Who is Zimbabwe's 🇿🇼 greatest ODI player ?

[Socerer 01]

Streak and Johnson heavily underrated in the poll

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Johnson was a fantastic ODI player, but he's probably being impacted by the relatively small sample size.

Does anyone know what he did after he finally retired from cricket? I was walking around Zealandia (a native bush area in Wellington) and saw someone wearing a Zimbabwe cricket cap who looked a bit like Johnson, but it had been about 20 years since I'd seen him so I was far from confident as to who it was.

 

[Chubb]

Johnson was a fantastic ODI player, but he's probably being impacted by the relatively small sample size.

Does anyone know what he did after he finally retired from cricket? I was walking around Zealandia (a native bush area in Wellington) and saw someone wearing a Zimbabwe cricket cap who looked a bit like Johnson, but it had been about 20 years since I'd seen him so I was far from confident as to who it was.

I mean, that could have been me like 10 years ago. Maybe. In a certain light. I had a Zimbabwe cap, and I would wear it to places like Zealandia.

Don't know what he is doing now. He never actually lived in Zim as far as I'm aware, he lived in SA.

 

[Prince EWS]

Streak and Johnson heavily underrated in the poll

Yeah definitely the two main contenders for mine. Streak definitely the 'greatest' the way I think of the word, Johnson probably the best actual white ball player but didn't actually play that much for Zimbabwe.

What TJB says about the records of some of the more modern players definitely has some merit but he's probably overdoing it a bit.

 

[CricAddict]

Modern players being underrated by tjb and few others here. Andy Flower and Streak are by far the best in tests. No contest there. It is closer in odis.

I have not seen any stats yet but Imo Zimbabwe don't play minnows like Oman or scotland as much as you think they do.

Zimbabwe play more with BD, Ireland and the Afghans who are all good quality teams. The previous zimbo teams did some minnow bashing too against the likes of Kenya and Netherlands.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Modern players being underrated by tjb and few others here. Andy Flower and Streak are by far the best in tests. No contest there. It is closer in odis.

I have not seen any stats yet but Imo Zimbabwe don't play minnows like Oman or scotland as much as you think they do.

Zimbabwe play more with BD, Ireland and the Afghans who are all good quality teams. The previous zimbo teams did some minnow bashing too against the likes of Kenya and Netherlands.

BD, Ireland and Afganistan are not "good quality teams" compared to what Streak, Flower and Johnson played against. Zim have gone from playing virtually only very good international teams (very rarely played Kenya or the Netherlands) to playing only minnows and second string sides.

 

[Krypto]

You can go check out the 1998 tour of Zim by Ind to confirm that Zim was a world class team and competed with the best. They are slowly getting there but comparing them is almost blasphemous, stating that they wasn't and on similar level to current is criminal.

 

[Daemon]

Raza has been immense of late but some of that is in T20s and in ODIs he’s been ~ok against good sides. These are also ODIs in the post 2015 era.

Surely Streak is miles and miles ahead even if you don’t rate his batting.

 

[Dendarii]

Johnson was a fantastic ODI player, but he's probably being impacted by the relatively small sample size.

Does anyone know what he did after he finally retired from cricket? I was walking around Zealandia (a native bush area in Wellington) and saw someone wearing a Zimbabwe cricket cap who looked a bit like Johnson, but it had been about 20 years since I'd seen him so I was far from confident as to who it was.

He did commentary for a while, and Wikipedia states that he was head of cricket at Hilton where he coached Lungi Ngidi.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

I remember Zimbabwe being one of the best teams in 99 circa. Its around the time that ICC trophy held in BD and I was pretty excited about watching Zim vs NZ match at the time. I had my bets on Zimbabwe. Was a big fan.

 

[NZTailender]

Yeah definitely the two main contenders for mine. Streak definitely the 'greatest' the way I think of the word, Johnson probably the best actual white ball player but didn't actually play that much for Zimbabwe.

What TJB says about the records of some of the more modern players definitely has some merit but he's probably overdoing it a bit.

I feel like when Flower, Streak and co were knocking about, Zimbabwe was the weakest side of the Test nations (until Bangladesh came along) but they were at least of that level.

Zimbabwe having to battle to qualify just to be in the world cup is more reflective of their current level imo. Just not in the same league anymore.

 

[Prince EWS]

I feel like when Flower, Streak and co were knocking about, Zimbabwe was the weakest side of the Test nations (until Bangladesh came along) but they were at least of that level.

Zimbabwe having to battle to qualify just to be in the world cup is more reflective of their current level imo. Just not in the same league anymore.

Haha to be fair they'd have had to battle to qualify for those older ones too under the current rules.

 

[Kirkut]

I love cricket grounds in Zimbabwe. There is a distinct vibe to them, like rural Texas.

 

[Socerer 01]

Haha to be fair they'd have had to battle to qualify for those older ones too under the current rules.

they would have but they would be steamrolling others like Sri Lanka with their old team

 

[Prince EWS]

they would have but they would be steamrolling others like Sri Lanka with their old team

It depends what you mean by 'others' - the others at the time definitely, but today's others would've given them tighter games; the standard of cricket at that level has massively improved.

I do agree that the past teams were better and played tougher opposition but I think people are overdoing it a bit.

 

[Socerer 01]

It depends what you mean by 'others' - the others at the time definitely, but today's others would've given them tighter games; the standard of cricket at that level has massively improved.

I do agree that the past teams were better and played tougher opposition but I think people are overdoing it a bit.

wouldnt be CW or any older cricket fan if they don’t let nostalgia cloud their minds and call the current day players of poor standard