Training squad for Windies tour announced

[Jemisi]

I think it is reasonable to expect that Gayle will mess us up a couple of times. The hope for us is that we can grab the opportunity to win in a game or two. Some matches will be put beyond our reach.

[takleg]

But if there's a lesson there it is: You can survive the Gayle force ... Guyana still won comfortably.

Tell that to Kyle & Cremer

Missed this one, but I watched his 85 in their previous game.

Didn't do so well in the BBL. Let's see how he goes against the Aussies. Maybe peak during that tour and get injured or flat when he gets to us. Vitori seemed to have him covered.

Not so long ago you were that guy who would present some interesting facts about why senior players(Ewing, Duffin, Tinashe etc) were "superior" to the juniors(Kyle, Vitori, Chatara etc). Even though your posts were long and a pain to read, I'd take some time to read 'em coz there were some valid points in there. At one point I was beginning to soften up to your senior player ideas. But now, I don't even bother to read your loooong posts, because they have now turned racial and they have no substance at all.

[hhm]

...they have now turned racial...

There is a difference between commenting on one side of a racially inclined topic, with being actually racial. I am defending reality.

The SA situation is pretty obvious, to the point that a number of Journalists(Black, White, Asian & Colored) and various respected people of varying ethnicities, have had little choice but to report and comment accurately because that is what's happening. Current and former players' comments and books continue to reveal the very existence of this evil committed by the very individuals ignorant fans blindly idolise.

Coming back home, putting aside the damning first hand accounts of reporters, selectors & players, the current situation is a case in point. At no point has it crossed your mind that a Minister has pointed out that at its core, the directive only affects sports that have selection panels, and they happen to be only two - bowls and cricket, (since the rest don't have selection panels, and the Minister has said you don;t have to have played at international level in order to coach any sport - which rules out e.g. rugby, football etc). The Minister sat down to draft proposals to be effected by the SRC, the result being a blanket directive over all sporting disciplines, but is essentially applicable to just two!

Doesn't that sound silly to you? Who cares about Bowls? Do any of you here, or the "small" population of white Zimbabweans under 45(which completely dwarfs the older group)? Perhaps that's where the budding Barney Rogers, Ian Nicolson & Benade defected to! Why weren't these resources devoted to two separate meetings with objectives to address needs that are unique to those two disciplines and ultimately two directives? The simple answer is in order to shroud the scheming and vile intentions - which were(and shall continue to be) exposed rather embarrassingly.

There are multiple, obvious cases of abuse of power, to suppress transformation and the entry of Blacks into the sport - be it playing, coach or administering it. I won't refrain from highlighting or commenting on that simply because it's convenient for one to write it off as racial and baseless.

You've obviously picked up on my mention of Jarvis & Cremer where Gayle and WI tour is concerned. That's because of the bowling options we have, they are and will be the most expensive! I rate Jarvis as a pathetic seam bowler who wastes the new ball, and is fodder to any bastman worth his salt. He proves that everytime and this tour won't produce different results however much his fans wish him differently. Price and Cremer are short of form, have been expensive and simply unproductive. Right now, there is no justification for their selection ahead of Utseya & Mushangwe respectively, other than favouritism. Crucially, nothing justifies persistence with them ahead of Utseya, who has done a lot to deserve a chance to play a Test so he can prove himself.

Don't get me wrong, where player preferences are concerned, I will still pick a Shingi-Nicolson pairing over Vitori-Jarvis. I still say Cremer is the future lead spinner of our side in all formats. Taylor is still an ordinary batsman and a liability, anywhere in the top 3 in any format plus an atrocious keeper. His collusion with the perpetrators adds wait to my disapproval of him being captain from the outset, but he remains a batsmna I woudn't dream of dropping from our side. I would have Duffin as an opener plus Vermeulen at 3 anyday(with Hami, Vusi, Taylor, Tino & Chakabva completing the top seven). Ewing remains ahead of Mutizwa, Waller& Craig for our middle order. I will always pick Elton a specialist seamer ahead of Meth, Jarvis & Querl(even if we put his batting aside), but that list also extends to Viori, Shingi etc! Mpofu is a ever-present fixture much to my satisfaction, but my praise for Tinashe & Rainsford is well documented! Nothing racial about all of that.

What I don't like is the unofficial impression being bandied about, that because the pool of white players is so few, even if the likes of Craig, Waller, Price, Cremer, Taylor, Jarvis & Williams are marginally/horribly off-form or unfit, they must be treated in a special way. Waller is a poor bastmen who invites ridicule and scrutiny, his ugly to the eye does little to compensate for it with runs and it's reflected in his stats(I've said Mutizwa is ugly as well). Craig, whose intelligence I don't rate(largely responsible for the bulk of dismissals), has literally chopped of 10 runs from his FC average in the last few seasons, despite a couple of handsome knocks here and there, should be nowhere near the team right now! How do you explain Williams, Craig & Waller all going to WI, and Butcher-Grant-Taylor insisting that they bat ahead of Maruma whose been by far the best FC batsman over the last 14 months? Despite that, some fans here still select and ailing Craig ahead of Maruma in the Test side! If anyone is guilty of uttering, baseless and racially inclined views or preferences, it's not me. You can easily come up with a list of other candidates. Look closer! There is a basis beyond simply saying "I like him, stats and form may clearly indicate he's sh*t, but I feel safer having him in the middle order than Maruma".

[eugene]

What basis do you have for Matsi other than personal preference? His stats are bad, worse than Waller's even.