Future tour rumours

Just realised Ireland have all but abandoned domestic red-ball cricket and haven't played any domestic first class since summer 2019. So that supposed Test in April obviously isn't going to happen.

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 1:32 am

secretzimbo wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:50 pm

Just realised Ireland have all but abandoned domestic red-ball cricket and haven't played any domestic first class since summer 2019. So that supposed Test in April obviously isn't going to happen.

A real shame. They just knocked over the West Indies. I hope the West Indies tour plans work out. It would be a good way of measuring where we really stand. The Sri Lanka ODIs will also tell us a lot too

I'm a little pessimistic about the Srilanka ODIs. Problem with Zimbabwe is that they play so less, it's never easy playing one series every 3 months, lack of fixtures just don't give any momentum whatsoever.

Ya folks, any update on the Afghanistan series?

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 2:53 am

The problem for Afghanistan is that after us I think they got Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. They just started with the easy fixtures. I think you need more than 100 points to qualify so if they don't whitewash us it will be tough.

This is why also sending a weak team to face us is not an option for them

Its going to become % of points instead of total points due to so many series being cancelled. The other option is using 2023 to finish all the cancelled series but even then I don't think all the teams will be able to play all their reqiured series. Because the completion of the WSL will determine which teams play in the qualifier.

lobsang wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:53 am

A player ( not going to name) who was on that recently-concluded SL tour told me that the Afghanistan series is not happening so the rumours that are doing the rounds could be put to rest for the time being.

Yep, can confirm now. Afghanistan are not coming. 100%

CholeZimbo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:22 pm

When is our next fixture then?

ODIs and T20Is Vs Ireland in April I think.

Good for Sikki and Blessing at least.

secretzimbo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:28 pm

CholeZimbo wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:22 pm

When is our next fixture then?

ODIs and T20Is Vs Ireland in April I think.

I thought they were playing Afghanistan soon?

Or has that been delayed again?

Afghanistan officially postponed, as previously expected.

https://zimcricket.org/zimbabwe-and-afg ... pone-tour/

It's just complete bollocks again though isn't it. ZC have meekly offered 'lack of DRS equipment availability' as a reason. 😂 😂 😂 All of our home fixtures over the past two years have had No DRS.

Afghanistan's own series last week with the Netherlands had no DRS.

What's the betting that whenever this series does eventually happen, there definitely still won't be DRS anyway! 😂

The ICC haven't yet released info about Group A T20 WC Qualifier that is scheduled to happen next month. Obviously Zim are in the other group but we are almost into Feb and there is no update.

Marshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 4:39 pm

sam_ahm wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 4:21 pm

The ICC haven't yet released info about Group A T20 WC Qualifier that is scheduled to happen next month. Obviously Zim are in the other group but we are almost into Feb and there is no update.

https://www.insidesport.in/t20-world-cu ... om-feb-18/

Ah! Thanks mate.

Kriterion_BD wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 5:48 pm

Googly wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 9:22 am

If you wanted a competition with real meaning imagine one with the top 3 Associates and the lowest ranked full member playing for a full membership slot not just a WC berth! Then you'd see people frantically scrabbling for real solutions.

I suspect there aren't any "real" solutions left. At least none that are viable. Its like trying to find the square root of a negative number.

At the end of the day, its the players who will determine the results. The two questions to ask are a) should a different squad have been named and then b) would those players have played any differently. The answer to the latter is emphatically no. I think any of the 4 or 5 developmental squads that ZC could have assembled for a tour of Nepal would have performed similarly. They have snuck past the finish line twice, and then possibly also gotten hammered once or twice, just as the current team is doing.

As for the other idea, I've never been a fan of promotion/relegation for full membership or Test status. Not unless there are 14 or 15 sides (meaning considerable gaps in quality between the top half and the bottom half). For the ODI Super League it was OK because if you can't crack the top 12 in a round robin league, the chance of relegation is apt.

The ICC's short coming has been that they haven't provided any pathway to the likes of Ireland, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe to qualify for the WTC. Ideally, they would have given those 3 de-facto Associates a criteria for how to get into the WTC or came up with a scenario in which all 12 are in the WTC but still ensured that your marque India/Australia/England series go on every cycle. Less than ideal, but still very good would have been if the ICC created a seperate league for ZIM/IRE/AFG to play regular Test competitions even in the absence of any immediate promotion to the WTC. Right now there is nothing, and I am certain the fans of all three countries would prefer something over nothing. Personally, I would be very intrigued by such a competition especially if it involved a mace and prize money of its own.

Very valid points. Good post.

The problem is, when you say we've been rebuilding for 20 years, the truth is for vast periods of that time there hasn't actually been any building happening at all. 'We are rebuilding' gets trotted out as an excuse after a loss, but nothing has actually been happening a lot of the time. We've had spurts of activity and periods of hope and people with new ideas every now and then but usually it's all come crashing down and not much has actually progressed on the ground.

The last six months has been very good by our standards - if we look at club cricket happening more regularly and in more locations and provinces, with seemingly decent organisation. The franchise domestic season was the lengthiest we've had for quite a long time, and again better organised. The administration seem to be making the right noises around development. I know there has been several rounds of level 1 and 2 coaching courses in the past 1-2 months in a few different locations. There was even a scorers course last week! There's been a bit of money put into some grounds as well. Mutare looked in very good shape for that club comp last week.

Additionally it feels, for the first time in a very long time, that everyone is working together and trying to pull in the same direction. The national women are training full time at Campbell's academy. Which suggests wounds being healed. The fact that Houghton and Brent are involved and Klusener has deemed the board redeemable enough to give them a second chance does as well. There's a better atmosphere around than we've had for a while.

So if we talk about 'rebuilding' - there does seem to be a fair bit of it actually happening now. The problem is - and this is always our problem - we need years of this, to start feeling the effects. We can't just have this positive stuff for six months and then implode and have to start again. If we can have 5 years of this sort of stuff, and more, then we might actually start to see some results. But we never seem able to sustain it.

Of course there are national elections next year and presumably board elections at some point. So it'll all kick off again and we'll be back to square one. 😂 😂

As for the ongoing series, couple of games left - lets see if the boys can redeem themselves first. We all expected drubbings in both series when we saw the squads so it's not a shock overall. Although today was exceptionally horrific, both games. It's funny that when Rajput signed we were told he is, quote, 'a Genius T20 specialist'. 😂

Anyone reading this who is disappointed in the result, imagine if you had driven for many hours to get to sports club to watch today? I did! It was awful. Still, at least the beer was nice. 😂