Its about opinions, i think Fleming was a bit better than Taylor, agreed he didnt convert enough of hid 50s in to centuries. however imo he had the edge over Ross, not sure i can name 5 better batsmen than Fleming though, Bert Sutcliffe is a possibility but i never saw him play, 1966 is my start off point,
In my opinion
I have Reid's average as artificially high. He managed to avoid WI for a start. His record against Pakistan looks good but, digging deeper he only played Imran once, scoring 0 and 19, with the duck being taken by Imran himself. He played 2 Tests against early Wasim, and while there was a quality innings in one of them he was dismissed cheaply twice in the other. He didn't play either in his 3 Tests in Pakistan. Essentially apart from one innings he was a bullier of weak attacks. He was a very ersatz version of Voges, and Voges at least had more oppotunities to get dragged down by good attacks too. You vastly overrate Reid. I'm not convinced on Dempster's pretty average either. Of those I would have Taylor and Sutcliffe clearly ahead and Jones roughly equal. The rest just don't have the longevity, and Reid is frankly ridiculous.
Everton Matambanadzo was a pretty decent LOI quick and there is a school out there who think Wayne James should have gloved for ZIM with Flower as a specialist bat but, other than that, not much. Tom Curran was born there though and I guess you could say they have at least some claim on the England born Sam too.
What about Martin Donnelly?? He was pretty highly rated in his time.
It's not the worst idea re: James. Would come at Carlisle's expense which is fine.
Oops. Can't believe I didn't include Donnelly.
Glenn Turner?
I wasn't trying to argue with Northerner but just included players not included included in his AT NZ XI. He already had Turner in it.
Or Mark Dekker who was absolutely awful.
There was Trevor Madondo who died from malaria. Definitely wasn't the first BA to play for ZIM though, that was Olonga.
Didn't know he was Zimbabwe born. He's improved his record a lot recently. Hope he can keep it up.
I have John F Reid in my team, i did say Sutcliffe is a possible but never saw him play, Richardson is an Opener in my book , i prefer John Wright to him, Mitchell and Conway given time may break in to the team, but not yet, Donnelly and Dempster, doubtful, its a fun discussion but i will stick with my team, i give Fleming the edge over Andrew Jones.
Are Benkenstein and Elworthy ex Zimbabweans ?
Yes. Great spots.
I was going more they actually represented Zimbabwean/Rhodesian cricket than born in Zimbabwe.
