Chiwaula, to go to Wise Owl School in Marondera, through the efforts of St Aidan's coach Malcolm Chikuwha.

More good news from Rockingham is that Tony Munyonga, now a Zimbabwe international, has re-signed for the club for the 2021 YCSPL season. After his successful stay in 2019, when he scored 743 runs and took 33 wickets, Tony will be hoping for another productive trip and a possible promotion push. Tony will return to Rockingham in April and will stay with club members until September. In addition to representing Rockingham Colliery CC in the YCSPL Championship division, he will coach the junior players at the club.

During the month of November, Rockingham members held a sponsored fitness challenge; they walked, ran, and cycled the equivalent distance to that from Rockingham to Zimbabwe - twelve thousand kilometres in total. As a result, they not only raised much-needed funds for the Rockingham club itself, but were also able to make a significant donation towards the St Aidans project.

Rockingham are committed to developing the partnership with St Aidans and hope to support them with sustainable infrastructure projects and expanding on the scholarship scheme. The project team would be grateful for any donations, publicity or contribution. If you would like to help, please contact Richard Skipworth, the vice-chairman of Rockingham CCC at skip@rockinghamccc.co.uk.

We in the YCSPL wish Rockingham Colliery every success in pursuing this brilliant venture. Please follow their progress at https://www.facebook.com/staidanscricketteam or https://twitter.com/staidanscricket.

Full article and pictures here https://www.ycspl.co.uk/latest-news/roc ... tBWLzH8Qss

Thanks Skip

[Googly]

These guys are doing what ZC should be doing.
The problem is the cricket at Churchill is nothing to shout about, their facilities are almost non existent.
If ZC had $9m a year instead of $5m it would have been possible.
Mr Mukhulani decided he was Person of The Year in ZC's end of year report. Lose $4m x 10 years and pat yourself on the back, only in Africa.

[TapsC2]

These guys are doing what ZC should be doing.
The problem is the cricket at Churchill is nothing to shout about, their facilities are almost non existent.
If ZC had $9m a year instead of $5m it would have been possible.
Mr Mukhulani decided he was Person of The Year in ZC's end of year report. Lose $4m x 10 years and pat yourself on the back, only in Africa.

Has it been confirmed that they lost that extra 4 million for good?

He might not be the person of the year but I feel like he is crucified a lot for things that didn’t happen under his watch even though he was there. It’s like people blaming Biden for things that happened when he was VP. It’s a tough one but I think he has done ok. Why do I say that? Had we been under the previous board I guarantee you we would have been kicked out of the ICC by now

[Googly]

Nobody seems to know, or at least they're not saying whether its permanent or not.

[zimbos_05]

He might not be the person of the year but I feel like he is crucified a lot for things that didn’t happen under his watch even though he was there. It’s like people blaming Biden for things that happened when he was VP. It’s a tough one but I think he has done ok. Why do I say that? Had we been under the previous board I guarantee you we would have been kicked out of the ICC by now

I get the point you are trying to make, I just don't think it's a very strong one at all. TM was part of the group that came in and caused the 04 walkout. Then sat back as the board continued to pillage the money. Then he made sure to continue to support and reelect the officials that were creating all the problems and caused us to become the shit show we were. He then saw an opportunity to be leader himself and took it.

Then when he held unconstitutional elections, he again fought tooth and nail despite claiming he had better things to do and didn't need ZC, but refused to let the SRC step in and take over, or work with them to make things better. He told the ICC to suspend us, then blamed everyone else.

So as much as people like to push this narrative that TM was not in charge then, he was very much an enabler, and has not done anything which proves that things are better under him. Much like all the republicans who sat by and let Trump get away with his bigotry for years and enabled all the crap that led to the Capitol building disaster.