Zimbabwe Cricket Live streaming

Great initiative. Prize money as well. Hopefully they livestream it so that they can find a sponsor. This is a good way for us to really see who has potential without giving away first class caps. They should cut the first class teams to 4 after this.

Writing my thoughts as I watch along...

1) Seems like TM has a lot of anger about the UAE loss. We all do, but I hope he does not let it overtake him to the point where he never lets the likes of Streak or Taibu back in to the set up. We need people like them in the set up even if it is coaching grassroots. Also wish it does not mean that he will hold blame for the players who played only and that those who did not play are not to blame, hence the selection of Chamu, Maruma, Elton etc now

2) I think it puts to bed the talk around players based overseas. He says they will never be selected for the National Team if they are not contracted to a domestic club. Can't see any of the guys with county contracts and such giving that up to come to a system that has a track record of failing them, and is currently selecting favourites over quality. I get that they want the ZC structure to be strong and players to be involved and contributing, but I don't think it is something you can enforce from the beginning. Would be something that you need to develop properly particularly as you are not helping yourself by cutting out so many quality players. All the talk of wanting to win is just talk if the action does not allow it.

3) He does mention that players will not be selected anymore based on their name, but on their quality. I hope he is not suggesting that certain players should not be selected because of their name, a la Taylor and Jarvis.

4) Squads seem to be from the usual places. Would not have minded a squad based near the Vic Falls region especially as there has been development in that area. Could potentially be an opportunity for tourists to watch games when in town too and expand the game a bit more.

5) Are the squads finalised? This would given an indication on whether certain players who are not part of these clubs will ever feature for the Zim team. If the likes of Murray, Welch, Roche etc are not part of this or have some sort of leeway, then it's a major blunder by ZC.

6) Shumba is part of the Gladiators. Good to see he is involved. Elton is a looking quite stocky for all those saying BT has put on weight. Mumba with the Midwest which is good and I like their kit considering the quality of our 90s graphic designers we have. Only guy I did not know was Kuda Munyere.

7) Not sure about the prize money for only top 2. If a team struggles to make the top 2 for a few years, not sure how they can survive in the set up without any form of financial reward. Do they have huge sponsors and backing helping to pay the players and keeping the teams running, providing equipment and looking after all of it? A few questions need to be answered here.

8) Trophy seems to be designed similar to the T20 WC one. They just put some wrapping paper on the side to cover it up. Couldn't find a sheet to put over like a proper ceremony? Man, we really need to move in to the 21st century with our professionalism, marketing, and design. One of the teams literally has the national team kit. That's a bit lazy.

Overall, excited for the new competition. Hopefully it produces the right results and we see some competitive and exciting cricket. Hopefully we actually get talent developing from this and moving through the right channels in to the different levels of the national sides. Hopefully in doing so it will bring players back and the system will be better off for it and we can get back to being a strong competitive side as we once were and not the laughing stock we seem to have become.

I think the main point of this is to weed out players who aren’t good enough for the FC system early and also let kids be given an opportunity to play against the best without them having to make a domestic side where there is a lot of politics.

If every squad has 15 players we are talking about 135 people being given a shot here. The likes of Bawa for example could be facing Muzarabani and Jarvis and still be in school. The u19 Chinaman could be bowling to Raza and Williams without necessarily playing FC cricket. Jakiel can show us over a month long stretch if he really has what it takes. Hopefully next year the 10th team is the u19s.

I am assuming what will happen will be that this tournament runs for a month then First class season starts and the when that’s done guys can still go to the UK for club cricket hopefully from next year. Ideally we would have an ODI version this month then hopefully they organize a T20 version at the end of the FC season.

Harare Kings on paper looking the strongest. Interesting that the national captains are not captains for their respective sides.

The format is each team plays each other once and who is top after 8 matches, they win the comp.

ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:25 pm

Harare white kings got to be the 1.01 favourites here!

If you look at their batting lineup it is almost ten national team completely.

14 non whites to 6 white guys in the team, why does it always have to be racial?

sloandog wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:00 pm

Murray not involved, which is a joke.

Good to see Diplock back in the mixer

I wonder if that why TM kept pushing the "if you want to play for the national side, then you must have a club. I think he's trying to force some guys but i doubt those guys would give up what they have.

I was wondering who kept talking about Diplock. I'm guessing you've seen him play a fair bit.

What I like is that Easterns for example seems like a genuin Manica side, assuming their no-names are local.