WI Touring Squad Announced

[eugene]

I guess Chibhabha's brisk ODI strike rate of 58.90 is what secured his spot? The only justification for his inclusion must be that he has performed better in the West Indies than anywhere else.

[totoro]

Really disappointed. They've left out Rainsford, Shingi & Chigumbura. Don't have high hopes for this tour.

[foreignfield]

To be honest when i first saw the squad i was thinking WTF!!!!

However i have spent the last hour looking at this season domestic stats and have come to the conclusion that the players selected are simply the best players from the current domestic season (apart from Rainsford).

Agreed.

But given that, we hardly ever go on tour with the strongest available side, just thinking back to the WC (no Hami), ot the NZ desaster (no Vusi). Resources are thin, and I maintain that this side has no fire power down the order for the shorter stuff. I'd take Chigs over Chamu every time.

Rainsford is indeed unlucky, he has done everything right, taken wickets and, more importantly, his body has not failed him.

Well done Maruma (who has scored the runs, so deserves his chance, but I've never seen him bat in FC cricket ...), Chatara, Mutombozi and Mushangwe.

Leaving Cremer out of the first leg of the tour gives him a bit more time to get back into the groove, which is a thinking I can somewhat understand. He was out injured for quite some time. Unfortunately the Rhinos only play one FC match during this period -- how about a one-off transfer to the Rocks?

[hhm]

I guess Chibhabha's brisk ODI strike rate of 58.90 is what secured his spot? The only justification for his inclusion must be that he has performed better in the West Indies than anywhere else.

Chibahba has failed consistently! He started his international career in 2005, and in 60 ODO knocks, he's managed just nice half centuries, with a highest of 73 and an average of 20 which is shit, to put it bluntly. Never reached his full potential, and there are now better batters in the domestic set up, and in form batters who deserve that spot. I don't care what stats you come up with, defending a chamu chibahba like player is pathetic as he's simply not good enough!

When will you two guys start focusing on the two white guys who DEFINITELY should not be part of the LOIs squad, instead of criticising black players who deserve to be there?

Kyle Jarvis and Malcolm Waller are the worst picks, and least deserving players for the ODI/T20 squads. No other player in that squad of 15 is less deserving that they are. That includes Chibhabha. For once use your minds to be objective in your opinions!

Matsi was out of the team, he worked hard in both the Stanbic Twenty20, and the Pro50 Championship, earned his chance, impressed a bit in the T20Is, but he didn't grab it the NZ ODIs, so he's back to square one. Chibhabha has done well in the Logan Cup and T20 - averaging about 40 and with plenty of runs in both formats, he opens the batting, which Coventry, Chigumbura are inept at,(and Williams/Waller/Craig are equally inept at and scared stiff off), so he also earns his chance. His Logan Cup SR is good enough to guarantee that if he bats that way in ODIs he'll set up the team well!

However, Craig & Malcolm got a free pass to the T20WC, no one complained, and neither impressed, save for Craig's little knock. Waller continues to be shambolic, he's in the team, yet you pick on Chibhabha. Ervine hasn't achieved anything close to what Matsi had to achieve to get back into the side(pathetic in Logan Cup, average in Twenty20, and above average in Pro50), but Matsi only had one more chance in T20Is, Craig already has more lined up without doing much really apart from looking good in what has been a poor limited overs season by the bulk of the batsmen!

Instead you should be saying thing like Waller, Craig and Chamu don't deserve to be there. If only Raza was available, or Kasuza had kicked on from last year because the only thing that prevented him from playing was the absence of international matches.

You all want Rainsford, but fail to say he should have replaced Jarvis. Instead the untried and deserving Chatara or one spinner should miss out. The reason Rainsford missed out is because Jarvis is there, and his already pathetic ODI stats and economy rates will get even worse! He's no better than the Chibhabha you're maligning, and that fact will become official by the last ODI in WI!

[sloandog]

When will you two guys start focusing on the two white guys who DEFINITELY should not be part of the LOIs squad, instead of criticising black players who deserve to be there?

What's skin color got to do with anything im writing about ?! stop throwing the race card in there Hhm it's un needed and pathetic. It's a fact that Chibahba has consistently failed in ODI cricket. Waller has actually impressed us in his short ODI career so far! Aas anybody on the forum! Do it! I guarentee they will prefer to see the name Waller than the name Matskinyeri or Chibahba, simply because Waller is a better batter and always will be a better batter! How many chances does Chibahba need to prove that he's not good enough for international cricket ?! His bowling is appalling as his average of 52.02 and economy rate of 7.2 in 60 ODI's illustrates!

He's no better than the Chibhabha you're maligning, and that fact will become official by the last ODI in WI!

deluded

[jimbo]

And why is Utseya so deserving as to appear in both Test and ODI squads. Must be some politics at play there. Would rather have seen Mushangwe in place of utseya in test squad not that he is going to get a game

[jimbo]

Seeing Jarvis and Rainsford open the bowling would have been gold but i'm happy to see Chatara there, The kid deserves it and is actually reflected in his four day form. So in that sense it is a meritocracy, What is not a meritocracy is seeing Chibhaba there and also utseya in the test squad. There figures domestically do not justify inclusion.

what the problem with Waller? he averages 40 first class. matsi barely averages 30

[hhm]

He's no better than the Chibhabha you're maligning, and that fact will become official by the last ODI in WI!

deluded

Check the list, Jarvis is no better than Chibhabha at bowling in ODIs! I won't even compare the batting.

He just played 8 innings in NZ's T20, does not feature in the best economy rates table, or any best table be it SR or Avg, save for the most wickets, simply because he did get a wicket.

On the other hand, he does feature prominently in the worst innings by a bowler for the entire competition!

That also proves that he will be useless to our T20I cause in the Caribbean!

I can assure you, Jarvis will go down as the worst Zimbabwean seamer to have played over 30 ODIs, (meanwhile you blind followers will keep on proclaiming as the best thing to happen to Zim). Of that I can assure you! He should have done close to that number by the end of 2013, and his SR&Avg will both be 50+, and an economy rate of well over 7!

I am fully confident that KYLE JARVIS WILL BE THE BOWLER WITH THE WORST ECONOMY RATE EVER IN ODI HISTORY by the end of the year! As it is, he is just a couple of places away from knocking off the batting-allrounders Cameron White & Chamu Chibhabha, and heading that list of the currently 576 players to have bowled over 15 innings! In ODIs, he is already the worst new ball bowler in the world currently! He doesn't even have the average or strike rate to compensate for his mediocrity!

England have finally dropped Jade Dernbach, it's about time Zimbabwe Cricket did the same to Kyle Jarvis! He's a passenger in our ODI & T20 team, meanwhile the likes of Rainsford & Mupariwa are languishing in Zim cricket. At least Shingi takes wickets. What value does Jarvis bring? can't bat, can't bowl, can't field! We can't afford to give the WI a man advantage! We should be fined for fielding 10 men!

[Ming]

He's no better than the Chibhabha you're maligning, and that fact will become official by the last ODI in WI!

deluded

Check the list, Jarvis is no better than Chibhabha at bowling in ODIs! I won't even compare the batting.

I know you don't like Jarvis. I'm not particularly overinspired by him, but you're throwing into your argument the fact that in 60 matches Chamu has a whole two wickets more than Kyle in 16 matches. Overkill in your reasoning, no?

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Ahhh, it's not a great squad. But it's not the worst squad we've seen over the years, and I think Jemisi hit the nail on the head when he said we can still pick some decent first XIs. Looking at these squads it looks like the current selection panel have realised this is their last hurrah and have gone down swinging. There are a few howlers and a few that just plain don't make sense.

• 1. The biggest howler is Cremer's omission from the one day squad. That just defies logic. In just a handful of Pro50 games he still leads the wickets tally amongst spinners.
  
  In over three times the number of matches, his replacements combined (Mutombodzi and Mushangwe) have taken less wickets than Cremer. It's totally baffling. The only way this decision could be understood is if it was a judgement call on his match fitness due to his return from injury. Considering after the current match he'll have two Logan Cup games under his belt I don't see how this could be the case so we have to assume he has been dropped and that is appalling.
  
  2. Chatara ahead of Rainsford? Not sure how this decision can be justified. It doesn't make sense. I don't think the extra pace Chatara brings compensates for the sheer weight of wickets Rainsford has taken at domestic level. It's important to reward outstanding domestic performances and Rainsford is very unlucky. If it was not Rainsford for whatever reason, it should have been S Masakadza. Chatara has a decent domestic record this season, but he's not the most deserving seamer to go on tour.
  
  3. Maruma in the Test squad as a batsman. Good on the bloke for working on his batting, but a Test batsman he is not. Based on what I've seen of Maruma batting, I'd rather Cremer or S Masakadza at the crease any day of the week. God help us if he gets a game. Weird experiments like this should be done at A team level (but preferably never); leave Test match cricket for proper batsmen. My thoughts are with every other batsman in Zimbabwe.
  
  4. Chibhabha got selected somehow? If 92 runs from 7 innings at 13 buys a spot then Cremer has even more reason to be disappointed. Even his domestic one day batting stats are better than that. Well, I guess Chibhabha did well in the West Indies in 2006...
  
  5. Meth is in both squads? Yeah, his domestic figures aren't bad but as with Chatara he's not the best available option. How Rainsford didn't get selected before Chatara and Meth is very strange. As much as I like Vitori, he didn't have the numbers under his belt to make this touring party. But given that virtually every other bowler in the country got selected ahead of Rainsford perhaps he can consider himself unlucky too!
  
  6. Williams is lucky to get a spot. He hasn't been back on the scene for that long I'd have preferred to see him get some more runs at domestic level before getting a call up. I do get it though, he's a talented batsman and with no Ervine in the Test squad it gives us a left hander.

So I'd go with:

Test

Mawoyo, Sibanda, Masakadza, Taylor, Waller, Williams, Chakabva, Cremer, Price, Jarvis, Mpofu

ODI

Sibanda, Masakadza, Chibhabha, Taylor, Ervine, Waller, Chakabva, Utseya, Jarvis, Chatara, Mpofu