I'm going to say something potentially controversial but I feel it is a question worth asking and discussing: Please note-no racist or abusive contributions will be tolerated.
With Ballance, Craig Ervine, Sean Ervine and now Kyle Jarvis amongst a host many other talented white Zimbabwean cricketers who have played for the country at various levels (be it U17, U19 or Internationally) continuing the trend of using Cricket in Zimbabwe as a stepping stone to play for other countries such as Ireland and England (Not forgetting New Zealand), should ZC continue to invest in white cricketers? In terms of international playing time or even development (I know Jarvis spent many hours with Heath Streak for him to get to this level), if they are just going to up and leave the Zimbabwe Cricket to play for a country their ancestors called home e.g. the case of Ervine and Ireland, rather than showing Zimbabwe loyalty? Is it not wiser for us to follow a model of empowering black cricketers, making more cricket hubs like Chipembere Primary School in places with a high population of black people, to produce players like Prosper Utseya and Elton Chigumbura who are talented and won't leave us to go play for another country or make statements about it being a dream for them to play for another international team?
We sometimes see these players playing half heartedly and chalk it down to them not getting paid enough (which is a real factor-sometimes they don't even get paid at all; that's the reality of Zimbabwe across the board, not just cricket), but maybe there's more to it-maybe it's that their hearts are somewhere else-maybe they're dreaming of making their test début for Ireland or England rather than focusing on the ball crashing into their stumps.
We must not forget ZC and Zimbabwe are greatly flawed-maybe these guys just want job security and to make some money to support themselves and their families, but do they need to play for another country to do this?
Perhaps I've asked this question out of bitterness and anger at this continuing betrayal, but it's been a reality of our game; when the likes of Chingoka took over ZC, they set about introducing it to the black majority (They messed many things up along the way and didn't even do that properly) and now we have players like the Masakadza brothers, Vusi Sibanda etc. I can't help but think that we've wasted plenty of games playing Jarvis instead of Shingi Masakadza, who would have improved at a greater rate with all this experience and who will continue to serve us for the best years of his career and after.
However it is not a black and white issue; we have wonderful and truly patriotic players like captain Taylor in the team-a player who has stuck with ZC through the thinnest times possible! And a guy like Taibu who went to play for Namibia for a time. So don't misunderstand this post as a racist post, no, it is simply asking a question; Are we doing the smart thing by giving players who are more likely to leave us a chance over those who are more likely to stay? Should we invest as much in them?
We can even go speak about grassroots; Cricket is mostly available to the rich-many Government and mission schools cannot afford to put up creases, buy equipment and play in tournaments-we are missing out on a wealth of talented young Zimbabwean boys and girls who could be the next Zimbabwe captain or ICC ranked number 1 batsman.
NB: The bold-italicised part is essentially the intended title of this thread, but I don't know who wrote this, or who this account belongs to. It seems like Zimbabwe Cricket. SOunds similar to what this fellow wrote sometime ago http://zimcricketforums.com/viewtopic.p ... ilit=chaos