ricky wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2017 7:14 am
best would be to tour Ireland or invite them in Zimbabwe for one test and five Odis.
We don't play Ireland enough .....
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We don't play Ireland enough .....
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Checked Zimbabwe twitter header picture and its also shows 3 T20I too. Maybe they rescheduled.
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Then it could also mean that the series is moved forward to June 3rd. Well. That gives Zimbabwe some more time to schedule another tri series or something before the qualifiers.
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ZC have decided to host Group B of the Qualifiers in Bulawayo which means that Zimbabwe will play all there matches in Bulawayo.
Why? We have a terrible record in Bulawayo.
Why? We have a terrible record in Bulawayo.
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Zimbabwe should appoint Sikandir Raza has captain for the qualifers and Craig Wishaart as mentor
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zimfan1 wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 6:57 am
ZC have decided to host Group B of the Qualifiers in Bulawayo which means that Zimbabwe will play all there matches in Bulawayo.
Why? We have a terrible record in Bulawayo.
Ya, Harare would have been better. Also Bulawayo appears to be a very slow wicket which means batting first could be a big advantage.
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secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 2:21 pm
. And yet they don't want to play with the only country that actually still places so much emphasis on that format of the game? Weird.
Let's be honest, they'd destroy us inside 3/4 days. It's just not worth it for them until we can actually be competitive.
zimfan1 wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 6:57 am
ZC have decided to host Group B of the Qualifiers in Bulawayo which means that Zimbabwe will play all there matches in Bulawayo.
Why? We have a terrible record in Bulawayo.
Because it's totally like ZC to make a decision without any thought process
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zimbos_05 wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 11:38 am
secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 2:21 pm
. And yet they don't want to play with the only country that actually still places so much emphasis on that format of the game? Weird.
Let's be honest, they'd destroy us inside 3/4 days. It's just not worth it for them until we can actually be competitive.
Of course they would destroy us. But how do we become competitive if literally nobody will play us in the first place? Chicken and egg. 10 tests a year for five years and by the end of that we'd see significant improvement I'm sure. The big nations have zero interest in any of the smaller teams becoming competitive and it's sad. Other sports don't seem to suffer as much from this as cricket does.
Australia destroyed England but they'll still play them every year endlessly.
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Aussie ODI series scheduled for 28th Aug, 31st Aug and 3rd Sep.
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secretzimbo wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 12:00 pm
zimbos_05 wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 11:38 am
secretzimbo wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 2:21 pm
. And yet they don't want to play with the only country that actually still places so much emphasis on that format of the game? Weird.
Let's be honest, they'd destroy us inside 3/4 days. It's just not worth it for them until we can actually be competitive.
Of course they would destroy us. But how do we become competitive if literally nobody will play us in the first place? Chicken and egg. 10 tests a year for five years and by the end of that we'd see significant improvement I'm sure. The big nations have zero interest in any of the smaller teams becoming competitive and it's sad. Other sports don't seem to suffer as much from this as cricket does.
Australia destroyed England but they'll still play them every year endlessly.
The money does not hurt much either
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zimfan1 wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 6:57 am
ZC have decided to host Group B of the Qualifiers in Bulawayo which means that Zimbabwe will play all there matches in Bulawayo.
Why? We have a terrible record in Bulawayo.
They are hosting the whole thing at BAC and Queen's, no games in Harare at all. Bit of a strange decision.
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They are going to really have to sort the outfield at BAC out if they want to host international cricket there!
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secretzimbo wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 12:00 pm
Of course they would destroy us. But how do we become competitive if literally nobody will play us in the first place? Chicken and egg. 10 tests a year for five years and by the end of that we'd see significant improvement I'm sure. The big nations have zero interest in any of the smaller teams becoming competitive and it's sad. Other sports don't seem to suffer as much from this as cricket does.
Australia destroyed England but they'll still play them every year endlessly.
Let's be realistic. We have players in the team with heaps of caps and they've made little to no progress. I get that playing opposition can help you develop, but if these guys are making no progress when they do play games, then the issue is not the lack of opposition, but rather the structure.
Aus and Eng players have packed schedules. Last thing they want to do is be in some camp for a while only to play a 3 day test match. I mean, even SA requested a 4 day test that one time. As a unit, we are just not as appealing to these big teams. They have so much cricket going on, they are going to rank what's more important and beneficial to them.
The difference with England getting destroyed is that they will come back. When do Zim come back? We've been in perpetual free fall since 2004. It's almost 20 years and here we are losing to Namibia and Nepal.
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I don't disagree with any of the above really - obviously nobody wants to play us and obviously we are s**t and have been for a lengthy period of time etc etc.
But it doesn't answer the question of how are we supposed to improve (I'm talking specifically Tests here) if we never have any games?
Ervine and Chakabva debuted 11 years ago and have played 18 and 22 Tests respectively. David Warner debuted at the same time and has almost 100! Takudzwa Kaitano had a really solid debut for Zim last year but is likely to go 12-15 months before he plays his second match! How utterly ridiculous.
The fact is we take red ball cricket more seriously than pretty much any other country apart from England, maybe Australia. And yet every two weeks there are headlines in England about Test cricket 'dying' and no other countries being interested. It's all very ironic.
The ICC is bunging us 12 million dollars a year to be a Test playing country, and our board vocally wants to play Test matches. And yet we have literally no fixtures. Something has to change or the newspapers in England that have been predicting the death of Test cricket for the past 50 years may actually see that come true one day. The bigger nations need to throw a small handful of Tests in our direction occasionally, we need to be playing the lower ranked teams very regularly, and the staging of Tests needs to be made significantly more affordable.
No other major global sport operates as a closed shop like this. Now that the Super League is being scrapped you can say goodbye to us ever playing an ODI against any of the top teams again as well.
But it doesn't answer the question of how are we supposed to improve (I'm talking specifically Tests here) if we never have any games?
Ervine and Chakabva debuted 11 years ago and have played 18 and 22 Tests respectively. David Warner debuted at the same time and has almost 100! Takudzwa Kaitano had a really solid debut for Zim last year but is likely to go 12-15 months before he plays his second match! How utterly ridiculous.
The fact is we take red ball cricket more seriously than pretty much any other country apart from England, maybe Australia. And yet every two weeks there are headlines in England about Test cricket 'dying' and no other countries being interested. It's all very ironic.
The ICC is bunging us 12 million dollars a year to be a Test playing country, and our board vocally wants to play Test matches. And yet we have literally no fixtures. Something has to change or the newspapers in England that have been predicting the death of Test cricket for the past 50 years may actually see that come true one day. The bigger nations need to throw a small handful of Tests in our direction occasionally, we need to be playing the lower ranked teams very regularly, and the staging of Tests needs to be made significantly more affordable.
No other major global sport operates as a closed shop like this. Now that the Super League is being scrapped you can say goodbye to us ever playing an ODI against any of the top teams again as well.
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Cricket boards are universally extremely selfish and short-sighted.
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I think one way for the lower ranked sides to improve is to play each other more often, including tests, again we know it is not profitable but then what else can we do? What I mean is that Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan, and the top associates like UAE, Netherlands, Scotland, USA etc to come together and play more series and tournaments against each other and then back each other to cause more upsets whenever any of them play against the top sides.
Still not easy to beat the top sides, but I think if they all work as a group we will eventually see more upsets, especially against the mid level teams. Just my thought though 😁
Still not easy to beat the top sides, but I think if they all work as a group we will eventually see more upsets, especially against the mid level teams. Just my thought though 😁
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I always wished somehow they looked at making a best of associate side to play test matches through out the year.
Give the associates more to play for and give Ireland Zimbabwe and Afghanistan another test opponent.
Give the associates more to play for and give Ireland Zimbabwe and Afghanistan another test opponent.
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There should be separate ICC World Test Championship 2
between Zim, Ireland, Afghans and the associates without any relegation & promotion process for the time being.
between Zim, Ireland, Afghans and the associates without any relegation & promotion process for the time being.
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Go away Vaj
Comes down to the supposed cost of hosting a test. The money they claim it costs seems exorbitant to me
Comes down to the supposed cost of hosting a test. The money they claim it costs seems exorbitant to me
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Foogly.ICC Intercontinental Cup is on a hold, with Zim, Ireland, Afghans not eligible to represent WTC. ICC can start this four day league with this 3 along with other associates, name it as WTC Division 2, to save their full membership along with test status, otherwise these 3 will not get any chance to play test with top teams. Top teams will always go for cancelling the tour or break the tour into shorter formats by skipping test matches, just like Aussies did recently. Ireland & Afghans will definately put the issue of playing test cricket someday to the ICC. WTC division 2 is the only way to save test cricket for these 3 teams as ICC has no mood of bringing relegation promotion system in WTC as there is big difference between top 9 and these 3 teams, WTC division 2 could be exciting just like WTC as nearly teams with less difference in strengths will play against each other.
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