Firdose would do well to know that my exposé on this is well documented within the annals of this forum. Well Mr Houghton, we have plenty of players who have many years in our domestic setup. Sadly some see positives in persisting with the exact opposite. It is said that those who have that kind of experience and records they've built up over time while playing in our FC structure, are inferior to those who haven't! In other words, it has been to little benefit for them, so even if games are increased from 8 to 16, they will still be pathetic and inferior to our young finds, while those young finds themselves will continue to be superior despite being bereft of FC experience - simply because they are showing 'better form' and 'greater potential'. So don't be concerned they say, they will with time become world beaters through the rigours they face in the international jungle, away from our FC class competition!! :shock:
Zimbabwe's talent is obvious but it needs to be refined. In the domestic competition they have performers who excel. Gary Balance scored a double-hundred for the MidWest Rhinos two weeks ago. Michael Chinouya started the season with a five-for for the Rhinos. And Forster Mutizwa, who is in the national squad, got 164 for the Mashonaland Eagles, but his average needs improvement in international cricket. A persisting problem has been the gap players have to jump when they take the step up from domestic to international cricket.
The one area Price cannot dispense any insight into is batting, and he feels that's where Zimbabwe are struggling the most. "We've got a very young batting line-up. When you looked at Pakistan, for example, they had Younis Khan batting with Azhar Ali, and I could hear that he was helping him along. Our most experienced batsman is probably Tatenda Taibu, and he is only 28."
There are many merits in what you say, hhm, particularly about the batsmen. Batsmen need time, time and more time and heaps of runs before they are exposed to international cricket. Which is why the element that suffered the most after the rebel walkout of 2004 was the batting, posting pathetic scores of 35, 61 and many sub 200 totals. Many a time the bowlers would try but there was never anything to bowl at.
However talented a batsman may be there are no way you pluck them out of domestic cricket as 18 year old and excel, with perhaps very few exceptions, the genius on our times like Sachin and Brian Lara. Even Brian Lara needed some time I think, not to mention Steve Waugh.
With the bowling however, I beg to differ. When Panyangara stepped out as a 19 year old against Sri Lanka, Australia and much other opposition, he impressed. Not only did he impress, he performed!!
He may have been better served with a year or two yes but had it not been done for that walk out he would have been in the setup, according to former national team Geoff Marsh. But with the performance s he pout up them would you say he was completely unready? No!!
By Australian standards or South African maybe not, but by Zim standards where we do not have the luxury of “blooding" these youngsters for the amount of years you say fit, I think they were ready.
The problem with Tinashe Panyangara was not that he didn’t know where to bowl or how to bowl but because his pace fell off after his stress fracture, such that now he has been turned into a medium pace trundler.
I suspect you will use these injuries as proof that that these bowlers are not only ready on the field but also their bodies. This numerous stress fractures then were a result of appalling player mismanagement buy zimcricket and their physios more than anything.
Elton Chigumbura was bowling as venomous 145km / hr on good pitches before he too, did his back. I may be argued that he was better bowler then than he is now; and how many years of experience has he had?
Indeed, Mohammed Amir only needed a season and a half to stamp his authority on Pakistan cricket. The numbers, without providing any right now, will vindicate this fact: there are higher chances of success as a young bowler than batsmen; but then again is a mute point because you do not argue it. The point however, is that talent is everything, experience offers very little. Pommie Mbangwa wouldn’t make this side even if he had played 10 years continuously, neither can Mluleki Nkala!!
Brian Vitori show so much potential he will outdo Christopher Mpofu in most formats, in fact all; perhaps even in any ground. You are arguing for the inclusion of the likes of like Edward Rainsford and Tinashe Panyangara based on experience, but these two are being players are being outperformed buy their greener horn compatriots in their own teams, week in and week out!! How do you explain that?
The basics a behind fast bowling are relatively simple and straight forward: run in hard if not smoothly, bowl fast if you can, put the ball in a certain channel with a dollop of outside swing and you are in business. The rest can follow later. Batting is much more complicated.
Had you been arguing about perhaps spin bowlers, especially leg spinners, I would have understood. History shows that only the best make it much later in life because it requires so much control and experience.
Not so, off spin: turn it big in a test and you will make it. It is the same with fast bowling: bowl very fast and the rest will follow. Isn’t Pat Cummins as an example?
But then you will argue the young Pat is a rare exception so I’m prepared to concede this point now. But this is an empirical fact: Wasim Akram says the same thing. the great legend says he will work with pace, because it is a starting point. He hasn't even asked that you posses the wizardy he was blessed with. You can develop swing but you will not just gain a yard of pace and talent from nowhere, as someone said a Christopher Mpofu has already hit a ceiling. But then Tinashe Panyangara is quite simply, mind boggling. Indeed, give him a green wicket in England to work with and he will shine.
So will Keegan Meth, so will Vitori, so will Kyle Jarvis and even Shingi Masakadza. They will outdo him all. I don’t see how, then, and then these veterans can be argued to be a better option than this current crop.