Pro50 Championship Thread 2021-22

tej_27 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:33 am

Is Compton Zimbabwean qualified or plays completely as overseas professional ?

Overseas.

Stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zkw0QJ ... bweCricket

Nice to see Malcolm Chikuwa getting a rare franchise game btw. One of the better people in Zimbabwean cricket. Single handedly organises and coaches cricket in about half a dozen primary schools around Chitungwiza, often for no pay. Also the guy that first really coached and identified Shumba and Marumani I believe.

I know I'm kicking this to death, but this is Div2 club standard. Nyauchi ran in hard and Masara (?) bowled well. The seamers all bowled wicket to wicket, what happened to 4th stump. Compton just picked them off without breaking a sweat, yet everyone else struggled. I think he was troubled by 2 deliveries, it was a cake walk for the guy. You bowl directly at a decent batsman at 130 he's going to get a ton four out of five times just tucking it onto leg in singles, risk free cricket. At least pack the leg so he has to do something different.

The guy with real ability with the bat is Evans, all the time in the world and really good technique, but I'm not sure the guy has a clue how to do a run chase. He visibly beats himself up after a poor shot, sweeps when he doesn't need to, goes aerial when he doesn't need to, tries to hit the cover off it when he doesn't need to, doesn't retain strike when he needs to, so many little things. If they wanted to groom a really nice batsman they need to make him bat 3 so he's got time to construct an innings. On top of that tell him if he hits one shot in the air he's fired, and to put away the sweep until he's on 100. He was head and shoulders the most capable batsman on the park apart from Compton. These guys are blind if they can't see that. This standard is so s**t you could teach Evans to become a front line batsman onfield in a season, he wouldn't even need to net.

Mountaineers win, and secure their place in the final. A dead rubber coming up on Friday. The final is on Saturday.

Yeah I watched quite a bit of it today and it really wasn't great. Massive drop in quality when the national squad guys are away - I think around 6 or 7 were missing, plus PJ who has an injury. These part-timers that stepped in represent a massive drop in quality. Compton couldn't even get a game in County last season. Here he is absolutely dominating our List A season...

Disappointing because I've enjoyed the quality of most of the games this season. The early Logan Cup rounds in particular, I thought there was quite a lot of quality on show.

There are many of this caliber of player in these county squads, really solid cricketers that know their games, have 3 scoring shots and rock solid defence. They won't take the game away from you in a few overs, like the real gun guys can, but they'll make solid runs. I'm not meaning him specifically because I haven't seen him put the hammer down, he was starting to, but then played his only stupid shot, I'm sure he can change gears successfully. I don't know where he usually bats either, he looks like an opener for sure. Although that turned out to be a nearly a run a ball hundred it was actually a very conservative innings, he got a few real buffet balls that he was quite conservative with and I didn't see any shots down the ground which is usually a good indication of a confident bat, but I'm sure he wanted his hundred and needs some good stats to show his County, plus he clearly knew he was the only proper batsman in the side. If there was ever an easy hundred on offer this was it.

These counties are brutal, they have their favourites that can f**k up many times and continue to get picked and if you're not one of them you need to make it count if you get a start. I'll be following him this coming season, I like the way he sets up shop.

In fairness though, Compton has played 16 tests for England.

ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:02 am

In fairness though, Compton has played 16 tests for England.

Hehe you know it’s not the same Compton don’t you?! :D

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:00 am

This where I end up agreeing with the 3 domestic teams concept. The top 30 players were in camp and producing interesting matches last week. There was a genuine feeling that the games were competitive for me. That's enough for 3 teams. Those are probably the guys who really deserve to be professional cricketers plus maybe 5 more

The problem is, 3 franchises and nobody gets an opportunity. If we had three franchises Chibhabha, Chari and John Nyumbu would still be playing every week regardless, and someone like Madande probably wouldn’t have even made their debut yet. Evans and Campbell wouldn’t be playing.

I’m fine with 5, I think the quality has been okay this season mostly. It was horrendous yesterday but there were 7 national team players missing from that match.

I’m good with 5 teams but I like the north/south thing too. (Again, change the names please) and I’d like to see those series in each format every year as well.

Tinah09 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:50 pm

Googly wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 6:41 pm

There are many of this caliber of player in these county squads, really solid cricketers that know their games, have 3 scoring shots and rock solid defence. They won't take the game away from you in a few overs, like the real gun guys can, but they'll make solid runs. I'm not meaning him specifically because I haven't seen him put the hammer down, he was starting to, but then played his only stupid shot, I'm sure he can change gears successfully. I don't know where he usually bats either, he looks like an opener for sure. Although that turned out to be a nearly a run a ball hundred it was actually a very conservative innings, he got a few real buffet balls that he was quite conservative with and I didn't see any shots down the ground which is usually a good indication of a confident bat, but I'm sure he wanted his hundred and needs some good stats to show his County, plus he clearly knew he was the only proper batsman in the side. If there was ever an easy hundred on offer this was it.

These counties are brutal, they have their favourites that can f**k up many times and continue to get picked and if you're not one of them you need to make it count if you get a start. I'll be following him this coming season, I like the way he sets up shop.

As much as I hate to admit it. You are right, the gulf in class is obvious, Compton would be by far our best batsmen if he played for Zim...does he play for a 2nd team in the counties? if so, damn, we aren't good enough to play England and other top sides. Will we ever be competitive with the way things are going??

There I am trying to bait you and you roll over? That takes the fun right out of it.

As I said he's one of many guys that's one good innings away from being a regular first team player. He'll probably go back to his team waving his stats, they'll give him two April red ball games (batters are sitting ducks) and he'll get shunted back down to Two's, they're nasty!!

He did nothing special in that innings except stick to his game plan and play solid conservative cricket. He's compact and organised. He waited for them to bowl at him and he picked them off quietly and easily. The Pom seamers would have got him coming forward on 4th and 5th stump, he likes back foot and working it to leg, that was clear as day. I don't think he hit anything thru covers the whole innings. That's when the bowlers aren't thinking. Game plans at this level are simple, work the singles, these guys will bowl you at least a 4 ball an over, get 60% of those to the boundary and you're going at 6's without breaking a sweat. I saw both teams were on 35 after 10, which for this standard of bowling was a slow start

Surrey would have posted 350 plus yesterday (and it was only 40 overs) against either attack and rolled them for under 120. I'm not baiting you, I'm just telling you some very depressing facts. The finest plunderer of loose bowling, Sam Curran, would make a double hundred 😂

Taking our national players out of the mix and being left with what we saw yesterday is horrible to see. That's why any A sides we've ever had are equally depressing, and why they pack those sides with national players- it's to hide the complete lack of depth we have.

You can't have a 3 team franchise, that would be a delightful excuse by ZC to play 5 games a year. The bare minimum required for a pro is 40, I reckon. We're not getting quality or quantity.

I'd take quantity over quality if I had a choice. We're safe until 2027 so nothing will change. It will take a major overhaul to get something decent going, which will cost money, which ZC won't spend. The very least they should do is make it feasible for a couple of youngsters to take 2 years out and make a living and see how they go.

These current u19's are a good example. So far they've done poorly and may well continue in that vein, and they're not all to blame, but half a dozen of those guys are way better than most of the franchise guys not in the National side right now. Do you hope they'll spend the next two years at $300 a month for the playing season (4 months) or do you just wave good bye to them?

Let me be very very clear about this, no grey areas, no spurious doomsday claims - this is the last half decent batch we are ever going to see. Of course there will always be one or two guys coming through, but there will be no team around them, this is the last "big" group of youngsters.

I literally don't know one Zim based 15, 16 or 17 year old that can bat, let alone has a couple of hundreds under his belt against the shittest bowling you've ever seen. I don't mind being cussed about whatever, but this schoolboy stuff I know well. Wait and see. If ZC don't get this right and snare a few of these guys there's going to be a massive gap and shortage of players, way worse than we are seeing now.

We will end up with Nyumbu bowling from a wheelchair.

Sadly I may have given ZC an idea- wheel chair, visually impaired and one legged cricket, to tap ICC for some more cash to squander and remain relevant.

secretzimbo wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:40 am

TapsC2 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 6:00 am

This where I end up agreeing with the 3 domestic teams concept. The top 30 players were in camp and producing interesting matches last week. There was a genuine feeling that the games were competitive for me. That's enough for 3 teams. Those are probably the guys who really deserve to be professional cricketers plus maybe 5 more

The problem is, 3 franchises and nobody gets an opportunity. If we had three franchises Chibhabha, Chari and John Nyumbu would still be playing every week regardless, and someone like Madande probably wouldn’t have even made their debut yet. Evans and Campbell wouldn’t be playing.

I’m fine with 5, I think the quality has been okay this season mostly. It was horrendous yesterday but there were 7 national team players missing from that match.

I’m good with 5 teams but I like the north/south thing too. (Again, change the names please) and I’d like to see those series in each format every year as well.

In my head three is ideal but I work on the presumption there is no place for those three unless the National guys are away, even then there’d be better options.

With less domestic teams, it pushes talent down and strangeness the club scene.

If nothing else there absolutely should be no more than 4.

He’s become a meme here since crimson raises it four years back but someone like remembrance nha this, despite having a good year last year, should go Joe here near the Logan cup anymore.

North of 30, never made it beyond the Logan cup.not worth the paycheque.

I’d like him to get his 100 a month in club. Where his experience is useful.

What would one good is the north south thing to be expanded to a state of origin concept taht perhaps is city v country.

Which would be Harare v the rest.

Googly wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:06 am

Let me be very very clear about this, no grey areas, no spurious doomsday claims - this is the last half decent batch we are ever going to see. Of course there will always be one or two guys coming through, but there will be no team around them, this is the last "big" group of youngsters.

I literally don't know one Zim based 15, 16 or 17 year old that can bat, let alone has a couple of hundreds under his belt against the shittest bowling you've ever seen. I don't mind being cussed about whatever, but this schoolboy stuff I know well. Wait and see. If ZC don't get this right and snare a few of these guys there's going to be a massive gap and shortage of players, way worse than we are seeing now.

We will end up with Nyumbu bowling from a wheelchair.

There are some good kids in the next (2024) batch again (well, at least they were looking good two years ago. f**k this Covid, man). I don't see how talent wise they would be much different from the current U19's. The problem is, I could happily name about 14 to watch right now, and I bet in two years time at the next U19WC, refer back to the list, and at least 10 of them or more will be in the final squad. That's the issue - no real depth. We talk about depth in the pro/franchise scene but its the same with the schoolboys. We still keep producing some decent kids, maybe 1 squad full, but theres no competition for places. The junior depth mirrors the seniors really in that respect.

ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:15 am

In my head three is ideal but I work on the presumption there is no place for those three unless the National guys are away, even then there’d be better options.

With less domestic teams, it pushes talent down and strangeness the club scene.

If nothing else there absolutely should be no more than 4.

He’s become a meme here since crimson raises it four years back but someone like remembrance nha this, despite having a good year last year, should go Joe here near the Logan cup anymore.

North of 30, never made it beyond the Logan cup.not worth the paycheque.

I’d like him to get his 100 a month in club. Where his experience is useful.

The problem is - how do you fix the nepotism, the corruption, the favoritism, the paying-to-play etc that goes on? With three sides, or even four, theres a lot of very deserving people not getting a chance. We all know the huge deep rooted corruption isn't going to be fixed any time soon, so I'm okay for five franchises to remain as an easy remedy to ensure people get a chance. It's easier and more realistic than ever fixing the real problems I suppose.

There's actually quite a lot of Under 23 players playing in our system this year, probably the most I've seen for a long time. Take one or two franchises out, and most of them aren't getting opportunities. It's sad but thats the situation we are in really. We need the extra team to counter all the s**t that goes on.

ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:17 am

What would one good is the north south thing to be expanded to a state of origin concept taht perhaps is city v country.

Which would be Harare v the rest.

I'm a fan of something like this. In my opinion, we can muddle along with a ropey-quality* franchise system, fine - but I'd like to see more of those Select team series, where only the best get picked and the quality is higher. In every format, every year. That is a decent way to try to attempt to bridge at least some of the jump to international cricket. It could just be Zimbabwe Green vs Zimbabwe Red if they want to be lazy and just fill the teams randomly. Or if they are keeping it North V South then make sure they follow the formula and its the best of Eagles/Mountaineers Vs Rocks/Tuskers with Rhinos boys split up wherever needed.

*Also, again, the quality isn't that bad when all the national players are available. It's only when they are away that the quality is so utterly depressing really. I think if we could mandate every franchise to have at least 1, possibly 2, Overseas players in each team, and maybe you could mandate a spot for an U19 as well, then the quality would be pretty good. Small tweaks.

@SecretZimbo

So give me some names of good schoolboy batsmen to look out for.

I'm not seeing any in Harare.

There's so much to be said for one or two overseas guys per team. I can't recall the guy's name, but there was a minor Counties guy that used to play for Midwest Rhinos and he also did well. I mean he was a bog standard player, but did well because he came with a game plan and stuck to it.

Covid messed up Derbyshire and Durham warming up here. I mean that would have been great for our guys. The Counties with no cash often head off to Spain for pre-season. I forget the name of the place but 2 or more teams will congregate there, enjoy the facilities and the weather and play each other. The upside is that it costs about 50 quid to fly there and Spain is cheap.

The wealthier Counties sometimes go to West Indies I think?

I'm sure Houghton could lure a couple of teams here next season. Zim is bloody awesome from Feb to April, best weather in the world. The facilities are a bit average, but if they tidied a couple of places up and had decent grass nets for them we'd basically be able to have quality games against good players basically for free. Back in the day they'd have probably been billeted out to Streak's and Whittal's game farms for some power drinking, fishing and shooting and there would literally have been 18 Counties fighting over the chance to enjoy 2-3 months of Zimbabwe sunshine and hospitality. Throw in a weekend on a houseboat and a weekend at Falls and Hwange, maybe one at the river and they'd flock. We now have tourist rates that are now more than double local rates, which is just theft.

We could also have offered them discounted rates on Air Zimbabwe if it functioned 😂

Theres a lot if broken things here but it's still lekker. 😂

The down side will be badly sunburned Poms, 7 with alcohol poisoning at least once, one gone to a crocodile, 2 having to flee because they've impregnated local lasses, and 3 refusing to leave.

Ian Botham loved it here, as did Darren Gough. I've had a few beers with both of them. Gough was a naughty guy, loved a pint and loved our girls even more. They were often at OG's.