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Eddie Byrom and Nick Welch

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The first class season has started here in England, and Eddie Byrom has already made his mark by scoring unbeaten 50 and and unbeaten 100 for Somerset vs Cardiff MCCU. Bowling for Cardiff was Brad Evans, also a Zimbabwean. The whole game was streamed live on youtube and is still able to view, if you have spare 8 hours or so.

Nick Welch was batting for Loughborough MCCU vs Liecestershire, and scored 18 and 40 odd. No Malcolm Lake playing for Oxford who got a creditable draw with Middlesex. His studies must have finished. I'm going to watch Oxford on Monday so I'll try and find out what he's now up to.
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Googly wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:08 am

So do England 😂


😂😂😂😂
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jaybro wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:53 am


Googly wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:08 am

So do England 😂


😂😂😂😂


. . . who are well known for pinching players from the rest of the world. If Tatenda Taibu was still in ZC, I'm sure he would have put in plans to keep him for the country of his birth.
Watched Oxford MCCU on Monday and Malcolm Lake was not in the squad and has finished at Oxford. Not sure what his cricketing or indeed life plans are from now. I didn't get a chance to ask the Oxford coach unfortunately. Lovely day watching first class cricket in the English springtime though. The Parks ground is beautiful.
Nick Welch made 5 for Loughborough MCCU, who took an unexpected 1 run lead in their game against Kent. He opened and was out for 5, just before the close. He didn't get a chance to bat in the 2nd innings as rain halted Kents 2nd innings and that was that.
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Yeah Kent showed the wicket on Twitter. Did the hard yards and then got a driveable back foot shot off some guy bowling bizarre fast leggies it looked like, and inside edged it. That’s his issue, just inconsistent, dynamic but a bit inconsistent. He just needs to rein it in a bit and the big innings will come. Opening in April is like Russian roulette. The problem is he needs to establish himself as an opener because that’s what the teams always look for, but his style of play in red ball is best suited to 4/5. In white ball he should probably be at 3/4 and in T20 he’s fantastic up front. Problem is that’s where the established guys bat. He’s a bit f***ed unless he reels off a string of hundreds basically. His big complaint is being unable to practice at the level he needs to play at. He’s basically done amazingly well considering he’s faced club bowlers once a week. It should be better at Loughborough and the consistency should come. A wasted talent unless he pulls a rabbit out the hat this season.
He’s in an excellent cricket environment at Loughborough , almost as good as a county set up. The bowler who dismissed him was Darren Stevens, a proper county veteran if ever there was one. He would have been brisk 20 years ago, but he’s over 40 now.
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Limited opportunities for both Welch & Byrom this season, they're still young but it would be interesting to see what they'd do if they were offered central contracts from ZC?? Guys like Brad Evans are also on the fringes of County cricket and maybe tempted to a return if they're offered Central Contracts.

Is it time Zimbabwe said goodbye to the likes of Hamilton, Ervine, Mpofu etc and gave these guys the chance?? Obviously there's a good chance they say no, but a Central Contract might tempt them.
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jaybro wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 11:29 pm

Limited opportunities for both Welch & Byrom this season, they're still young but it would be interesting to see what they'd do if they were offered central contracts from ZC?? Guys like Brad Evans are also on the fringes of County cricket and maybe tempted to a return if they're offered Central Contracts.

Is it time Zimbabwe said goodbye to the likes of Hamilton, Ervine, Mpofu etc and gave these guys the chance?? Obviously there's a good chance they say no, but a Central Contract might tempt them.


In an ideal world it would be nice wouldn't it, but Welch is at Uni, Byrom has a contract and I think Evans is also at Uni. ZC isn't worth giving all of that up for, as we know. Maybe in a couple of years there could be a chance but I doubt it
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If we had half a brain we would

Already have a plan to snatch them , add in Murray and there’s 4 very handy players straight away . Makes to

Much sense to have good players in a team though.
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An admin with any sort of savvy would devise a plan that could be a win win for both Zimbabwe and the kids in question. I have a feeling Streak was thinking along the lines I am below.

Zimbabwe aren’t playing much cricket, so surely there can be an agreement in place where these kids roam to play where they see fit but commit internationally and at least to a handful of Logan cup games.

If they could pursue county dreams but play their internationals for Zim as opposed to English ambitions, I think the players would go for this. But there’s too much red tape to that there seems. Ideally they would make their names on the global t20 circuit with all the second rate (and hopefully the premium) comps and you could have a handy career.
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ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:21 pm

An admin with any sort of savvy would devise a plan that could be a win win for both Zimbabwe and the kids in question. I have a feeling Streak was thinking along the lines I am below.

Zimbabwe aren’t playing much cricket, so surely there can be an agreement in place where these kids roam to play where they see fit but commit internationally and at least to a handful of Logan cup games.

If they could pursue county dreams but play their internationals for Zim as opposed to English ambitions, I think the players would go for this. But there’s too much red tape to that there seems. Ideally they would make their names on the global t20 circuit with all the second rate (and hopefully the premium) comps and you could have a handy career.


Yeh great plan but it would mostly be white kids getting a county gig ect and then the race card would

Come out as usual. Something they should really look at in order to keep local talent , I’m sure Eugene has gone on before about this and comparing it to football players across the globe. The icc could get involved and you would have a much more attractive international game .
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Andybligzz wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 7:42 am


ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:21 pm

An admin with any sort of savvy would devise a plan that could be a win win for both Zimbabwe and the kids in question. I have a feeling Streak was thinking along the lines I am below.

Zimbabwe aren’t playing much cricket, so surely there can be an agreement in place where these kids roam to play where they see fit but commit internationally and at least to a handful of Logan cup games.

If they could pursue county dreams but play their internationals for Zim as opposed to English ambitions, I think the players would go for this. But there’s too much red tape to that there seems. Ideally they would make their names on the global t20 circuit with all the second rate (and hopefully the premium) comps and you could have a handy career.


Yeh great plan but it would mostly be white kids getting a county gig ect and then the race card would

Come out as usual. Something they should really look at in order to keep local talent , I’m sure Eugene has gone on before about this and comparing it to football players across the globe. The icc could get involved and you would have a much more attractive international game .


I think it’s more to do with England itself.

They have the advantage and the curse of being the only top line competition to play over the March to August period and this means every cricketer is able to play in that Comp, or try their hand at it without really affecting their native teams positions.

Whats more, you also have the usual gust of Southern Africans,Pakistanis and Indians who flee their country at first chance to live in England (and Oz). England themselves don’t really want the horde of foreigners so they restrict their overseas slots, and then this pushes the really dedicated players to go through the Kolpak loophole, which has the consequence of denouncing their native citizenship in cricket terms, which I hope gets stopped with Brexit.
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On that note, I really hate how Pakistani players I n particular absolutely flood the developing nations setup. You look at any minor European nation, the USA, Canada, and it’s all Pakistani restaurant workers and IT professionals and such.

I know it sounds racist on one hand, but the problem is they have a noxious weed affect on these countries that restricts born and bred euros/North Americans from getting involved in the game, which is what is needed to genuinely grow it. Comps in these countries are almost exclusively Pakis with team names like ‘Islamic Tigers 11’ and they all speak Urdu to each other and it has an exclusion effect and it is no fun at all. I know Americans who have wanted to try playing but have replied with ‘I don’t speak Urdu’ so they never pick up the bat and ball. Would be the same everywhere.

I recently filled in with a German league game and was the only white guy there speaking a non subcontinental language and I can tell you first hand, it was no fun at all.

I don’t know the answer to the problem though, they have every right to want to play and while they kill growth, they do keep cricket bubbling below the surface through participation.
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A dashing 150 from Ed B and a circumspect but match winning 100 from Nick W yesterday in club. Serious players.
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Googly wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 1:37 pm

A dashing 150 from Ed B and a circumspect but match winning 100 from Nick W yesterday in club. Serious players.


They would be handy inclusions indeed .
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Eddie back to back hundreds for Somerset Seconds yesterday and today. That’s not been done too often.
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That will be enough to get him back into Ones I reckon, he’s been plundering in twos and club.
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Trescothic has retired now so you'd think Eddie might take his spot??
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He’s retiring at the end of the season. Somerset will at least give him his final game in Ones for the correct send off. Ed has done enough to justify promotion now, but the firsts are winning so there will be reluctance to change that. Eddie’s big mistake has always been to bat too slowly but you can see he’s changing that. That mind set has made them think he’s only a red ball player when in fact he can play all formats, he’s damned good. I’ve watched him a lot on this live stream they use and technically he’s excellent, plus has a damned good hand eye. He’s got a bright future. He’s in that betwixt and between place where he’s now dominating in twos but hasn’t made it first time around in ones. I think this next time around he’ll go well. The guy competing for the same spot is Green by the looks of things.
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I’m assuming some of you saw Byrom’s debut T20 innings against Surrey night before last?

Unbelievable. A match winning (Banton did the early damage) 56 off 19 I think it was. Puts to bed once and for all the notion that he’s a red ball player. Every decent player has a few career defining moments and I think this was one of them, they will now take him very seriously in all formats and he’ll get the exposure he deserves.

This Tom Banton lad may well be the best T20 prospect in world cricket at the moment. He didn’t look fantastic against spin, but good luck to the seamers bowling at this guy when he’s seeing it big, he can do stuff that is beyond the reach of mere mortals. That reverse sweep six off Curran was extraordinary, there was a moment’s silence after that, like what did we just see?

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