Zimbabweans in the UK/Europe Club Cricket (2022)

[tej_27]

African white cricketers are now targetting Ireland for pursuing international cricket. This will definately make Irish team strong in future.

You can't just target any country like that u need to have some history with that country or else you have to grind for several years to get a citizenship of that country . PJ moor already had an Irish passport which made much easier for him to join

[Rajkumar Sharma]

African white cricketers are now targetting Ireland for pursuing international cricket. This will definately make Irish team strong in future.

You can't just target any country like that u need to have some history with that country or else you have to grind for several years to get a citizenship of that country . PJ moor already had an Irish passport which made much easier for him to join

No matter how they join but it is a loss of talent

[secretzimbo]

Steve Saul is playing for Grayshott CC in Hampshire. Century on debut.

Rogan Wolhuter is playing for Painswick CC in the West of England Premier. The Connolly brothers play there too.

[secretzimbo]

Connor Mitchell is with Warley in Yorkshire

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Same old story all talented kids are running away from Zim and all skillless are remaining at home, will make Zim proud with their shit performance. Hammy Kadza is a failed guy in retaining this talent and making them available for Zim. Zim lost plenty of talents after each under 19 world cups and now they are in way of getting associate status back after getting defeated on the hands of Nepal and now Namibia

[Googly]

It's going to be interesting what those clubs think of his action. It seemed OK for the WC, but it does look dodgy.
Any of these u19 guys need to play club cricket here if they want to get noticed.
I'm all in favor of guys playing club in UK, it surely has to make you a better player and its good to experience English life. It makes you very grateful when you get back to our shithole which, with all its problems, is ten times better. Ask Compton.

[secretzimbo]

Same old story all talented kids are running away from Zim and all skillless are remaining at home, will make Zim proud with their shit performance. Hammy Kadza is a failed guy in retaining this talent and making them available for Zim. Zim lost plenty of talents after each under 19 world cups and now they are in way of getting associate status back after getting defeated on the hands of Nepal and now Namibia

Have you personally asked any of them if they have ‘ran away’ or actually do you have no idea whatsoever?

Maybe they are just playing UK club cricket during our off season, as has happened for decades? Maybe they’ve ran away, maybe they’ve not - we have no idea and neither do you. Has Brian Chari ‘ran away’ to Denmark?

Just to point out there are several dozen Indian and Pakistani players playing U.K. village cricket as overseas pros and overseas amateurs too.
Also How about Shan Masood and Che Pujara in county? Have they ‘ran away’ to England?


Actually we have no idea if these young u19 lads will return so quit your predictable crap.

As Googly says, a few will probably realise what a dump England is and come back.

[Rajkumar Sharma]

Same old story all talented kids are running away from Zim and all skillless are remaining at home, will make Zim proud with their shit performance. Hammy Kadza is a failed guy in retaining this talent and making them available for Zim. Zim lost plenty of talents after each under 19 world cups and now they are in way of getting associate status back after getting defeated on the hands of Nepal and now Namibia

Have you personally asked any of them if they have ‘ran away’ or actually do you have no idea whatsoever?

Maybe they are just playing UK club cricket during our off season, as has happened for decades? Maybe they’ve ran away, maybe they’ve not - we have no idea and neither do you. Has Brian Chari ‘ran away’ to Denmark?

Just to point out there are several dozen Indian and Pakistani players playing U.K. village cricket as overseas pros and overseas amateurs too.
Also How about Shan Masood and Che Pujara in county? Have they ‘ran away’ to England?


Actually we have no idea if these young u19 lads will return so quit your predictable crap.

As Googly says, a few will probably realise what a dump England is and come back.

Pujara, Masood, Rizwan or aussies are always available for national duty. When it comes to Zimbos, they try to represent England by dumping Zimbabwe, the nation who helps them developing as a player.

You guys have lots of talent but sadly your board or chief has no policy to keep this talent and make them play for Zim. Things can't go like this way. Zim can't stop them from playing for other nation, similarly they should'nt help these kids who have no interest for representing Zim in future. Board needs to set up a model to protect Zim talents. Zim is not a team to be thrased by Nepal or Namibia, its the talent which Zim is gifting to other nations hurting Zim badly.

[secretzimbo]

^ you are preaching to the choir. Why do you just endlessly state the obvious?

My point is that the kids discussed specifically on this page may not have ‘ran away’ because none of us have asked them, so let’s not tar them all with the same brush? It’s our off season and this thread is discussing guys playing club cricket in England, which has happened for several decades and numerous guys from India, pakistan, SA, australia and New Zealand continue to do so as well.

Also, what you fail to understand is that it’s not even a cricket issue. 99% of young Zimbabweans who have any kind of talent in anything, a brain, wealth, connections etc - want to leave the country, at least for a year or two.

You know nothing about our country and it’s really tiresome that you don’t have the humility to realise that.

[Googly]

The administrators of this forum need to axe these c%#

What he said there has resonance unfortunately. The idea of fawning talented players willing to grovel for a couple of games a year for a pittance is first prize and there's much head scratching why there isn't a queue of them.
And no we don't have a lot of talent. We've had about 6 good players in the last 8 years and 2 have elected to stay and both had limited choices. Players go and play in England and elsewhere to earn some money and play a higher level of cricket. If it was offered here they wouldn't go. It's that simple. Who's to blame for that?
Someone correctly pointed out that if Madhevere and Mandande were still in SA they'd be better players. So what little talent stays here stagnates. Who's to blame?
The days of semi-pro players being able to hold their own are long gone. You pay peanuts you get what you paid for, it's very simple.

Do you suggest they sign a document as a 12 year old stating they forgo tertiary education opportunities, will accept 200 a month salary in a few years time, when they could go and learn a business skill that could see them have an opportunity to raise a family above the breadline?

Firstly the only real opportunity that comes a young player's way is the u19 WC. Prior to that there is literally nothing. ZC contribute nothing towards any players' development prior to this. If they think they do that's sad. There are a few development coaches floating around, but don't seem to develop much. One cluster fuck trials session once a year with 100 ordinary players and some Tee shirts is not development Clearing that Milton cricket pitch will tick the development box for the next 5 years

ZC then spend money at u19 level that's allocated by ICC for this purpose. They spend it on players that have been ignored for the previous 10 years and wonder why they get raped. They also are quite willing to pick players who are able to buy a spot on the team. They think 5 months of net practices aged 18 will enable them to compete with the big teams. Hasn't worked in 15 years of trying, but maybe next year

They could get them to sign something at this point, but how many people would be willing? Would the contract read- you can't exit Zim unless we say you can? You can't go to university overseas, you can't sign a pro contract with anyone else even if we've got nothing to offer you, we just want you on standby. The good players with options would say No! It's strange that generally the players with options are the better players. Food for thought.

ZC offer no pathway beyond that. You have a handful of good players that should immediately go into an academy or into a franchise set up where they get proper coaching and opportunities and a small income to help with the bills. Should they be successful they should be able to look forward to a liveable income for the next 15 years. Every single other member nation offer this except us. Its a bloody sad joke. The only "serious" cricketing nation without an academy or competent level 3 and 4 coaches to staff it.
We don't even have official coaches for our national side Anyone short of a Brent/Houghton type of academy coach is a waste of time and money. You need a guy with serious skills and discipline and respect or don't bother at all. You cant do anything half baked and expect it to work. Brent has been sidelined by being offered the women's role. He's going to do well by them as he always does, but this guy heading up a national academy would tick every box. They had it before with the Rangers and it was ideal but of course it looked like it might work so they stopped it. Emasculation through competence Studied incompetence is the only way you won't get your head lopped off.
It would only be really successful if he could choose the players and not have to work with guys chosen for him
That's the other way of making sure it doesn't go too well.

People stay only if there's opportunity and something to look forward to. You have to create that environment. If it doesn't exist then there's something very wrong and it's why people with options exit.
Once again only a top down approach can work!
Youngsters need to look up to our national players because they win some games and the ones they lose they go down fighting. That bird has flown and the consequences have been massive. We may have another decade to continue our fictitious grass roots nonsense, but I doubt it.
We suffer humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat and its been so long it's actually accepted with a shrug of the shoulders by everybody. Thats the sad part.
Let's take a hypothetical scenario where Madhevere and Shumba get multiple hundreds between them and win us some games, you'll see street cricket being played within the month. Truth.
Until we put up a fight at national level nothing will work.
Until youngsters can see you can make a living from cricket here they won't commit to practice or the country. Patriotism is a word bandied around by the bosses trying to shame people whilst they get rich on the side. Until they want to be like one of the national players and see there's money to be made and recognition there's no plan for anything.