State of SA

[sam_ahm]

Arey you a South African Sloan?

[sloandog]

No mate but I have a lot of mates out there and I've been a number of times. I've actually watched a lot of franchise cricket out there and the standard is very high.
A lot of the players of colour in the franchise system deserve to be there at that level. Where a lot of them don't belong is the national side. Guys like Zondo, Dala, Magala, Mgjima are solid FC players but aren't good enough to make the jump.
De Zorzi and Keegan Peterson are two blokes who genuinely could achieve a lot in the full national side and help with this ridiculous quota system.

Then there's Gerald Coetzee. 90mph, bowls rockets, gun fielder and is a genuine batter. He's about 6ft3 too. Will he get a look in? Maybe in a few years.

Corbin Bosh is another guy. Bowled a 149kph rocket in the recent T20 Cup.

Talent isn't an issue, it's there, they have it. They don't have the system to support it, simple.

[sam_ahm]

Okie mate, I follow South African cricket quite closely too, has always been one of my favorite teams and I wish I could see them win a WC soon. I just hope their internal board problems are resolved so that the team can focus entirely on cricket.

Is Immi Tahir still in the plans for T20 WC or have they just decided to move on from him? I know he hasn't retired from T20s yet.

[sloandog]

To be honest the way Shamsi has bowled I think he'll struggle to get back in.
I'm not a massive fan of Shamsi but he has had some seriously good games in recent times.
They need to do away with the two Hendricks'

[zimfan1]

There are some very poor international sides at the moment. Bangladesh, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies are miles behind the big 3, Pakistan and New Zealand.

[sloandog]

Sri Lanka are seriously regressing

[sloandog]

I think the West Indies are a side on the rise. They have been now for a good year.
They won 2-0 in Bangladesh, they beat Sri Lanka in the T20's 2-1 and they won the ODI's 3-0. Coupled with the fact they have won some good test matches this year as well speaks volumes in my opinion.
South Africa are falling behind rapidly though

[franco vazquez]

How many black players in SA are actually good enough? I see a lot of players in the age group of 28-32 just starting their career at franchise cricket. Are they actually good enough or are the beneficiaries of quota system?

[Zimco]

Yeah west indies has a real cohesiveness under holder and more players seem to be playing for the national side as well as lots of investment in youth and new players. That tour to the UK showed it. Sri Lanka have never really recovered from the loss of their big players and South Africa shoot themselves in the foot. I don't think Bangladesh is in such trouble as the two mentioned before. They have some good players but they also do have some good players getting older that will be difficult to replace.

[franco vazquez]

There are so many bad teams atm in cricket that all of them except Aus, Eng, Ind, NZ deserve to play qualifiers in order to get into WC. SA is at its worst atm and the direction in which its heading, i dont see them getting any better in next 10 years. Even in UK, the cricket is a sport just enjoyed by rich white people or British Asians. WI is getting better tbh, especially with the new management in WICB, SL is in dumps, Bangladesh is where it has been since ages, their current crop is not good at all. Severe lack of talent, their current team is like leagues below Kenya of 1996-2003. The only reason why they look better is because the other teams are getting worse. Pakistan is in a similar position but its still like 1000 times better than Bangladesh would beat them easily in any neutral venue.


ICC has to be the worst board in all the sports. If they were more focused on spreading the game rather than getting bullied by a third world country like India, Cricket would have been much better and I wouldn't have been embarrassed to tell the girl I'm into that cricket is my fav sport.