Where to from here?

Kriterion_BD wrote:

Googly wrote:There's no doubt that Adghanistan have improved immeasurably and Bangladesh beyond that, but if we had not had those years in the wilderness we would still be ahead of them.

Bangladesh are right up there with the top sides in ODIs, and possibly in t20s. Will get there in Tests eventually. Hard to see Zimbabwe being ranked in the top 5 regardless which players stuck around.

Love watching Bangladesh. The arrogance, the swagger, the not giving a s**t who they play, it's great to see and something Zimbabwe need to take a look at. The same can be said of Afghanistan. I think it's great personally, teams who are hungry for wins and teams who want recognition from the big boys.

Kriterion knows the two young speedsters for Bangladesh are two of my favorite around right now, watched under the careful eye of who...? Mr Heath Streak :|

I wonder how much the constant losing affects the mindset of our senior players? It must be completely demoralizing, and might explain some of their apathy. Working as hard as you possibly can when you know you are still going to lose must get old pretty fast.

Look,

I'm reading a lot lately about people remarking on the players body language and versions levels of passion. Player x celebrated a lot when he got this wicket but player y didn't celebrate his at all so f**k him let's end his career. That type of thing.

I don't think we can read alot into it, especially not in this gentlemanly game where extroverted outburst are frowned upon as a whole. It's just how individual players react according to their own personality levels.

Some players are meek and shy and are self reflecting after a wicket, others are out there and eccentric.

It's been my experience that crickey tends to attract the meek and milder personalities.

A sport like boxing attracts the egotistical self promoters.

Can you imagine proper utseya as a boxer?

Can you imagine Anthony Mundine or even Myhammed Ali carry on like they do in cricket?

sloandog wrote:

Kriterion_BD wrote:

Googly wrote:There's no doubt that Adghanistan have improved immeasurably and Bangladesh beyond that, but if we had not had those years in the wilderness we would still be ahead of them.

Bangladesh are right up there with the top sides in ODIs, and possibly in t20s. Will get there in Tests eventually. Hard to see Zimbabwe being ranked in the top 5 regardless which players stuck around.

Love watching Bangladesh. The arrogance, the swagger, the not giving a s**t who they play, it's great to see and something Zimbabwe need to take a look at. The same can be said of Afghanistan. I think it's great personally, teams who are hungry for wins and teams who want recognition from the big boys.

Kriterion knows the two young speedsters for Bangladesh are two of my favorite around right now, watched under the careful eye of who...? Mr Heath Streak :|

Streak has been an excellent find. You should pick BD as your team for the rest of the tourney!

StevenZim wrote:I find it frustrating that a full member with icc funds can't beat an associate like Afghanistan, who to be honest arent really are not that good. Maybe we should give them Zimbabwe's test status though.

Aghanistan are class; don't be surprised if they beat another test nation in the WC

Look at the sides they will be playing. I really doubt there will be any upsets. They just don't have the fire power or depth in the batting dept.

Googly wrote:Look at the sides they will be playing. I really doubt there will be any upsets. They just don't have the fire power or depth in the batting dept.

As much as I love the Afghans, there batting is crap. Its just Nabi and Shehzad...a two man show. They have talent in Usman, Jamal. And others, but they are all on the bench so idiots like Stanikzai have a job. They will struggle to post 120 in every game. But their bowling is top notch and they could still beat England or SL.

Lol banglayank...i like that.

I am not saying these U19s are the answer but at some stage you have to say enough is enough and try something new. Give those guys 4 years, if it doesnt work, get the next batch. The current lot have had 10 plus years...Hammy is on 15!

I think we are overreacting. We anyway knew this is where we stand, and as ZIMDOGGY says, there is nothing much you can do if the talent keeps seeping out. I had expected much worse - losing to one of SCO or HK was a distinct possibility given our best bowler wasn't there and our two recent young bloods tried out weren't there and we had two pacers returning from long layoffs. This gave us no hope really. To top it we committed more mistakes on the ground than ever before. Still managed a 2-1 record. We were always the underdogs against the Afghans given the current form and quality.

To see the positives, for once I thought the on-field captaincy was pretty good, not because I'm a Hamilton fan, but there were no shockers in terms of bowling changes, he adapted to match situations better than reading from the script like Elton or Prosper. He showed energy and was pushing his guys on the field to be more responsive. Chatara had a brilliant come back. Imagine, we thought he is gone. Can you believe how important it is to have him back and not too far away from his best? It is gold! Wellington and is still learning the tricks. Had the one off day. But yes, we have the elephants in the room - Vusi, Waller, Chigs, ...

Guys like Lake, Geyle and co won't return to Zimbabwe Cricket, why would they? They're at good Uni's here in the UK, they're enjoying themselves and there are more opportunities to play good standards of cricket, with good pay whilst attaining a good graduate job.

Fella's like Ryan Burl, who are patriotic and hungry, are one in a million. I was really shocked when I found out that he had decided to throw his lot in with Zimbabwe, especially after doing so well cricket wise and academically over here.

I know Brandon Diplock is moving to South Africa for uni either next year or the year afterwards.

It would be good for the Chairman of the Board and perhaps the Sports Minister to go to press. The team headed off with much fanfare and strict instructions to not come back unless they were clutching the WC. If only it were that easy, clearly all they needed was a stern talking to and they would immediately be contrite for not having performed prior to this and become the World Champions we all knew they could be.

When the business has failed and you seek advice from the culprits thst have caused the failure you're not likely to find a solution.