Sorry if this has been discussed before. I've done a small case study on Brendan Taylor. Due to the player strike he made his debut as an 18 year old, arguably years before he was ready, and years before what he would've if he had been playing for pretty much any other team. This meant his innings while was still raw and developing count the same on his average as innings mid career. In most other teams players would have to develop in the first-class system before being exposed to international cricket but in this case Zimbabwean players were exposed prematurely, and unfortunately it does not reflect well on their average.
Take Taylor as example (using age 23 as when he might of expected to debut under normal circumstances):
Test MatchesCode: Select all
Span Mat Inns NO Runs Ave SR
2004-2015 23 46 3 1493 34.72 51.09
2009-2015 13 26 3 1071 46.56 53.44
ODIsCode: Select all
Span Mat Inns NO Runs Ave SR
2004-2015 167 166 15 5258 34.82 74.47
2009-2015 92 92 9 3329 40.10 83.26
Add on top of this the years lost in the back-half of his international career to balance out the early years and you see the problem. Some players have no issue making an early transition into international cricket (e.g. Tendulkar) but could you imagine if Steve Smith's batting was regularly exposed as an 18 year old what effect that would have on his average?
Apart from annoying cricket nerds like me I think it takes away from their international reputation, especially from cricket fans who have not seen many Zim games. Has anything else happened to any of the other players or ready far too much into things?
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Zimbabwean Career stats possibly misleading?
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ZCF Hall of Famer
On the flipside,
averages are beefed up by playing Bangladesh and Indias 3rd 11 every year.
averages are beefed up by playing Bangladesh and Indias 3rd 11 every year.
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Just imagine what Andy Flower's average would have been only playing tests at home against Bangladesh and Kenya, instead of playing in Sri Lanka against Murali.
My All-time Zimbabwe XI
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani
Neil Johnson, Brendan Taylor, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower (w), David Houghton, Sean Williams, Heath Streak (c), Andy Blignaut, Paul Strang, Eddo Brandes, Blessing Muzarabani
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