Grant Flower interview

Advantage takers of quota system in Zimbabwe :

Enough Chances, 0 talent, Once in a blue moon performers that too against weak sides

1) Richamond Mutumbami

2) Elton Chigumbura

3) Vusi Sibanda

4) Chamu Chibhabha

5) Keith Dabengwa

6) T Mutambodzi

7) Regis Chakabva

8) Brian Chari

9) Prosper Utseya

10) Timycen Maruma

Thank you cricket_22001. But just one question, who did Markram score his century agsinst for SA A?

Unfortunately CricketArchive is a pay site now, so I only have Cricinfo like all of us, and a (private) CSA database.

Markram's ton was against Hampshire during the 'A' team tour of 2017.

cricket_22001 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 02, 2017 11:17 am
Markram's ton was against Hampshire during the 'A' team tour of 2017.

Thank you very much for clarifying that.

Our dear friend Heino Kuhn - who has an illustrious Domestic FC career(having started alongside the likes of Faf, Alviro, Mclaren) - also scored a double ton in the same match against that Hampshire shadow XI. He is also the same guy who failed to cross 43 runs in 8 innings for the Proteas against England, 6 of of those innings being under 15 runs.

When you find time you should actually go through the SA-A career stats for Morne van Wyk, Kuhn and Vilas. When you're done with that, go through the same for Bavuma, Reeza and Ramela, but kindly make sure it's proper A international A games won't you. It will be a very enlightening experience. But you and I can have that discussion via PM if you like. Maybe then we can share how things work in India vs Africa.

For now I should get back to the situation we have in SA where we have a top talent, a one-season wonder from SA's domestic structure(apparently weakened by fine Kolpak departures such as Vilas), and we're about to select him to open for the Proteas, while he has absolutely no single international A Team ton in any format. To not pick him, ahead of many others who actually do, would be an injustice they say. :roll:

CrimsonAvenger wrote: ↑Sat Sep 02, 2017 2:43 pm
This thread, may I remind you, is about a recent Grant Flower interview.

And thank you for sharing the link to Grant Flower's interview. Unfortunately others here didn't share the same enthusiasm, opting insetad to focus on those commenting on the article not the article itself. Only one or two others commented on the article as opposed to attempting to derail it through various means. What now?

In fairness, I think guys like Grant Flower, as well as many other who never followed cricket in Zimbabwe closely at a articular time, really need to appreciate the role that the economy played and stop heaping too much blame on Admin. The ZIM economy affected cricket in Zimbabwe more than the departures of the cricketers because even they would have left for money even if there was no rebel crisis, or due to lack of games because of unavailability of funds to host. So they need to be a bit more honest about things.

Apart from Taibu, other players like Hondo, Matsi, Panyangara, Ebrahim and Hami, plus Vusi, all left Zimbabwe as well. This happened at very crucial times (the same applied with Sean Williams by the way, which is why you can see that mentally he share similar symptoms and mental scars with a lot of these players. BT did leave too, but he arguably has the most "privileged" background of any player to represent Zimbabwe, much like PJ Moor right now. Guys like Craig and Malcolm came much much later, and were largely insulated from a lot of these things).

Had all those 9 players not left, but continued they would have developed very nicely together. Back then(yes, I'm talking pre-2008) Zimbabwe used to play against some very strong A sides as well, and these guys were superior to the Associates. I think Hondo was a superb bowler. Him together with Panyangara and a fit Chigumbura (whose back was probably damaged because he was the lone seamer), would have been a fierce attack

Zimbabwe had a group with the opportunity to develop just like Bangladesh have.

Once again, having an accurate history will help many journalists, aggrieved former players, and fans (past or current), to know that when these players left, it was also largely in protest against the system. To say they never tried to change things would be false.

I hope one day someone will be able to give a balanced account of Zimbabwe cricket. What is very clear is that a lot of people really have bits and pieces. I think Taps mentioned this, but around 2004, but I think it extends beyond 2004 up until right now. Many guys here actually have huge chunk of ZIM cricket knowledge missing, understandable since they are new, however, a lot of the guys who were part of the forum and personally posted some of these points(factual history) as and when they were happening, strangely either oppose them or overlook them today.

But I can assure any reader or member of this forum that a lot of the things that sound unbelievable, were actually said even before I was ever a part of this forum. Guys like jaybro and robot would be quite surprised. Not even Zimdoggy can feign being stone drunk over that too.