1st ODI Zimbabwe v Afghanistan

I don’t disagree, but hang in there Taps.

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:31 pm

I was at the game live today for a few hours. The fans are there but there are disgruntled. The energy is extremely negative when you actually get to talking and hearing what people are saying. Yes they will celebrate a boundary or a good shot but everybody is asking the question now..

How did we get here?

The crowd actually looked a decent size in the afternoon and was very noisy. Big well done to all the guys there still supporting. Despite everything a lot of people still care.

zimbos_05 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:46 pm

That run rate and strike rate is abysmal. To be doing that from the first over, one if always going to be behind the game. Also extremely dumb that our best bowler and our most economical bowler are not bowling out their overs. It's not about giving everyone a chance, it's about making the right calls.

I have to say, Ervine's captaincy continues to disappoint. Strange decisions almost every game, and seems to be affecting his batting. I really hope Williams is okay and isn't finished, by far the smartest on-field cricketer we have and natural captain.

It wouldn't make much difference overall, and our problems are way bigger. But it's still very frustrating to see basic mistakes being made anyway.

It's not an excuse, but not many teams in the world would have fared that much better against Nabi and Rashid's performances today.

Googly wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:51 pm

secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 5:57 pm

Lol what? 😂

He may well be Vaj's 5th personality. 😂

I suspect its you that's salty after being scammed for the last couple of years 😂 That's a long time to be stupid, even for you.

That poor stuff he wrote I see you find amusing. What is it you don't like about my fellow countrymen?

Raj ain't that bad. He may be slightly coarse and night not know how to spell covfefe properly but he's the sort of guy every forum needs.

He only wants cricket to be a great game again. For too long us Asians have seen others come in and ruin the game. And before anyone thinks I have a problem with non-Asian teams, I don't. I'm totally fine with England and Australia and New Zealand playing the game because they play it the right way. But I don't like teams like Zamibia or Scotland being given all these slots in World Cups when teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan qualified the right way. It would have been way easier if we had 4-6 freebie slots open to qualify in the old days.

Raj is just the first guy to come out and say these things in the open. I see so many people support the IPL and BCCI's pursuit of a more equitable place in the ICC that the only way Asian cricket can be stopped is if non Asians rig the process. And the ICC is rigged, believe me. No way would anyone on the streets of Delhi Mumbai Lahore Dhaka or Sylhet support teams like Nambabwe playing full internationals. Zero percent chance.

I really hope Raj doesn't get banned from the forum or decide to quit. Cricket forums hold us Asian posters to completely different standards and frankly I am sick and tired of our voices being silenced. This is why I am in full support of N Srivisan's buyout of the internet. Let there be a free marketplace of all opinions regarding cricket. Maybe then all the lies about thr 2019 World Cup will be exposed and the true Champions finally crowned albeit 3 years too late.

secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:59 pm

It's not an excuse, but not many teams in the world would have fared that much better against Nabi and Rashid's performances today.

Rashid and Mujeeb weren't there in 2015, but Afghan were winless from 9 games at the last World Cup (ODIs only because T20 doesn't count, lol). 0-9 is a pretty hard number to run from. Let's see how they do in 2023, but I cant see them winning more than 1 game.

Kriterion_BD wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:12 pm

secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:59 pm

It's not an excuse, but not many teams in the world would have fared that much better against Nabi and Rashid's performances today.

Rashid and Mujeeb weren't there in 2015, but Afghan were winless from 9 games at the last World Cup (ODIs only because T20 doesn't count, lol). 0-9 is a pretty hard number to run from. Let's see how they do in 2023, but I cant see them winning more than 1 game.

Well yeah as a team they aren't there yet. I don't think their seamers looked any better than ours, even that Farooq guy who everyone rates - they weren't doing much special today at least. And batting wise they are a bit light compared to top world cup teams. We should have restricted them to less and we really should have been attacking and taking advantage of their generous seamers.

But can't argue with Rashid & Nabi today. The pitch was not a minefield at all but they just bowled perfectly. It doesn't excuse our batsman at all because we've seen them be equally s**t against much worse attacks 😂 But a lot of better batters would have still struggled against those bowling performances today I think.

^ Kriterion was being facetious.

Trying to be funny but I don't think it worked...

I agree with Taps, Zimbabwe cricket is not coming back to life unless some drastic measures are taken, importing players who are lost to county cricket and change in ZC management are the only two options.

The current set of players, barring a few like Blessing and Shumba are not good enough, of course may be Raza but he is already 36, same for Willo and Ervine, so got to look beyond them.

Moreover the depth is non existent.

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 05, 2022 4:14 am

It's a systematic problem so the leaders of the system have to be changed. The next election is going to be key. They haven't realized it yet but the SRC realized that's the only place they can fight them and there will be a fight next time out.

This makes me nervous and it may be a case of ‘careful what you wish for’. If it’s as messy and as brutal as the last elections and last SRC battle then it could finish us off.

The fans in general are extremely disgruntled at everybody including the players. The number of times I heard people say " these guys (the players) earn so much money" yesterday made me realize that people blame them too. Their salaries are open secrets. It would be interesting to do a comparison of player salaries from the West Indies down to Namibia and the Netherlands. I wouldnt be surprised to find some of our guys earn more than their counterparts from Afghanistan and Ireland. They also need to look in the mirror and ask themselves are they earning that money. Most of them act like it's just another day in the office. No passion. That is annoying people in a country where most people earn peanuts

This season the national contract guys have been very handsomely paid according to all sources. On time too. I think there’s only about 13-14 of them on full contracts but ya it’s pretty openly known that they are the best salaries Zim cricketers have ever had other than BT and Jarvis.

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 05, 2022 4:14 am

Donald wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:20 pm

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:31 pm

We are finished guys. I'm sorry to say it but I see it clearly now. At every level. The board , coaches and players. All of them. Useless bunch. They don't deserve the money they are on. All of them. It's only a matter of time now.

I was at the game live today for a few hours. The fans are there but there are disgruntled. The energy is extremely negative when you actually get to talking and hearing what people are saying. Yes they will celebrate a boundary or a good shot but everybody is asking the question now..

How did we get here?

These guys are not going to last long. Mark my words. Everybody can see clear as day who the problem is now.

and who is the problem?

It's a systematic problem so the leaders of the system have to be changed. The next election is going to be key. They haven't realized it yet but the SRC realized that's the only place they can fight them and there will be a fight next time out.

The fans in general are extremely disgruntled at everybody including the players. The number of times I heard people say " these guys (the players) earn so much money" yesterday made me realize that people blame them too. Their salaries are open secrets. It would be interesting to do a comparison of player salaries from the West Indies down to Namibia and the Netherlands. I wouldnt be surprised to find some of our guys earn more than their counterparts from Afghanistan and Ireland. They also need to look in the mirror and ask themselves are they earning that money. Most of them act like it's just another day in the office. No passion. That is annoying people in a country where most people earn peanuts

If you know something. Don’t post it because this place gets watched. We can only hope though.

ZC have one silver bullet here.More like a bronze bullet because it won’t transform completely, but an ace on the hole no less. That’s to entice the diaspora.

Somehow, Zimbabwe the country has still managed to produce talented cricketers. They just don’t choose ZC for all the reasons we have spoken about here over the last 20 years that Raj the pig keeps reminding us as if we are unaware.

However, we have the Bennett brothers emerging. We have talented players who haven’t cemented themselves overseas but have shown glimpses of talent. Welch, Byron, Milton, Gilchrist, Higgins, the shittier Curran and Ballance is still out there in the bad books but international caliber.

We can get all these players alongside Ervine, Willo, Raza, Blessing and we all of a sudden have a semblance of depth and will emerge above the associates. We would have proper depth to cope with a succession plan on the older players and get through the next 5 years after.

At present, we are pretty much par with associates and when our big three bats retire in the next 2 years we are not only going to be associate level, but on the mid tier of associates. Let that sink in.

The difference though between us, Namibia and Ireland is we have trips that we can all if we make it a mission

I’ll happily do it!

Well to be fair, you can't expect results instantly from the lengthy domestic season. We need seasons like this consistently year after year after year and eventually we might see it helping a bit.

Guys the damage was done years ago. The failure of the team right now isn't because of Hammy or the board's actions over the past 12 months. It goes back years. We've had years of disaster at all levels and now finally we are seeing it absolutely destroy the national team. These things take time to filter through. We are suffering now because of the past.

Only for the centrally contracted guys plus their match fees.

Club and NPL no one gets paid.

Franchise there's pay as you play and those on a 4-6 month contract plus match fees.

All our international games appear to cost us millions if that's to be believed.

When I said a while back that we were in s**t I was dubbed the doomsayer by every single person on this forum and yet here we are, maybe 2 years late, but the covid scam delayed it. It's not pretty. For the first time a few people have stared into the cricketing abyss and realised we've got nothing in the tank. It's been obliterated and it's incredibly tough to resurrect with all the will, ability and money in the world. We have none of the above. Our players dubbed the "futures of Zim cricket" are decent enuf, but they're not superstars, starlets or whatever. They're just run of the mill good cricketers that will not reach their full potential in this environment.

This new secret and as yet untried method of playing more games is not going to work. We are going to get scrubbed this whole season and then there's going to be some head scratching and pointing of fingers. Covid cant be an excuse because everyone had to pretend it was going to end the planet and start kneeling and it helped ZC not hindered them. Hopefully they don't give up on all these games as a waste of time and money because they're great and necessary, but they're only one piece of what's now an almost impossible jigsaw.