Best "LOST" Zimbabwean Player

[Goughy]

My Best Available Zim XIs

wow, this took a lot of effort. More players to analyse than I thought. Zim players basically break down into 4 categories.
1) Good (few)
2) Average at 2 disciplines
3) Average at 1 discipline
4) Marginally less poor at one discipline than another

This is the how I view the potential 1st and 2nds XIs available. I may have missed someone obvious and there is depth in batting in the 1sts to cover the lack of quality with allrounders covering the secondary bowling spots.

1st XI
1. Goodwin
2. Taylor
3. Williams
4. Lamb
5. Blignaut
6. Taibu (wkt)
7. Ervine
8. Friend
9. Streak
10. Price
11. Rainsford

2nd XI (Reserves)
1. Masakadza
2. Gripper
3. Rogers
4. Ferreira (wkt)
5. Chigumbura
6. Duffin
7. Marillier
8. Rinke
9. Utseya
10. Mupariwa
11. Ireland

Lots of ODI players couldnt find a place in either team but also experienced guys like Cremer, Matsikenyeri, Ewing, Coventry, Panyangara, Brent, Sibanda, Ebrahim didnt make it. Guys like Hondo (injuries) and Mark Vermeulen (mental illness) are excluded for other reasons.

 

[sanga1337]

wow, this took a lot of effort. More players to analyse than I thought. Zim players basically break down into 4 categories.
1) Good (few)
2) Average at 2 disciplines
3) Average at 1 discipline
4) Marginally less poor at one discipline than another

This is the how I view the potential 1st and 2nds XIs available. I may have missed someone obvious and there is depth in batting in the 1sts to cover the lack of quality with allrounders covering the secondary bowling spots.

1st XI
1. Goodwin
2. Taylor
3. Williams
4. Lamb
5. Blignaut
6. Taibu (wkt)
7. Ervine
8. Friend
9. Streak
10. Price
11. Rainsford

2nd XI (Reserves)
1. Masakadza
2. Gripper
3. Rogers
4. Ferreira (wkt)
5. Chigumbura
6. Duffin
7. Marillier
8. Rinke
9. Utseya
10. Mupariwa
11. Ireland

Lots of ODI players couldnt find a place in either team but also experienced guys like Cremer, Matsikenyeri, Ewing, Coventry, Panyangara, Brent, Sibanda, Ebrahim didnt make it. Guys like Hondo (injuries) and Mark Vermeulen (mental illness) are excluded for other reasons.

Blignaut at number 5? Whats your reasoning for that? Switch him with ervine so he's at number 7. Other then that looks like a decent team.

 

[Prince EWS]

wow, this took a lot of effort. More players to analyse than I thought. Zim players basically break down into 4 categories.
1) Good (few)
2) Average at 2 disciplines
3) Average at 1 discipline
4) Marginally less poor at one discipline than another

This is the how I view the potential 1st and 2nds XIs available. I may have missed someone obvious and there is depth in batting in the 1sts to cover the lack of quality with allrounders covering the secondary bowling spots.

1st XI
1. Goodwin
2. Taylor
3. Williams
4. Lamb
5. Blignaut
6. Taibu (wkt)
7. Ervine
8. Friend
9. Streak
10. Price
11. Rainsford

2nd XI (Reserves)
1. Masakadza
2. Gripper
3. Rogers
4. Ferreira (wkt)
5. Chigumbura
6. Duffin
7. Marillier
8. Rinke
9. Utseya
10. Mupariwa
11. Ireland

Lots of ODI players couldnt find a place in either team but also experienced guys like Cremer, Matsikenyeri, Ewing, Coventry, Panyangara, Brent, Sibanda, Ebrahim didnt make it. Guys like Hondo (injuries) and Mark Vermeulen (mental illness) are excluded for other reasons.

Friend is a shadow of the player he once was - Chigumbura is a much better option at the current time. I'm not even sure if Friend is bowling at all anymore and even if he is, it'd only be off a few paces.

I've never seen Rinke look anything other than totally useless TBH and I'm sure Ewing would be a far better option.

Scott Brant would also come into calculations.

Technically you could pick Benkenstein and Hick, although I seriously doubt they'd play under any circumstances.

My First XI:

1. Taylor
2. G Flower
3. Goodwin
4. Williams
5. Taibu
6. Ervine
7. Lamb
8. Streak
9. Price
10. Rainsford
11. Brant

Second XI:

1. Masakadza
2. Duffin
3. Rogers
4. De Grandhomme
5. Sibanda
6. Blignaut
7. Ewing
8. Chigumbura
9. Cremer
10. Mahwire
11. Ireland

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Scott Brant would also come into calculations.

I remember Brant playing for Essex. He was more than ordinary. A wholly inadequate replacement for the left-arm bowling of Mark Ilott. Wasn't as good a batsman either.

Has anyone seen Blignaut or Friend in the last five years? Certainly in age terms they'd be in the reckoning, but do they even play still??

EDIT: Funnily enough, I'm agreeing with Richard the most here; though I still think Johnson would be a fixture at number 5 in the test batting line up (if he was available) - he was a cut above Guy Whittall in my opinion.

 

[Goughy]

2 years ago Blignaut was playing Franchise cricket in South Africa for Lions. He didnt do much of note but at least he is still up and around that standard.

 

[Marius]

Technically you could pick Benkenstein and Hick, although I seriously doubt they'd play under any circumstances.

By that reasoning you could say Paul Harris too.

 

[Marius]

Didn't Price make a return to the Zim team recently?

 

[TT Boy]

By that reasoning you could say Paul Harris too.

Aren’t Dale Steyn’s parents also Zimbabwean?

 

[Marius]

Aren’t Dale Steyn’s parents also Zimbabwean?

Yes, I believe that they are.

 

[TT Boy]

I remember Brant playing for Essex. He was more than ordinary. A wholly inadequate replacement for the left-arm bowling of Mark Ilott. Wasn't as good a batsman either.

Has anyone seen Blignaut or Friend in the last five years? Certainly in age terms they'd be in the reckoning, but do they even play still??

EDIT: Funnily enough, I'm agreeing with Richard the most here; though I still think Johnson would be a fixture at number 5 in the test batting line up (if he was available) - he was a cut above Guy Whittall in my opinion.

Haven’t heard anything on Blignaut in years but he did offer up Mark Vermeulen’s bail and was in court during Vermeulen’s trial.

I was a fan of Andy, decent cricketer in pomp, could hit a ball a mile, was pretty lively and a good looking lad to boot.
Remember when he dicked the Indians back in 01 in a test match sporting white hair and after the game the white was dyed into the Zimbabwean flag colours.

 

[Chubb]

Ok. Close your eyes and imagine.

Zim is stable and safe. There is food on everyones table and a freely elected government in office.

ICC re-grants Test status and all players are available.

What is your Zimbabwe XI for the first Test back?

Brendan Taylor
Terry Duffin
Murray Goodwin
Sean Williams
Hamilton Masakadza
Tatenda Taibu +
Sean Ervine
Elton Chigumbura
Prosper Utseya
Ray Price
Ed Rainsford

12-18th men
Greg Lamb (back-up for Utseya)
CJ Chibhabha (I believe he could be a useful international batsman)
Anthony Ireland (doing fairly well in county cricket- he would play if we went with 3 seamers)
Vusi Sibanda (another spare batsman)
Blessing Mahwire
Chris Mpofu
Gavin Ewing

I do not believe that Greg Lamb is a better player than Prosper Utseya. I really don't. Lamb is much more of a off-spinner who bats a bit these days, and in that department Utseya bests him. I've gone for Rainsford over the other available seamers because, like Goughy, I see good things in him, and he has a pace advantage over the others. The choice of an opener to partner Taylor was tough, but I decided that Terry Duffin showed in his brief international career that he could stick around and tough it out, though not raise his strike rate to cope with ODI cricket. He deserves the first chance.

When you put this question to the guys at the brmtaylor.com forums a lot of them suggest playing 2 spinners as a matter of course and sometimes even 3. It's hard to disagree with that because Zim really lack pace bowlers who bowl fast enough to trouble batsman in a Test. There is one man whose name has not been mentioned so far, and that is Brighton Watambwa, currently qualifying for the USA. He was by all accounts the fastest bowler in Zimbabwe when we still had a decent scene.

I've included the 12-18th men as the "squad" for the first tour. They consist mainly of players who have shown flashes of ability at international level. Once more though, we are left with a lot of off-spinning allrounders! If you guys have any questions about my selection i'd be happy to answer them.

 

[Goughy]

If you guys have any questions about my selection i'd be happy to answer them.

We picked 7 of the same for our 1st XI and the other 4 you included are in my 2nd XI. So we have a pretty similar idea.

If Friend has declined, as reported in this thread, then Ill willingly take him out. However, why no Streak or Blignaut selection in your XI?

The XI you chose is really weak in quicks (as is Zim cricket). However, I included Mupariwa as a backup. I dont know much about him apart form an ok record and good energy. What have you seen?

Also, do Marillier and Ferreira play any more? If they do how does Sibanda get included above them?

 

[Prince EWS]

We picked 7 of the same for our 1st XI and the other 4 you included are in my 2nd XI. So we have a pretty similar idea.

If Friend has declined, as reported in this thread, then Ill willingly take him out. However, why no Streak or Blignaut selection in your XI?

The XI you chose is really weak in quicks (as is Zim cricket). However, I included Mupariwa as a backup. I dont know much about him apart form an ok record and good energy. What have you seen?

Also, do Marillier and Ferreira play any more? If they do how does Sibanda get included above them?

Mupariwa's a decent one day bowler due to his accuracy and variations, but he's the slowest specialist seamer I've seen at international level. I doubt he'd make any impact at Test level at all - certainly not more than Rainsford or Scott Brant.

I heard Ferreira was playing in England a couple of seasons ago. I've heard nothing of Marillier since he quit Zimbabwe cricket.

Sibanda's improved quite a bit as a batsman of late, too.

 

[stumpski]

Only serious choice for me was between Andy Flower and Heath Streak - I believe Streak is also retired now btw.

 

[DaRick]

Andy Flower, but Heath Streak was also a top-class cricketer

 

[Richard]

Only serious choice for me was between Andy Flower and Heath Streak - I believe Streak is also retired now btw.

I'm so far the only one not to vote for either - for the reason that I believe both of them would be gone now anyway, so weren't really "lost" at all.

Sean Ervine, however, was for mine.

 

[stumpski]

Ah, you read it slightly differently from me, then - I just took it to mean 'who is the best Zimbabwe player to have been lost to international cricket' rather than 'who would you have in the side if they were playing now.' Have a feeling that Streak, even in his late 30s, might still be playing if Zimbabwe were playing meaningful cricket.

 

[Richard]

Was Richard Hadlee lost to international cricket when he retired in 1990?

Not for mine.

I took it to mean players who were cut-off during the time they could and should still have been playing international cricket. Flower would've played another couple of years at best for mine.

 

[Goughy]

Ah, you read it slightly differently from me, then - I just took it to mean 'who is the best Zimbabwe player to have been lost to international cricket' rather than 'who would you have in the side if they were playing now.' Have a feeling that Streak, even in his late 30s, might still be playing if Zimbabwe were playing meaningful cricket.

Streak is still only 34. Could have had a few years yet.

Anyway, I read it as 'Of all the players that have had their career hurt or aborted by Zims Test ban, who has been the greatest loss and who has it hurt the most?'

I take that to mean a player that is talented and never got the opportunities due to politics. For me Streak and Flower had their time and whilst they are missed they still had their time in the sun. Ervine is a good pick of a guy who has lost out as his career was killed by forces outside his control.

 

[Langeveldt]

Streak is still only 34. Could have had a few years yet.

Anyway, I read it as 'Of all the players that have had their career hurt or aborted by Zims Test ban, who has been the greatest loss and who has it hurt the most?'

I take that to mean a player that is talented and never got the opportunities due to politics. For me Streak and Flower had their time and whilst they are missed they still had their time in the sun. Ervine is a good pick of a guy who was lost out as his career was killed by forces outside his control.

Masakadza for mine - Assuming he won't get to play much more international cricket..