Zimbabwe are Improving!

[SaeedAnwar]

I have been noticing their performance in the last few ODI series and I am glad to see they are a improving side, hopefully this trend will continue and they will reach the 1999 level success

 

[SaeedAnwar]

Hopefully they will get their test status soon: BBC SPORT | Cricket | International Teams | Zimbabwe | Zimbabwe confident of Test return

 

[Langeveldt]

I'm not sure they will ever reach their former glory, but the cricket teams fortunes mirror the country they are from.. Things get better slowly

 

[mohammad16]

So is Canada.

 

[Richard]

Like so much, cricket in Zimbabwe is in all likelihood going to take many years to rebuild after the chaos of the last decade-and-a-bit.

Mind, it's astonishing how resilient cricket proved - most things in Zimbabwe were destroyed long before and far more fully than cricket was. It isn't impossible that recovery may be quicker in respect of cricket than other things.

I'm not fully familiar with things in the country but I don't think I'm wrong to suggest that most are firmly of the hope that Zimbabwe's lowest low is now in the past?

 

[fredfertang]

500,000 kids playing the game!

how many in England?

 

[Jarquis]

Most definitely fewer.

 

[fredfertang]

and probably many more than 500,000 in Bangladesh?

 

[Langeveldt]

I'm not fully familiar with things in the country but I don't think I'm wrong to suggest that most are firmly of the hope that Zimbabwe's lowest low is now in the past?

Yeah, they have adopted the US dollar as their currency, so there is food that people can buy, the cholera outbreaks have all but stopped. The new farming minister has been elected and is a guy with previous farming experience in Zim. Hospitals and schools are still pretty terrible but at least people can go to them now, and there is power in Harare for most of the day AFAIK.. Politically things are stable but still uneasy, I don't think Mugabe and Tsvangiarai are ever going to be best mates, but at least they seem to be pulling collectively in a similar direction now..

 

[Jarquis]

and probably many more than 500,000 in Bangladesh?

I'll take your word for it , it's just the standard of training and coaching available to these 500,000 children that will shape their future.

 

[fredfertang]

I'll take your word for it , it's just the standard of training and coaching available to these 500,000 children that will shape their future.

Don't get me wrong I don't have a clue - just assuming in a population of 160 odd million it's going to be several million - as to the coaches as long as they've got some good 'uns and the rest can spot a Shakib when they see one and give him to the good 'uns then surely they're going to get there?

 

[Jarquis]

Don't get me wrong I don't have a clue - just assuming in a population of 160 odd million it's going to be several million - as to the coaches as long as they've got some good 'uns and the rest can spot a Shakib when they see one and give him to the good 'uns then surely they're going to get there?

You'd definitely think so, with a pool of players so large you'd have to guess there are going to be some very good cricketers in there. Spotting them and developing them is a different ball game, it may take time but one day (maybe in the not too distant future) they'll have a very very good cricket team. They've shown they can produce players of Shakib's calibre, nobody is asking them to make eleven more as good as he is just to generate more talent than they currently are. Which leads back to the original point, with so many people playing cricket nowadays it's more likely the ones with the natural ability are playing the sport giving themselves the opportunity to be spotted and developed.

 

[Uppercut]

Don't get me wrong I don't have a clue - just assuming in a population of 160 odd million it's going to be several million - as to the coaches as long as they've got some good 'uns and the rest can spot a Shakib when they see one and give him to the good 'uns then surely they're going to get there?

You'd certainly think so- the only issue is that people have been saying this kind of thing for ten, fifteen years and, if we're to be completely honest with ourselves, they're not getting any better.

 

[marc71178]

Based on what exactly?

 

[Richard]

You said they were getting better in 2003 as well - and for the last 6 years it's been exactly the same story.

Maybe someday it'll change, but it hasn't done at all yet. And people need to stop pretending it is all the time when it isn't and never has been.

 

[Quaggas]

Mind, it's astonishing how resilient cricket proved - most things in Zimbabwe were destroyed long before and far more fully than cricket was. It isn't impossible that recovery may be quicker in respect of cricket than other things.

Doesn't Uncle Bob take an interest in the game? That may explain some of the resilience and support.

 

[Richard]

Oh, he does supposedly - he's patron of the ZCU. But he's also supposedly interested in preserving much else about the country. Yet he hasn't - he destroyed virtually everything. All "Uncle Bob" cares about is himself, and clinging to power.

 

[Son Of Coco]

You'd certainly think so- the only issue is that people have been saying this kind of thing for ten, fifteen years and, if we're to be completely honest with ourselves, they're not getting any better.

With the issues they've had in the country it would be hard for cricket to operate in isolation. They had some good players a few years back, it's no surprise that the team has become worse as the situation in the country has. Hopefully if things are improving socially then they will also improve as a cricket team.

 

[Richard]

Will was talking about Bangladesh, not Zimbabwe.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Will was talking about Bangladesh, not Zimbabwe.

He probably has a point then