eugene wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:15 pm
Who are the Rangers? Why do we need another franchise? If anything we need three strong domestic teams that play each other four times. It is helping nobody having no-name no-talent guys playing Logan Cup Cricket.
The Rangers is the name of the ACHPP side
Yes there isn't really enough quality players for four sides let alone 5, but most of the guys in the Rangers side weren't playing franchise cricket last year anyways so they haven't really diluted the competition by adding them.
The bigger issue with the domestic season has been the unwillingness of the national team players to take part because they're off playing T20 tournaments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc or because they just can't be bothered. I think this year we will see most of the guys in the early rounds as Ryan Burl is the only guy in the BPL, whilst no Zimbos were chosen in the PSL this year. Also apparently the Sri Lanka tour of Zimbabwe is going ahead, so you'd think these guys will want some match practice before the Lankans turn up.
Getting back to the ACHPP side it will be interesting to see how they go, as I said none of the academy players have much experience at this level, and to be fair none have really had outstanding juniors careers that anyone here seems to know about. In truth no one on the forum seems to know anything about any of the players, so this will be a huge test for these guys and a good indicator on how well the ACHPP is doing at developing these guys.
As someone here mentioned before the future of cricket in Zimbabwe is likely through private academies run by former players, of course these academies don't come with free entry so it's likely to be only the privileged kids who can join them, a stark contrast to the picture ZC have been painting about taking the game to the masses.